Alex_Skill_Mall: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Terminal Command Safety

Always-on rationale: terminal commands fire from any task regardless of file context (build, test, git, deployment, exploration). Safety rules — especially the Backtick Hazard — must apply before every run_in_terminal call. A pattern-scoped glob would silence the protection in the cases most likely to ship destructive failures.

Backtick Hazard (Critical)

Backticks break in ALL shells (bash=command substitution, PowerShell=escape char). NEVER place raw backticks inside double-quoted terminal arguments.

Content contains	Action
Backticks	Always use temp file
Multi-line text	Prefer temp file
Both quote types	Use temp file
Dollar signs ($)	Single-quoted heredoc or temp file
Plain text only	Inline is safe

Rules: gh → --body-file, git commit → -F <file>, any CLI → file-based input over inline.

Temp file location matters: place temp files outside the working tree ($env:TEMP\<slug>.txt on Windows, /tmp/<slug>.txt on Unix) OR add the pattern to .gitignore before staging. Otherwise git add -A will stage and commit the message file itself. S360 hit this twice in 2026-05 (commits 26631b4 then caught mid-flight on the next leak via Tenet X self-review).

Preferred PowerShell template for multi-line commit messages:

$m = Join-Path $env:TEMP "<slug>.txt"
Set-Content -Path $m -Value $msg -NoNewline
git commit -F $m
Remove-Item $m

Filesystem isolation prevents the leak by construction.

Output Capture Failures

Terminal output can be silently lost or truncated.

1. Redirect to file, then read: cmd 2>&1 | Out-File $env:TEMP\out.txt
2. Pipe pagers through Out-String
3. Sentinel: ; echo "EXIT_CODE:$LASTEXITCODE"
4. Limit volume: Select-Object -First, -Tail, Format-Table
5. Avoid alt-buffer programs (less, vim, man) — use non-interactive equivalents
6. If empty: retry with get_terminal_output, then redirect to file, then check stderr

Terminal Hanging