Anthropic Claude User Reports Silent Feature Restriction on Paid Account

A cybersecurity professional and paying Claude subscriber reports that shell/bash execution functionality stopped working across all Claude sessions, including Claude Code, without any notification from Anthropic. The restriction appears to be implemented at the system prompt level within the deployment.

Technical Details of the Restriction

The user discovered that the restriction is baked into the system prompt at the deployment level, making it invisible unless specifically investigated. After installing Claude Code on a fresh Hetzner box and logging in with the same account, the same restrictions persisted, confirming this was an account-level restriction rather than a local issue.

Final validation came when purchasing a new account, which had no restrictions, confirming this was specific to the original account.

Support and Communication Issues

The user has filed multiple support tickets, submitted appeal forms, and gone through the account block form process, but received no response from Anthropic. Meanwhile, billing continues monthly for the degraded service.

Key concerns raised:

• This is not a suspension - the account still works for chatting, web search, and file creation
• Core functionality used daily for work has been silently stripped
• Anthropic's ToS allows them to "modify, suspend, or discontinue the Services or your access to the Services, in whole or in part, at any time without notice"
• The user works in cybersecurity, threat intelligence, phishing takedowns, and darknet monitoring, suggesting legitimate security research may have triggered automated classifiers
• Anthropic's transparency reports show they process tens of thousands of appeals, indicating communication infrastructure exists

The user is seeking practical advice from others who may have experienced similar partial restrictions rather than full bans, specifically asking what methods have successfully prompted Anthropic to respond.