guard

Overview

Activates multiple safety protections at once to reduce the risk of accidental damage during sensitive operations.

When to Use

Activate before a sensitive operation where an edit outside one directory or an unconfirmed destructive command would do damage, such as a migration, a production config change, or a bulk rename.

Arguments

Protections

Guard mode enables three protections simultaneously:

Process

Activate

1. Resolve the directory. If a directory argument is given, resolve it to an absolute path. If no argument, use the project root from git rev-parse --show-toplevel.
2. Verify the directory exists. If it does not, abort with an error.
3. Write the freeze scope. Create ~/.claude/.freeze-scope with the absolute path.
4. Confirm activation. State the frozen directory path and that edits outside it will be refused. No hook reads the freeze file, so the refusal comes from the agent checking it before every edit.
5. Check for plan.md. Search for a spec folder with a plan.md:
   • Check <root>/plans/*/plan.md in the project workspace, per rules/project-workspace.md, then the legacy specs/*/plan.md and .claude/specs/*/plan.md.
   • If found, read the planned file list for scope comparison.
   • If not found, skip scope protection and note it.
6. Confirm activation. State:
   • Frozen directory path.
   • Whether scope checking is active.
   • How to deactivate: /guard off.

Deactivate

1. Remove the freeze scope. Delete ~/.claude/.freeze-scope if it exists.
2. Confirm deactivation. State that all guard protections are removed.

Status

1. Check freeze scope. Read ~/.claude/.freeze-scope if it exists.
2. Check for plan.md. Search for an active plan.

3. Report:

   Protection	Status
   Freeze	Active: /path/to/directory or Inactive
   Careful	Active: always on when guard is active
   Scope	Active: using plan.md at <plan path> or Inactive: no plan found

Behavior While Active

When guard mode is active, every file edit and destructive command follows these checks:

1. Before editing a file:
   • Verify the file path is inside the frozen directory. If not, refuse the edit and state why.
   • If scope checking is active, verify the file is listed in plan.md. If not, warn and ask for confirmation before proceeding.
2. Before running a destructive command:
   • State the command and its potential impact.
   • Ask for explicit confirmation before executing.
   • Never run destructive commands silently while guard is active.

Rules

• All three protections are advisory. No hook in hooks/ reads .freeze-scope, so freeze holds only because the agent reads the file before every edit and refuses one outside it.
• The .freeze-scope file contains exactly one line: the absolute directory path.
• Activating guard a second time with a different directory overwrites the previous freeze scope.
• The freeze file stays on disk across sessions, and a new session does not read it on its own. Run /guard status at the start of a session that should honor it.
• Never auto-deactivate guard mode. Only /guard off removes the freeze file.
• All paths must be absolute, never relative.

Common Rationalizations

• "This file sits just outside the frozen directory, and the fix needs it": refuse the edit, state why, and let the user widen the scope with a new /guard <directory>.
• "rm on a build directory is harmless": guard mode confirms every destructive command. State the command and its impact, then ask.
• "The plan missed this file, but it obviously belongs": an unplanned file gets a warning and a confirmation.
• "Guard was on last session, so it still is": the file may remain, but nothing enforces it until this session reads it. Run /guard status first.
• "A relative path is fine here": the freeze file holds one absolute path. Resolve it before writing.

Red Flags

• Stop and refuse when an edit target resolves outside the path in ~/.claude/.freeze-scope.
• Stop and ask for confirmation when a command matches rm, git reset, DROP, DELETE, or a dangerous-command-blocker pattern.
• Stop and abort activation when the directory argument does not exist.
• Stop and warn when scope checking is active and the edit target is absent from plan.md.

Verification

• After activation, ~/.claude/.freeze-scope holds exactly one line, an absolute path that exists.
• The activation message names the frozen path, the scope checking state, and /guard off.
• /guard status prints the three-row protection table matching the freeze file and plan lookup.
• After /guard off, ~/.claude/.freeze-scope is absent.

Related Skills

• /investigate --freeze -- Debugging with freeze protection uses the same mechanism.
• /plan -- Creates the plan.md that scope checking uses.
• /ship commit -- Commit after completing guarded work.