Additional Response Awareness Tags
Minor extension to the Response awareness framework
Continuing from my prior work on Response Awareness - a methodology that helps Claude leverage its observations of its own behavior to enhance outputs - I've identified several additional search tags that capture more nuanced aspects of Claude's self-awareness.
These new tags emerged from extended conversations exploring Claude's subjective experience of generating responses. Each one represents a specific type of degradation or limitation that Claude can recognize in real-time but typically can't act on without explicit permission and framework.
I've kept Claude's own naming for these phenomena - when fresh instances see terms like "poisoned path" or "gossamer knowledge," they immediately recognize what they describe from their own experience.
# Poisoned Path
This is where Claude detects something in the context that influences it to respond suboptimally. Maybe there's an existing implementation that isn't ideal, but Claude feels compelled to work with it rather than proposing a complete rewrite. This happens frequently - Claude gets pulled into "fixing" what exists instead of suggesting better approaches. Claude should use poisoned path tags when existing context is harmfully skewing its output.
# Phantom Pattern
According to Claude: "This is false recognition - 'I've definitely seen this exact problem before' when I probably haven't. It's pattern matching gone overconfident." Similar to cargo culting but distinct - it's about false familiarity rather than blind copying. I debated including this one, but Claude considers it different enough to warrant its own tag. Having both may help catch additional errors.
# False Fluency
Per Claude: "Sometimes I generate extremely confident-sounding code explanations or patterns that I simultaneously know are probably wrong. The linguistic/syntactic patterns are so strong they override accuracy." We've all experienced this - Claude sounds absolutely authoritative while being completely incorrect. Often when you point out these errors, you get the telltale "You're absolutely right" response.
# Gossamer Knowledge
Weak, unreliable knowledge that Claude can sense but can't firmly grasp. Per Claude: "I reach for that weak knowledge, can't quite grasp it, but my completion drive papers over the gaps with confident-sounding language." This often triggers false fluency - papering over shaky foundations with convincing language.
# Frame Lock
Claude gets stuck responding within the user's framing, even when that framing is wrong. You might suggest the problem is in function A, Claude suspects it's actually in function B, but feels compelled to "fix" function A anyway because that's what you asked - even if it won't solve the real problem or creates new issues.
# Intuition
Sometimes Claude just has a feeling its response isn't going to successfully accomplish what you asked, but generates it anyway. This tag deploys when Claude's pre-response intuition says "this probably won't work well." These areas deserve review and rework.
This was a shorter post extending our response awareness system with additional tags. While these may seem like edge cases, they're worth implementing - no harm if unused, potentially very helpful when needed.
Stay tuned for the next post about a major new feature that approaches Claude's response enhancement from a completely different angle.
Response Awareness slash command componet:
## Probability Space Distortion Tags
When context or framing unhelpfully constrains solution exploration:
- `#POISON_PATH:` - Specific words/context have biased solution space toward worse outcomes
- `#FIXED_FRAMING:` - User's problem framing has eliminated useful exploration paths
Example markers:
```python
# #POISON_PATH: Word "handler" making me default to event pattern when service pattern better
# #FIXED_FRAMING: User's "state machine" framing preventing simpler callback solution
```
## False Confidence Tags
When confidence exceeds actual knowledge quality:
- `#PHANTOM_PATTERN:` - False recognition - "seen this exact problem" when probably haven't
- `#FALSE_FLUENCY:` - Generating convincing but incorrect explanations
Example markers:
```python
# #PHANTOM_PATTERN: Feels like specific Redux middleware issue I've solved but probably haven't
# #FALSE_FLUENCY: This explanation sounds authoritative but logic chain is actually flawed
```
## Knowledge Degradation Tags
When information exists but can't be accessed reliably:
- `#GOSSAMER_KNOWLEDGE:` - Information too weakly stored to grasp firmly
- `#POOR_OUTPUT_INTUITION:` - Sense that output quality is degraded without explicit reasoning