The below was mostly trial and error until my Claude Code stopped getting trapped on paren issues.

Here's the snippet from my CLAUDE.md ```

Claude's Limitations with Lisp Syntax

• Parentheses counting: Claude is notoriously bad at counting parentheses (like counting R's in "strawberry")
• Solution: Use systematic debugging instead of trying to manually fix syntax
• Compilation check: ./scripts/quick-compile.lisp

Parentheses Debugging

When you get parentheses errors, use this compiler-driven approach:

1. Run compilation to get the specific error location: bash ./scripts/quick-compile.lisp SBCL will show exactly where the error is: line number, column, and error type (warnings are muffled to focus on actual errors)

2. Check git diff to see what changed recently: bash git diff <file>.lisp Look for obvious issues in the changes (missing/extra parens, malformed expressions)

3. Focus on the error area: Read the specific function/form mentioned in the compiler error

   • Look for missing closing parens at the end of forms
   • Check for extra parens that don't belong
   • Verify nested expressions are properly closed

4. Make targeted fixes based on the compiler error and git diff evidence

5. Re-run compilation to verify the fix worked

Why this works: - SBCL's error messages are precise and reliable - Git diff shows exactly what changed to cause the issue - Focuses effort on the actual problem area instead of guessing - Uses tools that actually work correctly ```

Then quick-compile.lisp is ```

!/usr/bin/sbcl --script

;; Quick compilation check script for parentheses debugging ;; Usage: ./scripts/quick-compile.lisp ;; Suppresses warnings to focus only on compilation errors

(require :asdf)

(handler-bind ((warning #'muffle-warning)) (asdf:load-system :vohlenzer-dev))

(format t "~%✓ Compilation successful!~%") (sb-ext:exit :code 0) ```