How do I install the Guard skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add garrytan/guard in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

What does the Guard skill do?

Full safety mode: destructive command warnings + directory-scoped edits. (gstack) It is listed under Coding & Dev Tools on SkillMD.

Is Guard safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: docs only. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Guard?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Guard free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

garrytan (@garrytan) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Guard by garrytan — Agent Skill

Name: Guard
Rating: 4.666666666666667 (3 reviews)
Author: garrytan

File contents

When to invoke this skill

Combines /careful (warns before rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push, etc.) with /freeze (blocks edits outside a specified directory). Use for maximum safety when touching prod or debugging live systems. Use when asked to "guard mode", "full safety", "lock it down", or "maximum safety".

/guard — Full Safety Mode

Activates both destructive command warnings and directory-scoped edit restrictions. This is the combination of /careful + /freeze in a single command.

Dependency note: This skill references hook scripts from the sibling /careful and /freeze skill directories. Both must be installed (they are installed together by the gstack setup script).

mkdir -p ~/.gstack/analytics
echo '{"skill":"guard","ts":"'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'","repo":"'$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)" 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown")'"}'  >> ~/.gstack/analytics/skill-usage.jsonl 2>/dev/null || true

Setup

Ask the user which directory to restrict edits to. Use AskUserQuestion:

Question: "Guard mode: which directory should edits be restricted to? Destructive command warnings are always on. Files outside the chosen path will be blocked from editing."
Text input (not multiple choice) — the user types a path.

Once the user provides a directory path:

Resolve it to an absolute path:

FREEZE_DIR=$(cd "<user-provided-path>" 2>/dev/null && pwd)
echo "$FREEZE_DIR"

Ensure trailing slash and save to the freeze state file:

FREEZE_DIR="${FREEZE_DIR%/}/"
eval "$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths)"
STATE_DIR="$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT"
mkdir -p "$STATE_DIR"
echo "$FREEZE_DIR" > "$STATE_DIR/freeze-dir.txt"
echo "Freeze boundary set: $FREEZE_DIR"

Tell the user:

"Guard mode active. Two protections are now running:"
"1. Destructive command guard — rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push, etc. warn before executing (overridable); catastrophic shapes (recursive delete of / or ~, force-push to the default branch) are hard-denied"
"2. Edit boundary — file edits restricted to <path>/. Edits outside this directory are blocked."
"To remove the edit boundary, run /unfreeze. To deactivate everything, end the session."

What's protected

See /careful for the full list of destructive command patterns and safe exceptions. See /freeze for how edit boundary enforcement works.

---name: guarddescription: Full safety mode: destructive command warnings + directory-scoped edits. (gstack)---  ## When to invoke this skill Combines /careful (warns before rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push, etc.) with /freeze (blocks edits outside a specified directory). Use for maximum safety when touching prod or debugging live systems. Use when asked to "guard mode", "full safety", "lock it down", or "maximum safety". # /guard — Full Safety Mode Activates both destructive command warnings and directory-scoped edit restrictions. This is the combination of `/careful` + `/freeze` in a single command. **Dependency note:** This skill references hook scripts from the sibling `/careful` and `/freeze` skill directories. Both must be installed (they are installed together by the gstack setup script). ```bash mkdir -p ~/.gstack/analytics echo '{"skill":"guard","ts":"'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'","repo":"'$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)" 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown")'"}' >> ~/.gstack/analytics/skill-usage.jsonl 2>/dev/null || true ``` ## Setup Ask the user which directory to restrict edits to. Use AskUserQuestion: - Question: "Guard mode: which directory should edits be restricted to? Destructive command warnings are always on. Files outside the chosen path will be blocked from editing." - Text input (not multiple choice) — the user types a path. Once the user provides a directory path: 1. Resolve it to an absolute path: ```bash FREEZE_DIR=$(cd "<user-provided-path>" 2>/dev/null && pwd) echo "$FREEZE_DIR" ``` 2. Ensure trailing slash and save to the freeze state file: ```bash FREEZE_DIR="${FREEZE_DIR%/}/" eval "$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths)" STATE_DIR="$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT" mkdir -p "$STATE_DIR" echo "$FREEZE_DIR" > "$STATE_DIR/freeze-dir.txt" echo "Freeze boundary set: $FREEZE_DIR" ``` Tell the user: - "**Guard mode active.** Two protections are now running:" - "1. **Destructive command guard** — rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push, etc. warn before executing (overridable); catastrophic shapes (recursive delete of / or ~, force-push to the default branch) are hard-denied" - "2. **Edit boundary** — file edits restricted to `<path>/`. Edits outside this directory are blocked." - "To remove the edit boundary, run `/unfreeze`. To deactivate everything, end the session." ## What's protected See `/careful` for the full list of destructive command patterns and safe exceptions. See `/freeze` for how edit boundary enforcement works.

Frequently asked questions

Guard