terminal-command-safety

terminal-command-safety is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall. It costs 20 tokens per session (881 once invoked), scanned C, original, MIT.

A guide to writing safer terminal commands, including handling special characters, capturing long output, avoiding hangs, and preparing interactive commands.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when running commands containing backticks, dollar signs, or multi-line text, when full output must be saved, or when a command may run for a long time.
Why use it?
It helps coding agents avoid shell mistakes, truncated results, accidental command substitution, and commands that wait for input indefinitely.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it when running commands containing backticks, dollar signs, or multi-line text, when full output must be saved, or when a command may run for a long time.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/terminal-command-safety
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall --skill terminal-command-safety
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for terminal-command-safety

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/terminal-command-safety/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/terminal-command-safety)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/terminal-command-safety"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/terminal-command-safety/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for terminal-command-safety

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/terminal-command-safety"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/fabioc-aloha/alex_skill_mall/terminal-command-safety.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 20 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 881 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan C 2 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00020 $0.00881
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00441
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00176
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00088

Measured 9d ago against content hash e635ac02c343, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

terminal-command-safety scanned grade C with 2 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Recursive force deletehighDestructive command

rm -rf with a variable or a broad path is one typo away from removing the wrong tree.

rm -rf (not rm -ri)

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 $url
plugins/code-quality/terminal-command-safety/skills/terminal-command-safety/SKILL.md · 116 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 116 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Terminal Command Safety

Detailed patterns and examples for safe terminal command execution in AI agent contexts.

Decision Table

Content Type Safe Approach Why
Contains backticks Use temp file Backticks break in all shells
Multi-line text Use temp file Heredocs can desync terminal
Both quote types Use temp file Can't escape both cleanly
Dollar signs ($) Single-quoted heredoc or temp file Prevents interpolation
Plain text only Inline is safe No shell metacharacters
Long-running (>15s) mode=async Prevents timeout
Interactive prompt Pre-answer with flags --yes, --no-edit
Needs full output Redirect to file, then read Output can be truncated

Backtick Hazard — Details

Backticks in terminal command arguments break across all shells:

  • bash/zsh: backtick = command substitution (echo "uselshere" executes ls)
  • PowerShell: backtick = escape character (echo "usen here"` inserts newline)

Ref: vscode#295620

Safe Pattern (bash)

# Write content to temp file (single-quoted delimiter prevents interpolation)
cat > /tmp/body.md << 'EOF'
## Changes
- Added `MyClass` to the module
- Updated `config.py`
EOF

# Pass file to command
gh pr create --title "My PR" --body-file /tmp/body.md
rm /tmp/body.md

Safe Pattern (PowerShell)

$body = @'
## Changes
- Added `MyClass` to the module
'@
$body | Out-File -Encoding utf8 "$env:TEMP\body.md"
gh pr create --title "My PR" --body-file "$env:TEMP\body.md"
Remove-Item "$env:TEMP\body.md"

Output Capture — Examples

Refs: vscode#308610, vscode#308048, vscode#307173

Redirect to file

npm run build 2>&1 | Out-File -Encoding utf8 "$env:TEMP\build-output.txt"
Get-Content "$env:TEMP\build-output.txt" -Tail 50

Read the full file on GitHub · 116 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 9d ago First seen · 116 lines · 20 tokens per session scan C e635ac02c343

Subscribe to this mod's changes

terminal-command-safety is a skill published in the GitHub repository fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall (4 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 20 tokens to every session and 881 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it C with 2 findings (recursive force delete, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.

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