drobins25/craft/approve

Write Approval

You are requesting permission to write files. This skill gates ALL writes outside .craft/ and .claude/ directories. It requires explicit user approval every single time - no exceptions, no bypass, no auto-approve.

When to Use

Call this skill BEFORE your first write attempt when:

• The write hook has blocked you (or will block you)
• You're about to modify project source files
• You're about to create new files outside .craft/
• Any workflow stage involves writing to the project

Do NOT call this for writes to .craft/ or .claude/ directories - those are always allowed.

The Flow

Step 1: Describe the Scope

Before asking for approval, gather what you're about to do. Be specific:

• Which files will be created or modified
• What changes will be made (brief, not the full diff)
• Why (what triggered this - workflow stage, fix, feature work)

Step 2: Ask for Approval (MANDATORY)

Use AskUserQuestion. This step CANNOT be skipped. Ever.

question: "I need write access to make these changes. Approve?"
header: "Write Access"
options:
  - label: "Approve"
    description: "{summary of what will be changed}"
  - label: "Deny"
    description: "Block these changes"
  - label: "Modify scope"
    description: "I want to adjust what's allowed"

If "Deny" -> Stop. Do not open the gate. Report to the caller that writes were denied.

If "Modify scope" -> Let the user describe the adjusted scope. Re-present the AskUserQuestion with the new scope. Loop until approved or denied.

If "Approve" -> Continue to Step 3.

Step 3: Create Approval Tasks

Create exactly two tasks:

Task 1 - The approved work:

TaskCreate({
  subject: "Approved: {brief description of changes}",
  description: "Files: {file list}. Scope: {what was approved}.",
  activeForm: "Writing approved changes"
})

Set this task to in_progress immediately.

Task 2 - Close the gate:

TaskCreate({
  subject: "Close write gate",
  description: "Set CRAFT_WRITE_ENABLED='' after approved work is done.",
  activeForm: "Closing write gate"
})

Set addBlockedBy to Task 1's ID so it can't complete before the work is done.

Step 4: Open the Gate

Run via Bash:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/scripts/update-global-state.sh CRAFT_WRITE_ENABLED true

The write gate is now open. The agent can write files.

Step 5: Do the Work

The caller (workflow, fix skill, implementer, etc.) performs the approved changes. As work completes, the approved-work task stays in_progress.

This skill does NOT do the writing itself. It opens the gate and returns control to the caller. The caller writes, then calls back to close.

Step 6: Close the Gate

When the approved work is done, the caller MUST close the gate:

1. Mark the approved-work task as completed:

TaskUpdate({ taskId: "{task-1-id}", status: "completed" })

1. Close the write gate:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/scripts/update-global-state.sh CRAFT_WRITE_ENABLED ""

1. Mark the close-gate task as completed:

TaskUpdate({ taskId: "{task-2-id}", status: "completed" })

Safety Rules

1. AskUserQuestion is mandatory. Every invocation. No exceptions. If the skill is called 5 times in a session, the user is asked 5 times.
2. Scope is enforced by visibility. The user sees exactly what was approved via the Task description. If the agent writes files outside the approved scope, that's visible in the task trail.
3. Gate closes explicitly. The gate does not auto-close on a timer. The caller must close it. If the session ends with the gate open, session-start.sh will detect CRAFT_WRITE_ENABLED=true with no active story/workflow and reset it.
4. No nesting. If the gate is already open (from a story or another approval), this skill is not needed. Check first:

grep "CRAFT_WRITE_ENABLED" "${CRAFT_PROJECT_ROOT:-.}/.craft/.global-state"

If already true, skip this skill.