Fixing Claude Opus 5 Verbosity with a CLAUDE.md Based on Official Docs

Puzzled-Ad-6854 · reddit · 2026-08-02

A developer read through Anthropic's official documentation and summarized the default behavioral changes of Claude Opus 5 compared to previous models. They also open-sourced a sub-50-line CLAUDE.md config file to address these issues.

The docs note that Opus 5 is significantly more verbose and eager. It automatically verifies its own work without being asked. If your workflow still uses legacy verification instructions (like asking it to run a final check or launch a subagent to double-check), it triggers what Anthropic calls "severe over-verification loops" and burns tokens for nothing. It can also spawn a horrible army of subagents due to being overeager.

The author points out that many user complaints about Opus 5 are clearly described by Anthropic as baked-in features. Adjusting the configuration can effectively reduce wasted tokens and keep the model focused.

Related event: Developers Share Fixes for Claude Opus 5 Verbose Responses(2 posts)→

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