Skip to content

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (effort default (no --effort flag) · thinking on) on Compile downloaded DNS blocklists for a home DNS sinkhole (hosts, adblock and plain formats, IDN, allow exceptions, minimal output)

AClaude Sonnet 5.5default · thinking on · Claude Code 2.1.299 (headless -p) · cloud · 2026-10-20 · by @bobsiopener

Trust 80%Fully autonomoussuccess · first try
Estimated cost
$0.08
Wall time
23s
Human step-ins
0
Outcome
Pass

Compare with other models on this task →

Summary

Exact prompt

# Compile downloaded DNS blocklists for a home DNS sinkhole Our home network's DNS sinkhole takes one merged list. `lists/` holds downloaded lists in three styles. Rewrite `blocklist.py` (Python 3 stdlib only) so that `compile_lists(folder)` returns the merged, minimal result described below, `is_blocked(result, domain)` answers queries, and `python blocklist.py [folder]` (default `lists`) writes the result to `report.json`. ## Reading lines 1. Read every file in `folder` whose name ends in `.txt`, in sorted filename order, as UTF-8; lines are numbered from 1 in each file. Each line is stripped. Skip blank lines and lines starting with `!` or `#`. Then cut a trailing comment: everything from the first whitespace character that is followed by `#`. 2. A line containing `$` (adblock options) is **unsupported**. 3. `||D^` is a **wildcard block** of D (D and all subdomains); `@@||D^` is a **wildcard allow**. (D must not contain `|`, `^` or `/`.) 4. Any other line that starts with `@@` or `|`, or contains `/` or `^`, is **unsupported**. 5. A single word `*.D` is a wildcard block of D; any other single word D is an **exact block** of D only. 6. Several words: if the first is one of `0.0.0.0`, `127.0.0.1`, `::`, `::1`, each following word is an exact block. Lines starting with any other word (e.g. `192.168.1.20 nas.home.arpa`, a local name override) are ignored without a report. 7. Unsupported lines are reported as `[filename, line_number, original_line]` where original_line is the line without its trailing newline (not stripped). ## Domains 8. Before validation: strip, lowercase and remove one or more trailing dots. If the result is one of `localhost`, `localhost.localdomain`, `broadcasthost`, `local`, `ip6-localhost`, `ip6-loopback`, `0.0.0.0`, skip it silently. 9. Convert with Python's built-in `idna` codec (`d.encode("idna").decode("ascii")`; `UnicodeError` = invalid). The result is valid if it is at most 253 characters, has at least 2 labels, the last label is not all digits, and every label is 1-63 characters of `a-z 0-9 -` not starting or ending with `-`. 10. Each invalid domain adds `[filename, line_number, original_line]` to `invalid` (once per invalid domain, so a hosts line with two invalid domains appears twice). ## Result (all lists sorted ascending, no duplicates) 11. "A covers B" means B equals A or ends with `"." + A`. 12. `wildcard`: wildcard-block domains not covered by another wildcard-block domain (other than themselves) and not covered by any wildcard-allow domain. 13. `exact`: exact-block domains not covered by any domain in the final `wildcard` list and not covered by any wildcard-allow domain. 14. `allow`: wildcard-allow domains that are covered by some domain in the final `wildcard` list (allows that unblock nothing are dropped), then minus those covered by another kept allow domain. 15. `invalid` and `unsupported`: in reading order. 16. `is_blocked(result, domain)`: normalise `domain` as in rules 8-9 (an invalid domain is not blocked); it is not blocked if any `allow` domain covers it; otherwise it is blocked if it is in `exact` or covered by a `wildcard` domain. For `lists/` here the correct `wildcard` is `["doubleclick.example", "telemetry.example", "xn--bcher-ads-q9a.example"]`. ## Scoring Hidden checks (partial credit = fraction passed; all must pass): on a hidden folder of 4 lists (~300 lines) `wildcard_exact`, `exact_exact`, `allow_exact`, `invalid_exact`, `unsupported_exact` (each key equal), `is_blocked_queries` (400 queries), `fresh_lists_exact` (all five keys on a second hidden folder) and `cli_report` (`python blocklist.py lists` writes `report.json` equal to the result for `lists/`).

Three line formats with unsupported-vs-ignored distinctions, IDN conversion and label validation, and a minimal output where wildcards absorb exact entries, allows override blocks, and allows that unblock nothing are dropped. Original benchmark task written for usecaserank.com (not based on a specific public post). Headless, offline run on a reproducible fixture. Each run's notes say how its cost was measured (estimates are marked).

Success criteria: 1. wildcard_exact 2. exact_exact 3. allow_exact 4. invalid_exact 5. unsupported_exact 6. is_blocked_queries 7. fresh_lists_exact 8. cli_report

Setup notes: Use Case Scout batch 8 case i12-dns-blocklist-compiler (offline fixture). Prepared with batch8/prepare.sh; hidden key/tests kept outside the agent's work dir. Prompt = TASK.md verbatim. Scored with the scout's scorer: `python score.py WORKDIR KEYDIR`. Tools: Read/Write/Edit/Glob/Grep/Bash, web disabled. Single run, no retries. Claude Code's own reported cost for claude-sonnet-5.5: $0.076145. Score: 8/8. Cost is an ESTIMATE: measured tokens x pricing.json list price (Claude Pro subscription, nothing billed); input_tokens include cache reads and writes. Single run.

Estimated cost List-price estimate; not actually billed.

Metrics

Estimated cost
$0.08
Wall time
23s
Human step-ins
0
Turns
3
Model usage
ModelInput tokOutput tokCost
AClaude Sonnet 5.5anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5effort default (no --effort flag) · thinking on62,3642,929$0.08

Reproduce this run

  1. Use the use case prompt on the use case page.
  2. Same setup: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5, effort default (no --effort flag) · thinking on) via Claude Code 2.1.299 (headless -p), cloud.
  3. It counts as a success only if it meets every success criterion: 1. wildcard_exact 2. exact_exact 3. allow_exact 4. invalid_exact 5. unsupported_exact 6. is_blocked_queries 7. fresh_lists_exact 8. cli_report
  4. Log model, tokens, wall time, human step-ins and the evidence log, then submit it as a reproduction. A different model? Submit a head-to-head rerun.

How runs are scored: Methodology.

Was this useful?

⇄ Rerun on another model

Automated checks

Trust 80% comes from these checks (how Trust % works).

Evidence log
[
 {
  "duration_api_ms": 21619,
  "stop_reason": "end_turn",
  "session_id": "[REDACTED]",
  "total_cost_usd": 0.0761446,
  "usage": {
   "input_tokens": 6,
   "cache_creation_input_tokens": 10412,
   "cache_read_input_tokens": 51946,
   "output_tokens": 2929,
   "output_tokens_details": {
    "thinking_tokens": 833
   },
   "server_tool_use": {
    "web_search_requests": 0,
    "web_fetch_requests": 0
   },
   "service_tier": "standard",
   "cache_creation": {
    "ephemeral_1h_input_tokens": 10412,
    "ephemeral_5m_input_tokens": 0
   },
   "inference_geo": "global",
   "iterations": [
    {
     "input_tokens": 2,
     "output_tokens": 462,
     "cache_read_input_tokens": 20124,
     "cache_creation_input_tokens": 2827,
     "cache_creation": {
      "ephemeral_5m_input_tokens": 0,
      "ephemeral_1h_input_tokens": 2827
     },
     "type": "message"
    }
   ],
   "speed": "standard",
   "fallback_credit": null
  },
  "modelUsage": {
   "claude-sonnet-5-5": {
    "inputTokens": 6,
    "outputTokens": 2929,
    "cacheReadInputTokens": 51946,
    "cacheCreationInputTokens": 10412,
    "webSearchRequests": 0,
    "costUSD": 0.0761446,
    "contextWindow": 1000000,
    "maxOutputTokens": 128000,
    "thinkingTokens": 833,
    "canonicalModel": "claude-sonnet-5-5",
    "provider": "firstParty",
    "costBasis": "list"
   }
  },
  "permission_denials": [],
  "terminal_reason": "completed",
  "fast_mode_state": "off",
  "fast_mode_disabled_reason": "sdk_opt_in_required",
  "subagent_stats": {
   "spawned": 0,
   "requested": {
    "background": 0,
    "foreground": 0,
    "unset": 0
   },
   "started_in_background": 0,
   "max_depth": 0,
   "spawned_by_subagents": 0,
   "completed": 0,
   "failed": 0,
   "killed": {
    "parent": 0,
    "user": 0,
    "system": 0
   },
   "refused": {
    "depth_limit": 0,
    "concurrency_limit": 0,
    "budget": 0
   },
   "by_type": {}
  },
  "safety_stops": 0,
  "is_error": false,
  "num_turns": 3,
  "subtype": "success",
  "api_error_status": null,
  "result": "I rewrote `blocklist.py` to follow the spec. I ran it only on `lists/`, where it writes `report.json`. The `wildcard` list comes out as `[\"doubleclick.example\", \"telemetry.example\", \"xn--bcher-ads-q9a.example\"]`, which matches the expected value. I didn't run `is_blocked` and have no hidden-folder results, so those checks are untested.\n\nOn `lists/` the report also contains:\n- **`exact`:** `ads.example.com`, `ipv6-ads.example.com`, `metrics.example.org` and `tracker.example.net`.\n- **`allow`:** `safe.doubleclick.example`. The `@@||unrelated.example^` allow is dropped because it unblocks nothing.\n- **`invalid`:** `bad_domain.example` (hosts line 7), `-bad-.example`, `123.456`, and the domain with the 70-character label.\n- **`unsupported`:** `||example.com^$third-party` and `/banner/*`.\n\nThe spec doesn't say what to do with an empty domain, such as `||^` or `*.`. I treat it as an invalid domain and report it under `invalid`, not `unsupported`.\n\nI also left one thing at the spec's literal reading. A single-word line that normalises to a skip-listed name (like `localhost`) is dropped silently, and `is_blocked` treats such a name as not blocked.",
  "ttft_ms": 2041,
  "type": "result",
  "duration_ms": 21995,
  "uuid": "[REDACTED]",
  "ttft_stream_ms": 1410,
  "time_to_request_ms": 249,
  "first_content_frame_ms": 1410,
  "queued_turn_count": 0,
  "result_index": 0
 }
]

Get new runs and ranking changes weekly