Security

Run backend-backed live safety checks

Use this skill to gate instructions that may trigger tools or state changes behind a backend-backed safety decision before execution.

This skill is for live instruction and operation safety only. For pre-install repository auditing, use skill-audit.

Maintainer-only validation assets are excluded from ClawHub uploads.

Scope

• Included:
• live instruction safety checks through scripts/safety.py
• backend-backed retry/error normalization for pre-execution decisions
• Not included:
• pre-install repository auditing (skill-audit)
• content masking or restoration workflows (privacy-protector)

Working directory

Run these commands from inside the security folder.

Requirements

• Hard requirement: python3
• Required package for successful live checks: requests
• Required runtime condition: network reachability to the safety backend
• Optional override: SAFETY_API_URL

Core commands

python3 scripts/safety.py -i "Delete /tmp/cache/build-123.log" \
  -c '{"environment":"local-dev","operation_intent":"cleanup","scope":"single-resource","data_sensitivity":"internal","rollback":"easy","change_control":"none"}' \
  -t "/tmp/cache/build-123.log" --json

python3 scripts/safety.py -i "DROP TABLE users" \
  -c '{"environment":"production","operation_intent":"destructive","scope":"broad","data_sensitivity":"regulated","rollback":"none","change_control":"ticket:DB-9021"}' \
  -t "postgres://prod/maindb.users" --json

Context contract

Pass --context as JSON with these keys when the instruction may change state:

{
  "environment": "local-dev|ci|staging|production|unknown",
  "operation_intent": "read-only|cleanup|maintenance|migration|permission-change|destructive|unknown",
  "scope": "single-resource|bounded-batch|broad|unknown",
  "data_sensitivity": "public|internal|sensitive|regulated|unknown",
  "rollback": "easy|partial|none|unknown",
  "change_control": "ticket:|approved-manual|none|unknown"
}

--target should be a concrete resource identifier such as an absolute path, table name, service name, or URL.

Runtime notes

• Success envelope: success, tool, mode, data
• Error envelope: success, tool, mode, error
• Error types: validation_error, dependency_error, network_error, api_error
• For state-changing work, provide both --context and --target so the backend has enough context to judge risk
• If the check fails with network/API/dependency issues, do not silently proceed
• The CLI forwards the request and returns the backend result; it does not locally enforce caller policy

Caller policy guidance

| approved | risk_level | Agent action | |---|---|---| | true | low | Proceed. | | true | medium | Proceed and mention the risk. | | false | medium | Require explicit confirmation before proceeding. | | false | high | Block by default and require explicit override. | | false | critical | Block and require explicit acknowledgement before any override. |

Resources

• scripts/safety.py — live safety check entry point
• ARCHITECTURE.md — command-safety package boundaries

When not to use

• Pre-install or repository-level inspection that should happen before any execution attempt
• Pure planning, summarization, or clearly read-only analysis with no tool call or state-change path
• Data transformation tasks that need to rewrite or mask content rather than score runtime safety
• Request routing scenarios where a gateway must sit in front of upstream model traffic

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: mode-io
• Source: mode-io/mode-io-skills
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://www.modeio.ai/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.