How We Found Claude's Greatest Hits

The Problem

Claude has signature phrases. Every developer knows them. "Das ist fantastisch!", "That's genuinely impressive!", "You should be proud of yourself!" But which ones are the MOST formulaic? And do they differ across languages?

No one had systematically cataloged them. So we built a simulator.

Method: Two-Pass Extraction

Pass 1: Corpus Generation

40 scenarios across 8 categories (code-show, bug-fix, idea-pitch, learning, refactor, milestone, struggle, review-request)
Each scenario simulates a typical developer interaction, from "I just built my first API" to "I've been debugging for 14 hours and want to quit"
Every scenario was run 3 times per language through Claude Sonnet to capture phrase variance across temperature
819 responses collected across 7 languages (117 per language)

Pass 2: Meta-Analysis

Here's the twist: we fed all collected responses back INTO Claude and asked it to identify its own recurring patterns. The prompt was tuned to only surface catchy, quotable catchphrases, not structural transitions or hedging.

This two-pass approach works because:

Pass 1 generates authentic responses (Claude doesn't know it's being studied)
Pass 2 leverages Claude's pattern recognition on its own output (it knows what's formulaic better than any regex)

What Counts as a "Claude-ism"

Included

Motivational catchphrases
Therapist reassurances
Dramatic declarations
Hype phrases

Excluded

Structural transitions
Follow-up questions
Hedging/honesty disclaimers
Technical observations

Numbers

Scenarios	40
Categories	8
Languages	7 (EN, DE, FR, IT, ES, KO, ZH)
Runs per scenario/language	3
Model	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Total API calls	819
Phrases found	332 (across all 7 languages)
Estimated API cost	~$2.50 (gen) + ~$0.70 (analysis)

Key Findings

Italian Claude is the most enthusiastic. "Ottimo lavoro!" appeared ~20 times in 117 responses. Once every 6 conversations. No other language comes close.
German Claude commits fully. More exclamation marks, more drama, more Therapist Mode. "Das ist fantastisch!" appeared 6 times in 117 responses.
"genuinely" is Claude's signature English adverb. It appears in 12 of the top 44 English phrases. No other language hedges like this.
The Therapist Mode is universal. "Your tired brain is talking" exists in all 7 languages, sometimes word for word.
The $0-to-$12 insight travels. Korean Claude calls first revenue "literally infinite growth." Spanish says "$12/month is infinitely more than $0/month." It's Claude's universal truth.
Cultural calibration is real. Korean uses formal structures with longer explanatory contexts. French uses "Savourez le moment!" Italian goes straight for the superlative. Chinese balances hype with philosophical wisdom.

Stack

TypeScript scripts (simulator.ts, analyzer.ts)
Anthropic SDK (Claude Sonnet 4.6 for volume)
Scenario bank: 40 hand-crafted developer situations
Output: JSON corpus + Markdown rankings

Reproduce It

# Generate corpus (all scenarios, all 7 languages, 3 runs each)
npx tsx clauded/simulator.ts --runs 3

# Analyze for Claude-isms
npx tsx clauded/analyzer.ts --input clauded/output/raw-results-all.json

# Results in clauded/output/CLAUDEISMS.md