> The new <acting_vs_clarifying> section includes: When a request leaves minor details unspecified, the person typically wants Claude to make a reasonable attempt now, not to be interviewed first.

Uff, I've tried stuff like these in my prompts, and the results are never good, I much prefer the agent to prompt me upfront to resolve that before it "attempts" whatever it wants, kind of surprised to see that they added that

I've recently started adding something along the lines of "if you can't find or don't know something, don't assume. Ask me." It's helped cut down on me having to tell it to undo or redo things a fair amount. I also have used something like, "Other agents have made mistakes with this. You have to explain what you think we're doing so I can approve." It's kind of stupid to have to do this, but it really increases the quality of the output when you make it explain, correct mistakes, and iterate until it tells you the right outcome before it operates.

Edit: forgot "don't assume"

Seriously, when you're conversing with a person would you prefer they start rambling on their own interpretation or would you prefer they ask you to clarify? The latter seems pretty natural and obvious.

Edit: That said, it's entirely possible that large and sophisticated LLMs can invent some pretty bizarre but technically possible interpretations, so maybe this is to curb that tendency.