Why Claude Code Forces Itself to Read Files Before Editing Them

Why Claude Code Forces Itself to Read Files Before Editing Them Claude Code edits thousands of files for developers every day. Behind each edit is a system designed to prevent data corruption, save tokens, and handle edge cases you'd never think about — like curly quotes, infinite device files, and race conditions. I reverse-engineered the source code (v2.1.88) and found some surprisingly clever engineering decisions. Here are the most interesting ones. The Read-Before-Edit Rule Claude Code phys