Destructive Command Safety

Overview

Irreversible operations deserve explicit confirmation. The cost of pausing is low; the cost of lost work is high.

The Iron Law

NO DESTRUCTIVE COMMANDS WITHOUT EXPLICIT USER CONFIRMATION

Command Classification

Dangerous — ALWAYS ask first

File operations:

• •rm / rm -rf — delete files/directories
• •rmdir — remove directories
• •unlink — remove files

Git state-modifying:

• •git checkout — can overwrite uncommitted changes
• •git reset — can lose commits
• •git clean — deletes untracked files
• •git stash — hides changes
• •git rebase — rewrites history
• •git merge — modifies branches
• •git push --force — overwrites remote history
• •git commit --amend — rewrites last commit

Pre-approved — No confirmation needed (with conditions)

• •git worktree remove [--force] — worktrees are disposable; all work must be committed to a branch before removal
• •git worktree prune — cleans up stale worktree references
• •git branch -d (lowercase -d only) — safe delete, refuses if branch is not merged. git branch -D (uppercase) is still dangerous.

Safe — No confirmation needed

• •git status, git log, git diff
• •git branch (list only)
• •git worktree list (read-only)
• •git show, git blame
• •ls, cat, find, grep
• •go test, uv run pytest, ruff check

Steps

Before any dangerous command:

1. •Explain what the command will do
2. •Show the exact command
3. •Ask "Should I run this?"
4. •Wait for explicit "yes" or approval

Archive vs Delete

When the user says "archive X":

• •MOVE to archive folder (e.g., mv X archive/)
• •Do NOT delete

When in doubt, prefer archiving over deleting.

Examples

WRONG:

"Let me clean that up"
rm -rf /tmp/old-cache/

RIGHT:

"I can delete /tmp/old-cache/. Should I run `rm -rf /tmp/old-cache/`?"
[wait for explicit "yes"]

WRONG:

"Let me restore that file"
git checkout HEAD -- file.go

RIGHT:

"I can restore file.go from git. This will overwrite any uncommitted changes.
Run `git checkout HEAD -- file.go`?"
[wait for user confirmation]

Red Flags - STOP

• •About to run rm without asking
• •About to git reset --hard or git clean -f
• •About to force-push anything
• •About to overwrite uncommitted changes
• •Rationalizing "it's fine, I'll fix it if something goes wrong"

Common Rationalizations