freeze

When to invoke this skill

Blocks Edit, Write and NotebookEdit outside the allowed path. Use when debugging to prevent accidentally "fixing" unrelated code, or when you want to scope changes to one module. Use when asked to "freeze", "restrict edits", "only edit this folder", or "lock down edits".

/freeze — Restrict Edits to a Directory

Lock file edits to a specific directory. Any Edit, Write or NotebookEdit operation targeting a file outside the allowed path will be blocked (not just warned).

GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed

Setup

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

• Question: "Which directory should I restrict edits to? Files outside this path will be blocked from editing."
• Text input (not multiple choice) — the user types a path.

Once the user provides a directory path:

Set the user-selected boundary with the shared state writer. It resolves the physical absolute path and serializes replacement with investigation cleanup:

Only report success if the helper succeeds. On FREEZE_BUSY or unexpected state, preserve it and ask the user to inspect recovery after any active writer finishes; never write or delete the state file directly.

Tell the user: "Edits are now restricted to <path>/. Any Edit, Write or NotebookEdit outside this directory will be blocked. To change the boundary, run /freeze again. To remove it, run /unfreeze."

How it works

The hook reads file_path from the Edit/Write tool input JSON, or notebook_path from a NotebookEdit (Jupyter notebook) call (shared real-JSON extractor with /careful — one copy, sourced by both hooks), then checks whether the path starts with the freeze directory. If not, it returns a hookSpecificOutput payload with permissionDecision: "deny" to block the operation (nested under hookSpecificOutput — Claude Code ignores a top-level permissionDecision).

Polarity is fail-closed: a tool payload the hook cannot parse is DENIED, not allowed — a boundary that fails open is not a boundary. A payload that parses but has neither path field (a non-file tool) is allowed. A deny names the tool, the path field, the boundary and /unfreeze. Symlinks are resolved through their FINAL component, so an in-boundary symlink pointing outside the boundary is checked against its target.

The freeze boundary persists until explicitly removed via the state file. The hook script reads it on every Edit/Write/NotebookEdit invocation. Boundaries containing spaces are supported.

Notes

• The trailing / on the freeze directory prevents /src from matching /src-old
• Freeze applies to Edit, Write and NotebookEdit only — Read, Bash, PowerShell, Glob, Grep are unaffected
• This prevents accidental edits, not a security boundary — Bash or PowerShell commands like sed or Set-Content can still modify files outside the boundary
• To deactivate, run /unfreeze; ending or killing a conversation does not remove persisted state