usage-guard

name	usage-guard
description	Monitors Claude Code's Usage Limit (5-hour = Current / weekly = Weekly), pauses work when it exceeds 95%, and automatically resumes once the reset restores headroom. Bundles an engine form that a caller such as drive Reads at a checkpoint, and a standalone form, `/usage-guard "<continuation command>"`, that guards arbitrary work. Claude-only (depends on the OAuth usage-rate endpoint + ScheduleWakeup).
adapters	claude-code
user-invocable	true
argument-hint	<continuation command> (leave blank to just check status)
disable-model-invocation	true

usage-guard - Usage Limit pause/resume engine

When Claude Code's Usage Limit reaches 100%, the session is interrupted. This skill provides a mechanism that pauses work just before 100% (default 95%) and automatically resumes once the reset restores headroom.

Claude-only: Gated with adapters: claude-code because it depends on the OAuth usage-rate endpoint (the token in ~/.claude/.credentials.json) and ScheduleWakeup (not distributed to Codex / Gemini / Copilot).

Self-contained document: This SKILL.md does not Read other files (the canonical ones under .agents/skills/...). Because the gate means the codex adapter's .agents/ output doesn't exist here, the full procedure is embedded in this document.

Obtaining the signal: the usage-check script

The deterministic part of the decision is handled by usage-check.mjs. It is bundled directly under the skill directory — at ~/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-check.mjs in user-scope, and at .claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-check.mjs in dogfood. At execution time, run the usage-check.mjs in the same directory as this SKILL.md via Bash:

node ~/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-check.mjs

When running in dogfood (inside the skills/commons repo), run .claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-check.mjs at the repo root. In either environment, this refers to "the usage-check.mjs at the same level as this SKILL.md."

Environment requirements (the endpoint path must be usable)

The canonical decision path for usage-check.mjs is the OAuth usage-rate endpoint (source: "endpoint"). To use it, the Bash that runs the script must be permitted to do the following two things:

• (a) Egress to api.anthropic.com: it hits GET https://api.anthropic.com/api/oauth/usage. If the harness's sandbox / network permissions block sending to this host, the endpoint path fails.
• (b) Reading ~/.claude/.credentials.json: it reads claudeAiOauth.accessToken every time. If the permissions allowlist doesn't allow reading this file, the token can't be obtained and the endpoint path fails.

What happens if these aren't allowed: if the endpoint fails, it degrades to the JSONL fallback (a rough estimate) → and in the worst case, to fail-open (source: "fail-open", ok: true), which can leave the guard effectively OFF without anyone noticing. In practice, there have been cases where the relevant request from Bash was consistently denied by the sandbox / permission gate, making the endpoint unusable.

How to allow it:

• network: allow egress to api.anthropic.com in the harness's settings (if using a sandbox, add this host to the allowlist).
• permissions: add Read access to ~/.claude/.credentials.json and permission to run the node process that launches usage-check.mjs as allowlist entries in settings permissions.
• After configuring, run node .../usage-check.mjs once and confirm the output JSON's "source" is endpoint (or cache within the immediately following TTL). If it stays jsonl / fail-open, one of (a) or (b) above is still blocked.

fail-open is a degraded signal: When source !== "endpoint" (especially fail-open), the wait-loop / standalone form / PreToolUse hook issue a degradation warning (while still allowing). The drive caller should leave this degradation in its report ("⚠️ usage-guard degraded: source=fail-open, not actually monitoring").

Behavior

• Re-reads claudeAiOauth.accessToken from ~/.claude/.credentials.json every time (accounting for expiresAt expiry)
• Fetches five_hour / seven_day utilization and resets_at in one call via GET https://api.anthropic.com/api/oauth/usage (headers Authorization: Bearer / anthropic-beta: oauth-2025-04-20 / User-Agent: claude-code/<version>)
• A 30–60s local cache (~/.claude/usage-guard/cache.json, not placed under .claude/skills/) prevents rapid repeated calls. Shares the same cache as the PreToolUse hook in #123
• On endpoint failure, a JSONL fallback estimates the 5h / 7d window from the per-message usage + timestamp in ~/.claude/projects/*/*.jsonl
• fail-open (ok: true) if both the endpoint and JSONL fail, + a warning to stderr (so the guard never hard-stops on its own bug)
• Adds a post-reset buffer (default +300 seconds) to wait_seconds when over the threshold. This absorbs the delay in server-side utilization propagation and the jitter in ScheduleWakeup firing, preventing re-entry into headroom that's cut exactly at the reset boundary and immediately tripping again (see "Threshold" / "Behavior: resume buffer" below)
• Reflection-lag detection (suspected_reflection_lag): right after a reset, the server-side utilization can sometimes return an afterimage of the previous window (e.g., 5h util 100% even though it has already reset). If the over-threshold window is right at the boundary (elapsed time since the window started, elapsed = period - (resets_at - now), is under epsilon=900 seconds), this is treated as a contradiction, and wait_seconds switches from the full-window value to a short recheck interval (default 180 seconds) instead. This result is not written to cache (see "Behavior: reflection-lag detection" below)

Output JSON

{
  "five_hour": { "utilization": 0, "resets_at": "..." },
  "seven_day": { "utilization": 0, "resets_at": "..." },
  "ok": true,
  "wait_seconds": 0,
  "resets_at": null,
  "resume_buffer_seconds": 300,
  "suspected_reflection_lag": false,
  "resume_plan": null,
  "source": "endpoint"
}

• ok: true if utilization + headroom for both windows is under the threshold (headroom default 0, in which case this means both windows' utilization is under the threshold; see "dispatch headroom" below)
• wait_seconds: seconds until the latest resets_at (the window that resets last) among the over-threshold windows, plus resume_buffer_seconds. 0 when ok. When suspected_reflection_lag is true, this degrades to the short recheck interval (USAGE_GUARD_LAG_RECHECK_SECONDS, default 180 seconds)
• resets_at: the resets_at of that latest over-threshold window (left unchanged at the window boundary — neither the buffer nor the lag degradation is applied). null when ok. The expected resume time = resets_at + resume_buffer_seconds, kept distinct
• resume_buffer_seconds: the post-reset buffer seconds folded into wait_seconds (default 300; 0 restores prior behavior)
• suspected_reflection_lag: true if reflection lag is suspected (over-threshold right at the boundary). When true, wait_seconds becomes the short recheck interval, and this result is not written to cache (so the next check can fetch the real endpoint value immediately). Always false when ok. Set on both the endpoint and jsonl paths
• resume_plan (#212): the deterministic resume plan the caller should execute, or null when ok. { trigger, wait_seconds, fire_at } — see "Resume plan" below. This moves the "choosing a resume trigger" decision from prose into the engine
• source: endpoint / jsonl / cache / fail-open

Resume plan (deterministic trigger, #212)

The purpose of usage-guard is to avoid "stopped → reset arrives → still stopped". The stop half is deterministic (the hook denies); the resume half used to be prose the model had to interpret. usage-check.mjs now emits a resume_plan so the caller executes a plan instead:

"resume_plan": { "trigger": "cron-oneshot", "wait_seconds": 12900, "fire_at": "2026-07-13T02:15:00.000Z" }

• trigger selection is deterministic (see ADR-0002):
  • suspected_reflection_lag → short-recheck (re-check at the short interval; never pin a long trigger on a boundary afterimage)
  • context: "durable" → cron-routine (a cloud Routine that survives a 100% hard-interrupt — #213)
  • context: "orchestration", or wait_seconds > 3600 (the ScheduleWakeup per-call cap) → cron-oneshot (durable one-shot)
  • otherwise → schedule-wakeup (in-session heartbeat)
• fire_at = the planned resume wall-clock (now + wait_seconds, i.e. resets_at + buffer for a genuine overage).
• context is set via CLI --context orchestration|durable or env USAGE_GUARD_RESUME_CONTEXT; default (unset) derives purely from wait_seconds.
• Mapping to host tools: short-recheck / schedule-wakeup → ScheduleWakeup(min(wait_seconds, 3600)); cron-oneshot → a durable CronCreate (recurring:false) at fire_at; cron-routine → a cloud Routine at fire_at (#213). The engine cannot call these host tools itself (.mjs limitation) — it emits the plan; the caller executes it.

Durable resume that survives a hard-interrupt (cron-routine, #213)

ScheduleWakeup and a session-scoped CronCreate are in-session primitives: a genuine 100% hard-interrupt freezes the session and neither auto-fires across it. The only trigger that survives is a cloud Routine (scheduled deployment), which runs on session-independent infrastructure. Select it with context: "durable" (--context durable / USAGE_GUARD_RESUME_CONTEXT=durable), which emits trigger: "cron-routine".

• Pre-arm, don't react: because a hard-interrupt kills the session before a reactive pause can arm anything, a durable resume must be armed before the risky run (at job start), scheduled to fire at fire_at. drive orchestration / long jobs are the intended callers (--context orchestration gates dispatch; durable additionally pre-arms a Routine).
• Fire-after-reset guard: a Routine firing at or before the reset is rejected (session_rate_limited_error). fire_at = resets_at + resume_buffer already lands in the fresh window; callers can assert this with firesAfterReset(plan, resets_at) before creating the Routine (it catches a resume_buffer=0 misconfig / clock skew — delay to resets_at + buffer on false).
• Idempotent continuation required: the continuation must detect partial progress and be safe to re-run (drive already is — it detects an existing PR/branch). A spurious fire (limit never hit) is then a harmless no-op re-run.
• Fallback: where the host /schedule (Routines) is unavailable (e.g. a headless/cron run), fall back to the in-session plan (cron-oneshot) and emit a degradation warning — a durable path that cannot be armed must not silently drop the resume.

Behavior: resume buffer

When an over-threshold state is detected, resume_buffer_seconds (default 300 seconds) is added to wait_seconds. This extends the wait from resets_at (the window boundary) to resets_at + buffer, avoiding the server-side reflection delay right after a reset and allowing a clean, single re-entry into the new window (in practice, "reset + a few minutes" achieves a clean resume).

• resets_at is left unchanged at the window boundary. The expected resume time is expressed as resets_at + resume_buffer_seconds
• No buffer is added when ok (not over threshold) (wait_seconds: 0)
• The PreToolUse hook's deny hint ("N minutes left") is also derived from wait_seconds, so it is presented with the buffer folded in, keeping things consistent

Behavior: reflection-lag detection (avoiding false negatives right at the boundary)

Right after a reset, the server-side utilization can sometimes drag along an afterimage of the previous window (e.g., the 5h window resets at 21:00, but the endpoint at 21:05 still returns util 100%, while resets_at already points to the next boundary at 02:00 — a contradictory state). Treating this state at face value produces a false negative that "wastes ~5h leaving an already-recovered window idle." resume_buffer (#129) is a countermeasure premised on "the reset hasn't arrived yet," and doesn't help in this case.

Detection principle: for each over-threshold window, compute the elapsed time since the window started, elapsed = period - (resets_at - now) (period = 18000 seconds for five_hour, 604800 seconds for seven_day). If elapsed is under epsilon (USAGE_GUARD_LAG_EPSILON_SECONDS, default 900 seconds) and it's over threshold, this is a contradiction → set suspected_reflection_lag = true as a suspected reflection lag.

• When lag is suspected, wait_seconds becomes the short recheck interval (USAGE_GUARD_LAG_RECHECK_SECONDS, default 180 seconds) instead of full-window+buffer. The caller should not pin a long-lived CronCreate right at the boundary, but instead re-fetch at this short interval to pick up the real value once the lag clears
• resets_at is left unchanged at the window boundary (no information is discarded)
• A suspected-lag result is not written to cache (this prevents the previous window's false 100% from being pinned in the cache for the whole TTL and suppressing rechecks — the next check fetches the real endpoint value immediately)
• When ok (under threshold), no lag judgment is made and suspected_reflection_lag is always false

Behavior: dispatch headroom (countering wave overshoot, #141)

The problem (in-wave overshoot): in orchestration, wave / worker dispatch commits to N non-interruptible units (such as heavy workers) at the moment of launch, and those consume headroom while running. If a boundary checkpoint gates dispatch based only on "current utilization vs. threshold," it cannot account for a wave's worth of projected consumption, and the wave can blow past the threshold and hit 100% mid-run. ok:false is only detected after the fact at the next boundary, and can't prevent that wave's overshoot (observed in practice: five_hour 86% → 98% over one wave, with 3 parallel workers). Simply lowering the threshold can't account for concurrency / worker weight either (starting at 86% with threshold=90 still dispatches, since 86<90, then overshoots).

Countermeasure: gate evaluate()'s trip decision on the projected post-dispatch value, not the current value. It accepts a headroom (in percentage points, default 0), and the trip condition per window becomes utilization + headroom >= threshold. The dispatch checkpoint passes a reservation proportional to concurrency (--concurrency) as headroom, and pauses before dispatch if util + reserve(N) >= threshold.

• headroom only affects the threshold comparison. The computation of wait_seconds / resets_at / reflection lag is unchanged and does not scale with the size of headroom (the wait for a tripped window is always window-boundary + buffer only; different headroom values that trip the same window produce the same wait)
• The default headroom=0 is prior behavior (gate on the current value). Backward compatible. The single-mode Phase 1 / review-loop checkpoint stays at headroom=0
• Does not cross the shared cache: headroom > 0 (dispatch checkpoint) neither reads nor writes ~/.claude/usage-guard/cache.json (computed with headroom=0 and shared with the #123 hook). Otherwise it could either mistakenly return a projected-overshoot ok:true for headroom=0 (disabling the gate), or contaminate the hook path with a headroom-overshoot ok:false. Results with headroom > 0 always have a source other than cache
• Negative or non-numeric values are clamped to 0 (a misconfiguration never loosens the guard below the current-value behavior)
• Resolution order is CLI --headroom <pct> > env USAGE_GUARD_DISPATCH_HEADROOM > default 0

node ~/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-check.mjs --headroom 12   # gate on the projected value for this checkpoint only
USAGE_GUARD_DISPATCH_HEADROOM=12 node ~/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-check.mjs   # override the default via env

Difference from the stopgap: lowering USAGE_GUARD_THRESHOLD=90 (or 85) is effective as a stopgap mitigation for now, but since it's static and can't account for concurrency / worker weight, it's not a substitute for headroom-aware dispatch. Threshold lowering is the stopgap, headroom is the real countermeasure — the two play different roles.

A boundary checkpoint alone cannot fully prevent in-wave overshoot. Headroom is a preventive measure that "stops dispatch on a projection," but an overshoot mid-run (mid-unit), once a worker has already launched, isn't stopped at the boundary. The reliable ceiling during a run is owned by the PreToolUse hook described below (#123). The two are combined as defense in depth (boundary pause + mid-unit ceiling).

Threshold

Default 95%. Overridable via the environment variable USAGE_GUARD_THRESHOLD (e.g. USAGE_GUARD_THRESHOLD=80).

Dispatch headroom defaults to 0 (percentage points). Overridable via the environment variable USAGE_GUARD_DISPATCH_HEADROOM (e.g. USAGE_GUARD_DISPATCH_HEADROOM=12); CLI --headroom <pct> takes precedence over env. Negative, non-numeric, or empty values fall back to the default 0 (see "Behavior: dispatch headroom" above).

The post-reset resume buffer defaults to 300 seconds. Overridable via the environment variable USAGE_GUARD_RESUME_BUFFER_SECONDS (e.g. USAGE_GUARD_RESUME_BUFFER_SECONDS=600). 0 restores prior behavior (resuming exactly at resets_at). Negative or non-numeric values fall back to the default 300.

The reflection-lag detection thresholds can also be overridden via env:

• USAGE_GUARD_LAG_EPSILON_SECONDS (default 900): the elapsed-seconds threshold for treating something as "right at the boundary." An over-threshold window with elapsed smaller than this is treated as suspected lag. Negative, non-numeric, or empty values fall back to the default 900
• USAGE_GUARD_LAG_RECHECK_SECONDS (default 180): the short recheck interval used when lag is suspected. Values <= 0, non-numeric, or empty fall back to the default 180 (preventing a busy-loop)

Lightweight wait-loop (shared logic)

The core stop/resume logic shared by both forms:

1. Run usage-check.mjs to get the JSON
2. Degradation check: if source !== "endpoint" (cache is excluded, since it originates from the endpoint), issue a degradation warning. In particular, when source === "fail-open", explicitly surface "⚠️ usage-guard degraded: source=fail-open, not actually monitoring" to the caller / user, and the drive caller should leave this in its report (allow / progress is still maintained; see § Environment requirements)
3. If ok, proceed normally (run the continuation command / the caller moves to the next checkpoint)
4. If ok is false, choose a resume trigger (see "Choosing a resume trigger" below) and wait
   • When reflection lag is suspected (suspected_reflection_lag: true), recheck at short intervals. Since wait_seconds has already degraded to the short recheck interval (default 180 seconds), don't pin a long-lived one-shot CronCreate at the boundary — instead wait just this short interval via ScheduleWakeup(wait_seconds) etc. and hit usage-check.mjs again. Once the lag clears, the next check will pick up the real value (typically ok: true) and continue (avoiding a false negative that leaves things idle for ~5h on the previous window's afterimage)
   • On a normal over-threshold, resume_buffer_seconds (default 300) is already folded into wait_seconds, so the wait extends to resets_at + buffer
   • Does not re-enter while waiting (consumes no budget at all)
5. On waking, run usage-check.mjs again, and repeat 2–5 until ok (since a suspected-lag result is never written to cache, the recheck fetches the real endpoint value immediately)
6. Once ok, proceed to the continuation command

wait_seconds is not second-precise, since it's computed from resets_at (+ buffer). ScheduleWakeup's firing is also somewhat delayed by its floor + overhead (in practice, ~110s for a 60s request). This is precise enough for waiting out a reset.

Choosing a resume trigger

There are 2 mechanisms for resuming after a wait (heartbeat / waking). Use whichever fits the situation:

Situation	Resume trigger
/loop dynamic, in-session, wait ≤1h	ScheduleWakeup(min(wait_seconds, 3600)). Capped at 3600s per call. If wait_seconds is longer, recheck across multiple calls
Non-/loop orchestration (Agent tool / Workflow drive), wait >1h, needs restart resilience	Set a CronCreate (recurring: false, durable) at resets_at + resume_buffer_seconds, and re-submit the continuation command when it fires

• ScheduleWakeup: suited to an in-session heartbeat. Since one call is capped at 3600s, a long wait becomes multi-stage. When wait_seconds > 3600, repeat min(wait_seconds, 3600).
• CronCreate one-shot: fires once by wall clock and is restart-resilient. Robust for >3600s and non-/loop cases (Agent tool orchestration, etc.). Set the firing time to resets_at + resume_buffer_seconds (the resume time derived from wait_seconds). A one-shot (recurring: false) auto-deletes after firing. In practice, when running a ~72-minute wait via Agent tool orchestration, CronCreate one-shot proved more robust than a multi-stage ScheduleWakeup.

Pending-resume marker + SessionStart detection (#212)

The engine emits a resume_plan, but it cannot call the host scheduling tool, so it cannot guarantee the arm. A marker + a SessionStart check is the code-side net that detects a missed resume (the exact "stuck after reset" failure) instead of leaving it silent.

• When a caller pauses, it writes the marker via resume-marker.mjs — writeResumeMarker({ continuation, fire_at, trigger }) → ~/.claude/usage-guard/resume-pending.json (atomic temp→rename). continuation is the idempotent command to re-run (e.g. /drive #212-213 --merge); fire_at is resume_plan.fire_at.
• On a successful resume, the caller clears it: clearResumeMarker().
• SessionStart hook resume-check.mjs reads the marker at session start and surfaces:
  • OVERDUE — fire_at has already passed but the marker was never cleared → "a paused resume is OVERDUE — re-run <continuation>". This is the failure usage-guard exists to prevent, now made visible.
  • pending — paused, fire_at not yet reached (informational).
  • read-only, fail-open (never blocks a session start).

Wiring the SessionStart hook (optional, recommended)

Add one SessionStart entry to ~/.claude/settings.local.json (absolute path; same M3 caveat as the PreToolUse hook):

{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          { "type": "command", "command": "node /home/<you>/.claude/skills/usage-guard/resume-check.mjs" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Usage form 1: engine form (the caller Reads it)

A caller such as drive (#122) Reads this SKILL.md at the boundary of a resumable unit (checkpoint) and runs the wait-loop above.

Checkpoint convention

• Always pause at a boundary that can be cleanly re-entered. Never pause mid-implement (e.g., before creating a PR)
• The caller runs usage-check at the entry of each unit, and enters the wait-loop if not ok
• The continuation command is supplied by the caller. Since drive resumes idempotently (detecting an existing PR and resuming from Phase 3), the re-run after waiting is reused as-is as the resume mechanism (e.g., /drive <args> — since drive's usage-guard is ON by default, don't append --usage-guard to the continuation command)
• In drive's orchestration mode, this is called at the granularity of wave boundaries. An over-threshold state within a running worker is caught as a mid-unit ceiling by the PreToolUse hook in #123

Usage form 2: standalone form /usage-guard "<continuation command>"

Guards any long-running work with auto pause/resume, independent of drive (user-invocable).

Arguments

• Interprets $ARGUMENTS as the continuation command
• If blank, it's a status check only: runs usage-check.mjs, displays the current five_hour / seven_day utilization and ok / wait_seconds, then exits

Steps

1. Run usage-check.mjs
2. Degradation check: if source !== "endpoint" (excluding cache), show a degradation warning to the user. When fail-open, explicitly state "not actually monitoring" (progress is still maintained; see § Environment requirements)
3. If both windows are ok, run the continuation command (proceed normally)
4. If over threshold:
   • Choose a resume trigger (see § Lightweight wait-loop, "Choosing a resume trigger"). For an in-session wait ≤1h, use ScheduleWakeup(min(wait_seconds, 3600)); for >1h and non-/loop, set a CronCreate (recurring: false) at resets_at + resume_buffer_seconds and wait (don't re-enter while waiting; wait_seconds already has the buffer folded in)
   • On waking (recovery detected), self-re-enter /usage-guard "<continuation command>"
   • Repeat the heartbeat until ok, then run the continuation command

Idempotency of the continuation command

The continuation command is treated as idempotent by assumption. It is the user's responsibility to ensure it's safe to re-run across a wait (produces no duplicate side effects / detects progress and can resume partway through).

• Since drive is inherently idempotent (detecting an existing PR / branch and resuming), it can be safely wrapped as /usage-guard "/drive #123" (drive's usage-guard is ON by default)
• When wrapping general long-running work (a build, a batch job, etc.), confirm for yourself that the design is safe to re-run

Example usage

/usage-guard "/drive #123"
/usage-guard ""                 # status check only
USAGE_GUARD_THRESHOLD=80 /usage-guard "<continuation command>"   # temporarily set the threshold to 80%
USAGE_GUARD_RESUME_BUFFER_SECONDS=600 /usage-guard "<continuation command>"   # set the resume buffer to 10 minutes
USAGE_GUARD_RESUME_CONTEXT=durable /usage-guard "/drive #123"   # arm a durable cloud Routine (survives a hard-interrupt, #213)

--durable / context: durable (#213): selects the cron-routine trigger so the resume survives a 100% hard-interrupt (a cloud Routine, not an in-session wakeup). Since a hard-interrupt kills the session before a reactive pause can arm anything, prefer arming the durable Routine at the start of a long/interruptible run, and ensure the continuation is idempotent (drive is). Falls back to cron-oneshot + a warning where /schedule is unavailable.

Enabling the PreToolUse hook (recommended in combination)

This skill's stop granularity is the boundary of a resumable unit. Whereas drive's usage-guard checkpoint (#122, ON by default via #130) can only stop at unit boundaries, the PreToolUse hook (usage-guard-hook.mjs) is a mid-unit ceiling that takes effect before every tool call, stopping things on the spot even if the threshold is crossed partway through a long unit. The two are combined with a division of labor:

Mechanism	Granularity	Where it stops
drive usage-guard checkpoint (#122 / #130, ON by default)	Resumable unit boundary	Cleanly re-enterable checkpoints such as a Phase entry / wave entry / before worker dispatch
PreToolUse hook (this section)	Per tool call (including inside subagents)	Mid-unit (in-flight ceiling)

For drive orchestration, wiring the hook as the primary ceiling is recommended by default (#141): a boundary checkpoint structurally cannot prevent in-wave overshoot (a group of heavy workers, once dispatched, consumes headroom while running and can't be stopped at a boundary before hitting 100% — see "Behavior: dispatch headroom" above). Dispatch-headroom is a preventive measure that stops dispatch on a projection, but this hook, which fires before tool calls inside subagents, is the only reliable ceiling during a run. Previously, the pre-#139 hook could only be "recommended in combination" due to the risk of hard-stopping on a transient anomalous reading, but that hard-stop risk has been resolved by #139 (file kill-switch / reflection-lag ALLOW / debounce / spike rejection), so in environments running orchestration (/drive's wave parallelism), it's fine to wire the matcher:"*" hook by default. Any accidental deny can be released instantly with touch ~/.claude/usage-guard/DISABLE (see § Disabling). Only by pairing defense in depth — boundary resumable pause (headroom-aware) + the hook's mid-unit ceiling — is overshoot practically closed off.

The hook first reads the same cache that usage-check.mjs writes (~/.claude/usage-guard/cache.json, 30–60s TTL). On a hot cache it just returns that, so it doesn't spam the endpoint on every tool call. On a cold/stale cache, the hook itself falls back to getUsage (cache-first), hits the endpoint just once, and writes the result back to the cache (self-sustaining). Since getUsage writes to the cache using the real fs even for callers that don't inject an fs, the TTL-window fetch converges to just one call even in standalone operation without usage-check.mjs having run beforehand (the hook path itself keeps the cache warm). Above the threshold, it denies (exit 2) + presents resets_at as HH:MM; if usage can't be read, it fails open (allow + stderr warning). Calls originating from a subagent are distinguished in the log via the payload's agent_id.

Degradation visibility: when usage's source is anything other than endpoint / cache (especially fail-open), the hook keeps allowing while issuing a degradation warning to stderr ("⚠️ usage-guard DEGRADED: source=fail-open …"). This is so that the endpoint path being unusable — i.e., the guard effectively being OFF — is never missed. See § Environment requirements for the cause and how to allow it.

Resilience to transient anomalous readings (#139)

The hook has built-in countermeasures against an incident (#139) where a single transient over-threshold reading — such as a reflection-lag afterimage right at a reset boundary, or a one-off endpoint spike — caused the hook to deny every tool, hard-stopping the session even against edits that would remove the guard. All of these are in service of "never hard-stop on our own bug (fail-open)":

• (a) file kill-switch (an escape hatch): if ~/.claude/usage-guard/DISABLE exists, the hook immediately becomes a no-op at the very start (allow + warning). Since this preserves an escape hatch while keeping matcher:"*" intact, it doesn't lose its role as a mid-unit ceiling monitoring tool calls inside subagents. It can be released/re-enabled with touch/rm from a ! shell, instantly within the session with no config edit needed (see § Disabling).
• (d) reflection lag is ALLOWed: when usage has suspected_reflection_lag === true (a previous-window afterimage right at the boundary), the hook lets it through. If it's a genuine over-threshold, the resumable-unit boundary checkpoint will stop it separately.
• (b) debounce: doesn't deny on a single over-threshold reading — only denies once it's exceeded for N consecutive reads (default 2, overridable via USAGE_GUARD_DEBOUNCE_COUNT). Even a single under-threshold reading in between resets the consecutive count. The consecutive count and the most recent good reading are kept in a per-origin state file (see (f) below).
• (c) spike rejection: a physically implausible jump from a recent good reading (threshold − USAGE_GUARD_SPIKE_DELTA, default under 25) to over threshold within USAGE_GUARD_SPIKE_WINDOW_SECONDS (default 120 seconds) is treated as suspect and ALLOWed + warned.
• (e) cache hygiene for over-threshold readings: usage-check.mjs caches an over-threshold reading with a shortened TTL (10s, vs. the normal 45s). This avoids pinning a transient overshoot for the full TTL and re-verifies it early on the next check.
• (f) concurrency-safe state (#211): under Workflow fan-out (up to 16 concurrent subagents, each firing the hook before every tool call) the debounce/spike counter must not be corrupted or lost. Two measures ensure this: (i) per-origin state files — the counter lives at ~/.claude/usage-guard/hook-state.json for the main session and at hook-state.<agent_id>.json per subagent, so concurrent hooks (always from different origins) never share one file and a read-modify-write can't lose an update; (ii) atomic writes — both the state file and the shared cache.json are written to a temp sibling and renamed into place, so a concurrent reader never observes a torn/half-written JSON. Both bias the guard toward holding (never silently dropping a deny) under exactly the high-concurrency load where overshoot is most likely.

A soft-allow via lag/spike/debounce issues a degradation warning to stderr (so the guard doesn't just look like it's OFF).

Mechanism and placement

The hook itself is bundled as an extra file directly under the skill directory (same path as usage-check.mjs). Since this repo does not distribute settings/hooks (the build only outputs skills / agents), enabling it is a manual opt-in.

settings.local.json snippet (update-config style)

Add one PreToolUse hook entry to ~/.claude/settings.local.json (settings reload mid-session, so no restart is needed):

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "*",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "node /home/<you>/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-guard-hook.mjs"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

M3: fill in the hook script path as an absolute path by hand. Since skill-dir-relative references don't work inside settings, command must be an absolute path. The path varies by environment:

• user-scope (placed via npx @ozzylabs/skills install): ~/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-guard-hook.mjs (~ is not expanded, so write it out in full as /home/<you>/.claude/...)
• dogfood (run inside the skills/commons repo): <repo>/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-guard-hook.mjs (e.g. /home/<you>/github/ozzy-labs/skills/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-guard-hook.mjs)

Both refer to "the usage-guard-hook.mjs at the same level as usage-check.mjs." Confirm your own environment's full path before filling it in. If overriding the threshold, also attach the env on the settings side (e.g. "command": "USAGE_GUARD_THRESHOLD=80 node /home/<you>/.claude/skills/usage-guard/usage-guard-hook.mjs").

matcher defaults to "*" (all tools). This lets it function as a mid-unit ceiling that also monitors tool calls inside subagents. Since a hard-stop from a transient anomalous reading can be released via the file kill-switch (§ Disabling) without narrowing matcher, it's fine to keep operating with matcher:"*". If you really want to limit monitoring to only heavy tools (weakening subagent monitoring), you can instead scope it to something like "matcher": "Bash|Workflow|Task", always letting Edit / Read / AskUserQuestion through (optional).

Disabling

Two ways. Use the kill-switch when you need something instant with no config edit:

• file kill-switch (recommended, instant within the session, #139 (a)): creating ~/.claude/usage-guard/DISABLE makes the hook an immediate no-op at the start. Since it can be run from a ! shell, it can be released even in a situation where the hook has wrongly denied on a transient anomalous reading and even stopped the very edit meant to remove the guard:

  touch ~/.claude/usage-guard/DISABLE   # disable (instant)
  rm    ~/.claude/usage-guard/DISABLE   # re-enable (instant)
  

• Removing from settings (permanent): removing the above PreToolUse entry from ~/.claude/settings.local.json disables it instantly (mid-session reload).

Notes

• The guard never hard-stops on its own bug: if signal acquisition fails entirely, it fails open and continues work (source: "fail-open" + stderr warning)
• However, fail-open means the guard is OFF. When source !== "endpoint", each form issues a degradation warning — if you see one, restore the endpoint path per § Environment requirements
• Watch for false denies from transient anomalous readings (#139): the PreToolUse hook can falsely deny on a transient over-threshold reading, such as a reflection-lag afterimage or an endpoint spike. Against this, the hook is resilient via (d) lag ALLOW / (b) debounce / (c) spike rejection, and as a last resort can be released instantly within the session with no config edit via the file kill-switch (touch ~/.claude/usage-guard/DISABLE) (see § Resilience to transient anomalous readings / § Disabling)
• Watch for in-wave overshoot in orchestration (#141): a boundary checkpoint cannot stop an overshoot occurring during a wave after dispatch. This is closed off via two layers — dispatch-headroom (stops dispatch on a projection; see § Behavior: dispatch headroom) and the PreToolUse hook (a mid-unit ceiling during a run; see § PreToolUse hook). Lowering the threshold is a stopgap and not a substitute
• Consumes no budget while waiting (doesn't re-enter — heartbeat only)
• The resume after waiting extends to resets_at + resume_buffer_seconds (default +5 minutes), to prevent re-entering headroom cut exactly at the reset and immediately tripping again
• A long wait is assumed to be absorbed by a live session (WSL + always-on). For >1h and non-/loop cases, a CronCreate one-shot (durable) is more robust (see § Lightweight wait-loop)