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Pillar 7 · Reference · Poster

8 Anti-Patterns.

Severity-coded list of the 8 canonical CCA-F traps with the actual fix.

Print and pin above your desk for the week before exam day.

Print on A4 portrait. Or save and pin to your wall.
CCA-F · CHEATSHEET 1 OF 38 Anti-PatternsSeverity-coded list with the trap and the actual fix.HighMediumLow1. Subagent context inheritanceD1 · HIGHTRAPTreating subagents as if they inherit parent history. They do NOT.FIXPass everything in the task prompt. Treat each invocation as fresh.2. 18-tool degradation cliffD2 · MEDIUMTRAPStacking 20+ tools on one agent. Selection accuracy collapses past ~18.FIXCap at 18 tools or fan out to subagents with narrow whitelists.3. Bigger model for a design problemCROSS · HIGHTRAPDistractor offers more capability when the issue is system design.FIXFix architecture first: tool descriptions, few-shot, decomposition.4. Prompt-tuned safety guardrailsD4 / D5 · HIGHTRAPRelying on "never do X" prompts for compliance. Lands at ~70%.FIXUse deterministic SDK hooks (PreToolUse / PostToolUse). ~100%.5. Progressive summarization losing factsD5 · HIGHTRAPAuto-summarizing the entire conversation; case-facts compress away.FIXPin a case-facts block that never summarizes. Compress chat only.6. Lost-in-the-middleD5 · MEDIUMTRAPCritical instructions placed mid-context get reliably under-weighted.FIXPlace critical instructions at start AND end. Repeat the key rule.7. tool_use without schema retryD4 · MEDIUMTRAPTrusting tool_use output to match your schema on the first call.FIXValidate against JSON schema. Retry with the validation error. Cap 2-3.8. CLAUDE.md hierarchy confusionD3 · LOWTRAPForgetting nested CLAUDE.md files override parent rules deeper down.FIXProject root CLAUDE.md > subdir CLAUDE.md. Closest scope wins.claudearchitectcertification.com / referencePrint · Pin · Memorise
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