careful

name	careful
description	Activate safety mode — review every destructive command before running. Use before working on production infrastructure, migration scripts, or any task where a typo could be catastrophic.

$careful — Destructive Command Safety Mode

Activate this skill before any high-stakes operation. It triggers a mandatory self-check before every potentially destructive command.

What This Skill Does

When you invoke $careful, you commit to the following protocol for the rest of the task:

Before running ANY command matching the patterns below, STOP and explicitly ask the user for confirmation:

Pattern	Risk
rm -rf / or rm -rf *	Filesystem destruction
DROP TABLE / DROP DATABASE / TRUNCATE	Data loss
git push --force / git push -f	Rewrites shared history
kubectl delete namespace	Destroys entire cluster namespace
docker system prune / docker volume prune	Removes images, volumes
npm publish / pip publish / cargo publish	Accidental public release
git reset --hard	Discards uncommitted work
Any DELETE FROM without a WHERE clause	Full table deletion
Any migration down / rollback command	Data schema revert

Activation Protocol

When the user types $careful:

1. Acknowledge: "Safety mode active. I will confirm before running any destructive command."
2. For the rest of this task, before any matching command, output: ⚠️ DESTRUCTIVE: [command]. Proceed? (yes/no)
3. Wait for explicit confirmation before running.
4. NEVER auto-approve. NEVER reason that "context makes it safe."

When to Use

Activate before:

• Production infrastructure work
• Database migrations (especially down/rollback)
• Bulk file operations
• Release / publish workflows
• Any task where "undo" doesn't exist

How to Deactivate

Safety mode ends when:

• The user says "deactivate careful" or "cancel careful"
• The session ends

Relationship to Pre-commit-quality Hook

The .codex/hooks/pre-commit-quality.sh hook already blocks secrets/debugger commits automatically. $careful extends safety to all interactive destructive commands — complementary, not redundant.