Graduated Layering Over Monolithic Mechanisms
- Entity ID:
ent-20260423-p3a00000000c - Type:
concept - Scope:
private - Status:
active
Description
A cross-cutting design commitment the paper identifies as recurring across Claude Code's otherwise-independent subsystems. Safety (7 stages: tool pre-filter, deny-first rules, permission modes, auto-mode classifier, shell sandboxing, non-restoration on resume, hook interception), context management (5 compaction stages plus lazy CLAUDE.md, deferred tool schemas, summary-only subagent returns), and extensibility (4 mechanisms at different context costs) all use graduated stacks rather than single integrated solutions. Trades simplicity and debuggability for defense in depth.
Key claims
- Graduated layering recurs as cross-cutting design commitment