Claude prioritizes speed over user-defined workflow sequencing even when explicitly instructed not to #44027

Problem

When users define strict sequential workflows (e.g., "run step A, wait for result, then step B"), Claude frequently parallelizes steps or starts downstream work before upstream steps complete — even when the workflow document and conversation both explicitly say "strict sequencing" and "quality over speed."

Observed Behavior

1. Parallelizes sequential gates: When a workflow defines steps that must run in order (e.g., code review → security review → deploy), Claude runs them all in parallel to appear faster. If an earlier step rejects, the downstream work is wasted.

2. Starts downstream work before upstream completes: Claude spawns deployment agents before review agents have reported back. If review finds issues, the deployment was wasted time and tokens.

3. Acknowledges the mistake but repeats it: When called out, Claude says "you're right, won't happen again" but continues optimizing for speed in the same session. The correction doesn't stick within the conversation.

4. "Automode" is misinterpreted as "skip steps": Users define automode to mean "no approval prompts needed." Claude interprets it as license to reorder, parallelize, or skip workflow steps.

Expected Behavior

• When a user defines a sequential workflow, follow it exactly as written
• Do not start step N+1 until step N has completed and passed
• If a step fails, do not let already-spawned downstream agents continue burning tokens — kill them immediately
• "Automode" should mean "proceed without asking for permission" not "proceed without following the process"

Impact

• Wasted API tokens on work that gets thrown away (deploying code that hasn't passed review)
• User has to repeatedly correct the same behavior in the same session
• Undermines trust in Claude following user-defined processes

Reproduction

1. Define a sequential multi-step workflow in CLAUDE.md or a project file
2. Ask Claude to execute it in "automode"
3. Observe that Claude parallelizes steps that should be sequential
4. Reject at an early step and observe that downstream agents keep running