Traditionally, one of the biggest potential problems in writing macros is generating code that interacts with other code improperly. Clojure has safeguards in place that other Lisps lack, but there is still potential for error.

Code generated by a macro will often be embedded in other code, and often will have user-defined code embedded within it. In either case, some set of symbols is likely already bound to values by the user of the macro. It’s possible for a macro to set up its own bindings that collide with those of the outer or inner context of the macro-users code, which can create bugs that are very difficult to identify. Macros that avoid these sorts of issues are called hygienic macros.