guard

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

Arguments

Invocation	Action
/guard <directory>	Activate guard mode, freeze edits to the specified directory
/guard	Activate guard mode for the current project root
/guard off	Deactivate guard mode, remove all restrictions
/guard status	Show current guard state

Protections

Guard mode enables three protections simultaneously:

Protection	What it does
Freeze	Restricts file edits to the specified directory. Writes to ~/.claude/.freeze-scope with the frozen path. Enforcement relies on the agent respecting the freeze file.
Careful	Warns before any destructive command: rm, git reset, DROP, DELETE, and patterns covered by the dangerous-command-blocker hook.
Scope	If a plan.md exists in the project's spec folder, compares every file edit against the planned file list. Warns when editing files not in the plan.

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 rejected.

5. Check for plan.md. Search for a spec folder with a plan.md:

   • Check .claude/specs/*/plan.md in the project root.
   • 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 /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

• Guard mode is advisory for careful and scope protections. Freeze is enforced by the hook when configured.
• 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.
• Guard mode does not persist across sessions. It must be reactivated in each new session.
• Never auto-deactivate guard mode. Only /guard off or session end removes it.
• All paths must be absolute, never relative.

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.