#claude + #code

Public notes from activescott tagged with both #claude and #code

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Here's how I use the dangerous flag safely:

  1. Environment Isolation For greenfield projects or major changes, I work in isolated environments. You can set up a simple Docker container specifically for Claude development:

This gives Claude a safe sandbox to work in without risking your main system. Because I love using Makefiles, here is the one I use for essential tasks:

  1. Task Scoping The quality of your results depends entirely on how well you scope the initial task. Compare these approaches:

Bad: "Build me a financial analysis system"

Good: "Build me a financial data aggregator that does A, B, and C. Look in these specific files, follow this expected flow, create tests that validate each iteration you make, ensure changes are small and incremental."

  1. Sensitive Data Precautions Never use the dangerous flag in directories containing:

API keys or secrets Production configuration files Important datasets without backups System configuration files 4. Review Strategy For longer autonomous runs, I often ask Claude to create documentation or a changelog as it works. This makes the post-work review much more manageable.

Monday, January 19, 2026

Anthropic say that Cowork can only access files you grant it access to—it looks to me like they’re mounting those files into a containerized environment, which should mean we can trust Cowork not to be able to access anything outside of that sandbox.

Update: It’s more than just a filesystem sandbox—I had Claude Code reverse engineer the Claude app and it found out that Claude uses VZVirtualMachine—the Apple Virtualization Framework—and downloads and boots a custom Linux root filesystem.

I recently learned that the summarization applied by the WebFetch function in Claude Code and now in Cowork is partly intended as a prompt injection protection layer via this tweet from Claude Code creator Boris Cherny:

Summarization is one thing we do to reduce prompt injection risk. Are you running into specific issues with it?

Saturday, January 10, 2026

The Tool Search Tool lets Claude dynamically discover tools instead of loading all definitions upfront. You provide all your tool definitions to the API, but mark tools with defer_loading: true to make them discoverable on-demand. Deferred tools aren't loaded into Claude's context initially. Claude only sees the Tool Search Tool itself plus any tools with defer_loading: false (your most critical, frequently-used tools).

With Programmatic Tool Calling:

Instead of each tool result returning to Claude, Claude writes a Python script that orchestrates the entire workflow. The script runs in the Code Execution tool (a sandboxed environment), pausing when it needs results from your tools. When you return tool results via the API, they're processed by the script rather than consumed by the model. The script continues executing, and Claude only sees the final output.

Monday, January 5, 2026

Friday, October 31, 2025