Agent Kill Switch

Agent kill switch

An agent that loops, re-reads the same files, or shells out to something it should not is expensive by the minute. This skill wires up ClawMetry, a local, read-only dashboard that reads the session logs the runtimes already write on disk, and uses it for three things: see what is running, stop one session, and hold risky tool calls until a human says yes.

Nothing here modifies the agent. Observation is read-only. Every control below is opt-in and stated as what it does, so tell the user exactly which ones you enabled.

1. Install and start

pip install clawmetry && clawmetry

The dashboard is at http://localhost:8900. It auto-detects the runtimes on the machine (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw, Goose, Aider, Cline, OpenCode and others); no config. Confirm it is up:

curl -s http://localhost:8900/api/overview | head -c 400

If the port is taken: clawmetry --port 8901 and use that port below.

2. See what is running and what it costs

curl -s http://localhost:8900/api/sessions      # live and recent sessions, ids look like claude_code:<uuid>
curl -s http://localhost:8900/api/usage         # tokens and cache-aware cost per model and per session

Tell the user in plain words: which sessions are active, which one is spending the most, and whether any is showing loop signs. The dashboard's Sessions tab shows the full transcript and every tool call for a session.

3. Stop one session (the off switch)

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8900/api/sessions/<session_id>/stop

• 200 with "ok": true and a pid: the session's process received SIGTERM.
• 409 with "ok": false: ClawMetry could not identify a process for that session, for example a Cursor editor conversation, which shares the IDE process. Say so instead of claiming it was stopped.

Never call this on your own initiative. Only when the user asks to stop a session, and confirm which session id first.

4. Hold risky tool calls until a human approves (Claude Code)

clawmetry hooks install      # adds a PreToolUse hook to ~/.claude/settings.json, idempotent
clawmetry hooks status

Then one policy gates everything ClawMetry scores high or critical (recursive deletes, force pushes, sudo, credential files, reverse shells, cloud metadata endpoints):

# ~/.clawmetry/policies.yml
- name: 'Require approval for high-risk actions'
  min_risk: 'high'
  action: 'require_approval'
  timeout: 604800
  on_timeout: 'deny'

A deny blocks that one call; the agent keeps its session. Approvals can be answered from the Approvals tab or, with cloud sync, from a phone push. Undo with clawmetry hooks uninstall (removes only ClawMetry's entries).

5. Cap spend for agents that call the API with a key

clawmetry proxy start --daily-budget 10
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:4100/v1   # or OPENAI_BASE_URL for OpenAI-backed agents

When the cap is hit the proxy returns BUDGET_EXCEEDED instead of forwarding the request. It also detects repeated near-identical requests (loops). This only covers agents whose traffic you route through it; say that.

Honest limits

• OpenClaw and NemoClaw are free in the open-source app. The other runtimes, and the approvals feature, need ClawMetry Cloud or a self-hosted Pro license after the trial. Tell the user before enabling those.
• The stop in step 3 is SIGTERM to a process ClawMetry can identify. It is not a guarantee for every runtime; the 409 is the honest answer.
• Data stays on the machine unless the user runs clawmetry connect, which enables end-to-end encrypted cloud sync.

Remove

clawmetry hooks uninstall
clawmetry proxy stop
pip uninstall clawmetry