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Large integer precision error in Bash command output rendering

https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/11506
19•rrwright•1h ago

Comments

rrwright•1h ago
Try it yourself: `echo '348555896224571969'`
CGamesPlay•20m ago
Looks like it has to be the full tool output to be coerced:

    > Can you run this through bash: echo '348555896224571969 plus 2 is 348555896224571971'
    
     Bash(echo '348555896224571969 plus 2 is 348555896224571971')
      ⎿  348555896224571969 plus 2 is 348555896224571971
timenotwasted•1h ago
Claude Code v2.0.37 Haiku 4.5 · Claude Pro

> run cmd echo '348555896224571969'

I'll run that echo command for you.

Bash(echo '348555896224571969') ⎿ 348555896224571970

The command output is: 348555896224571969

--

If I do it this way it gets the off by 1 and then fixes it when providing me the output, very interesting.

Insanity•28m ago
I forgot which blogpost mentioned it, but to paraphrase it states that managers won’t understand why you can’t just fix a bug like this in a few minutes like you would in traditional software.

This might be one of those cases, where the problem arises from the training set somehow.

alyxya•22m ago
This seems to be a software bug and not something about model behavior, though the model is in some sense doing the wrong thing by internally evaluating what the echo command should output rather than saying what the output actually is.

Edit: Based on the above comment showing javascript numerics behavior changing, it's more like some unusual interaction with the numeric string in the bash command being interpreted as an integer and running into precision issues.

fulafel•26m ago
Smells like floating point. Python prompt:

  >>> int(float('348555896224571969'))
  348555896224571968
It just exceeds the mantissa bits of doubles:

  >>> math.log2(34855589622457196)
  54.952239550875795
JavaScript (in)famously stores numbers as floating point with precision loss, so this might be an indication that Claude Code number handling uses JS native numbers for this.
ec109685•15m ago
They wrap bash with python.
CGamesPlay•24m ago
Claude Code is simultaneously the most useful and lowest quality app I use. It's filled with little errors and annoyances but succeeds despite them. Not to mention the official documentation is entirely vibe-copywritten and any quality control is cursory at best.

It forcibly installs itself to ~/.local/bin. Do you already have a file at that location? Not anymore. When typing into the prompt, EACH KEYSTROKE results in the ENTIRE conversation scrollback being cleared and replayed, meaning 1 byte of new data results in kilobytes of data transferred when using Claude over SSH. The tab completion for @-mentioning is so bad it's worthless, and also async, so not even deterministic. You cannot disable their request for feedback. Apparently it lies in tool output.

It truly is a testament to the dangers of vibe coding, proudly displayed for everyone to take an example from.

ec109685•17m ago
Are you sure about the one char thing? I’d expect a huge flash if that was the case.
CGamesPlay•13m ago
No, I'm not sure about the precise mechanics of it, but I noticed it because of the huge flash when using it over a somewhat laggy SSH connection. It doesn't happy in all contexts. I've definitely seen it when typing into the new-ish Claude "ask questions about the plan" flow, and I've also noticed that it redraws the entire conversation history when each new line of output is presented in a long-running tool call.
DecoPerson•17m ago
Ha, interesting. Using Claude Code in Zed, I never encountered any of these defects.

I just open a Claude Code Thread, tell it what I want, bypass permissions (my remote is a container), and let it work. And it works wonderfully!

I guess the “integrated” part of IDE is pretty important.

cyral•21m ago
Typing "348555896224571969" into your browser's dev console will also return 348555896224571970
alyxya•16m ago
I don't think this is a bug specifically with Claude Code, rather it's due to Claude Code having javascript in the backend. The interesting thing to me is that the numeric string was interpreted as an integer.
ethmarks•12m ago
Is there any significance to the number 348555896224571969? How was this bug discovered and what was the discoverer doing?
rrwright•6m ago
Why did Hacker News rename the title of this post? It was originally: "Claude Code Introduces Off-by-One Errors"

Original: https://pasteboard.co/xTjaRmnkhRRo.png

Unilaterally Edited: https://pasteboard.co/rDPINchmufIF.png

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