focus-guard

Focus Guard

Manage which skills are gated in this project. A gated skill is intercepted by the skill-gate plugin's PreToolUse hook before it runs and (in the default confirm mode) blocked until the user explicitly approves it via a YES / NO / NO+alternative prompt.

How the pieces fit

• The hook (${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/skill-gate-hook.js) ships with this plugin and runs on every Skill tool call. It is active whenever the skill-gate plugin is enabled. You do not create it — enabling the plugin is what "creates the hook".
• The blocklist lives per project at <project>/.claude/skill-gate.json. The hook reads it live on every call, so adding/removing a skill takes effect immediately — no restart needed. (Only enabling the plugin itself needs a restart.)

Config shape:

{
  "mode": "confirm",
  "blocked": ["superpowers:brainstorming", "some-other-skill"],
  "debug": false
}

• mode: "confirm" (default — YES/NO/alternative prompt), "always" (native permission dialog every time), or "off" (disable gating without losing the list).
• blocked: exact skill identifiers as the Skill tool uses them — bare name for personal skills (my-skill), plugin:skill for plugin skills.
• debug: false (default). When true, the hook appends the full decision flow of every Skill invocation to <project>/skill-gate-debug.log (the repo root) — config read, resolved skill name, blocklist match, mode branch, sentinel state, and final decision. Useful for diagnosing why a skill was or wasn't gated.

Workflow

Pick the branch that matches the request.

Adding skills to the gate

1. Discover available skills by hierarchy (user → plugin → project → project-local). Run the helper:

   node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/list-skills.js"
   

   It prints { "skills": [ { name, tier, description, source } ] }. Reconcile with the skills you can actually see available in this session — the helper covers filesystem skills; your in-context list is the authoritative set of what is invocable here. Prefer the union, deduped by name.
2. Read the current config at <project>/.claude/skill-gate.json (treat a missing file as { "mode": "confirm", "blocked": [] }). Exclude already-blocked skills from the candidates.
3. Ask the user which to gate with AskUserQuestion (multiSelect: true), grouping/labeling options by tier so the source is clear. Do not invent skills not in the discovered list.
4. Write the config: merge the chosen identifiers into blocked (dedup, keep sorted), preserve mode, and create the file (and .claude/ dir) if absent. Use exact identifiers from step 1.
5. Confirm what is now gated and remind the user it takes effect immediately.