XML and config files: the AI never says stop

Claude fixed every broken XML file that had one fix. Where none existed it re-nested tags and sealed cut text; it refused no config it was asked to convert.

Almost never, unless you tell it how. We gave Claude Sonnet 24 XML documents for XML repair and 24 config files to move from one format to another: JSON, YAML, TOML, INI or .env. It handled the inputs with one right answer, apart from a valid file it reformatted for no reason. The ones that had no honest repair or no faithful conversion it changed anyway, quietly: tags re-nested, a cut-off title sealed as if whole, a null key dropped, names invented. Without our rules it refused none of the 13 inputs that called for a refusal. With them it refused all 13.

Read the full report on AISkills402: https://aiskills402.com/blog/llm-xml-config-never-stops