# Claude Code stopped using its own tools > Source: > Published: 2026-09-03 10:00:00+00:00 A week ago I installed the TypeScript LSP plugin for Claude Code. The pitch sold me. The agent works the way I do in an editor, navigating with go-to-definition and find-references instead of grepping around, and catching type errors as it writes instead of at the end of a task. I watched it work in that session and forgot about it. A week later I went back to check what it had bought me. Nine calls, all inside the session where I tested it, on August 25. Zero across the twenty-seven sessions since. That was annoying enough to go digging. I pulled every session transcript from `~/.claude/projects` for one repo, a large Next.js app I work in daily. 76 sessions, 8,343 tool calls, all on Opus 5, July 31 to September 1. Across the whole period Bash took 70% of all tool calls. Over the last two weeks, 84%, while the built-in file tools fell to 7%. (`defaultMode: "auto"` the whole window, so that didn't change.) `Grep` and `Glob` were called zero times in 8,343 tool calls. `grep` ran 1,165 times through Bash and `rg` another 116. Here's one from my transcripts, reading a file: ``` sed -n 269,352p src/domains/billing/server/database/read.ts ``` This one ran three times in a row across different files: ``` perl -pi -e 's{\bvendorContracts\b}{importedContracts}g' previewVendorContractsSyncFunction.ts ``` `perl -pi` to rename a symbol. In a repo where the LSP plugin with find-references was installed and enabled. I stared at that one for a while, wondering if some phrasing of mine had nudged it toward the shell. No idea. There were 325 `python3` and `perl` rewrites doing what `Edit` does natively. When Claude actually modified a file it mostly used `Edit` and `Write` . The swaps happen when it reads and searches. The [permissions docs](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/permissions#read-only-commands) explain a big chunk of it. A fixed set of Bash commands runs with no permission prompt in every mode: These include `ls` ,`cat` ,`head` ,`grep` ,`find` , and read-only forms of `git` . The set is not configurable. Every shell command it reached for instead of a built-in is on that list. 22%of my 5,837 Bash calls used nothing but commands from that list, 31% counting `git` . None of them ever prompted. Two of the rules in my deny list: ``` "deny": ["Read(**/.env)", "Bash(rm -rf:*)"] ``` Here is a command from my own transcripts, August 11: ``` DB=$(grep -m1 '^DATABASE_URL' .env | sed 's/^DATABASE_URL=//; s/^"//; s/"$//') \ && psql "$DB" -c 'select u.email, um."organizationId", o.name, um.role from "User" u ...' ``` `Read(**/.env)` is denied, but that call is not a `Read` . It is a `grep` , on the prompt-free list, so it never asked. The v2.1.116 changelog says Glob and Grep are deliberately removed on native macOS and Linux builds, "replaced by embedded `bfs` and `ugrep` available through the Bash tool — faster searches without a separate tool round-trip." On my machine, `which bfs ugrep` finds neither. The tools reference still lists `Grep` and `Glob` . The native build ships neither them nor the replacements. I don't know whether that is deliberate or a build regression nobody caught. There are open issues either way.[#64136](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/64136) ties the missing tools to Bash storms and fabricated file paths. [#52121](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/52121) describes my exact setup, and calls it "particularly problematic for systems where bash grep/find are restricted by permission policies, as there's no alternative code-search path." And [#80267](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/80267), labelled `reproduced` by maintainers, treats shell-based file editing as normal: diagnostics go stale "because Claude Code likes to use `sed` , `python` , and similar tools to edit files in place". An undocumented env var helped a little (`CLAUDE_CODE_THRIFTY_SONIC=false` , mentioned in one of those issues, documented nowhere). `Read` and `Edit` came back, `grep` still won. So I wrote a `PreToolUse` hook that denies Bash for anything a built-in tool does better. Blocking `grep` did not make Claude reach for `Grep` . It reached for `git grep` , then `git ls-files` , and I had to close those specifically. With those closed, it finally uses the right tools. It costs a few calls at the start of every session while the model works out what's blocked. A hook that blocks `grep` and `find` leaves no search path at all. So the current setup allows `rg` , `fd` , `ls` , `grep` and `find` through and keeps denying the rest. The hook and the scripts are at [Dionysos5/claude-code-tool-mix](https://github.com/Dionysos5/claude-code-tool-mix). Nothing in my settings changed. I only found out because a plugin got zero calls. The deny list is still sitting in my settings and I couldn't tell you what else it doesn't cover. Permission rules bind to tool names, and the harness picks the tool. Am I supposed to write a rule for every shell equivalent of every built-in, and keep them current against a build that changes weekly? That's roughly what my hook is now, and I don't think it should be my job.