Update: Claude Code's game-clone block is catching legit projects
Anthropic confirmed the server-side Opus 5.5 rule: it won't recreate specific games even when renamed, has no local toggle, and devs report false hits.
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What Anthropic actually changed
Anthropic added two sentences to Opus 5.5's Claude Code system prompt under the internal flag tengu_heron_brook: in effect, do not build a recreation of a specific existing game, even if it is renamed or called original. Staff engineer Addy Osmani confirmed the rule on Oct 30, citing IP policy; it reportedly shipped server-side around Oct 27.
It's catching legitimate work
Developers report the rule blocking projects that aren't clones at all — reverse-engineering jobs and games built from their own designs and assets — because a two-sentence prompt can't tell who owns an idea. Original titles and genre entries are still allowed, but the overreach is the complaint.
No opt-out — open weights are the workaround
The change is server-side and no one has found a local toggle, so you can't disable it in config or a flag. For legitimate clone, study, or reverse-engineering work, the practical escape is an open-weight model you run yourself, which carries no such restriction.