failproofai ships with 39 built-in policies that catch common agent failure modes. Each policy fires on a specific hook event type and tool name. Nineteen policies accept parameters that let you tune their behavior without writing code. Five workflow policies enforce a commit → push → PR → CI pipeline before Claude stops.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.befailproof.ai/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Overview
Policies are grouped into categories:| Category | Policies | Hook type |
|---|---|---|
| Dangerous commands | block-sudo, block-rm-rf, block-curl-pipe-sh, block-failproofai-commands | PreToolUse |
| Infra commands | block-kubectl, block-terraform, block-aws-cli, block-gcloud, block-az-cli, block-helm, block-gh-pipeline | PreToolUse |
| Secrets (sanitizers) | sanitize-jwt, sanitize-api-keys, sanitize-connection-strings, sanitize-private-key-content, sanitize-bearer-tokens | PostToolUse |
| Environment | block-env-files, protect-env-vars | PreToolUse |
| File access | block-read-outside-cwd, block-secrets-write | PreToolUse |
| Git | block-push-master, block-work-on-main, block-force-push, warn-git-amend, warn-git-stash-drop, warn-all-files-staged | PreToolUse |
| Database | warn-destructive-sql, warn-schema-alteration | PreToolUse |
| Warnings | warn-large-file-write, warn-package-publish, warn-background-process, warn-global-package-install | PreToolUse |
| Package managers | prefer-package-manager | PreToolUse |
| Workflow | require-commit-before-stop, require-push-before-stop, require-pr-before-stop, require-no-conflicts-before-stop, require-ci-green-before-stop | Stop |
block-— stop the agent from proceeding.warn-— give the agent additional context so it can self-correct.sanitize-— scrub sensitive data from tool output before the agent sees it.
Namespaces
Every policy lives in a<namespace>/<name> slot. Built-in policies belong to the
failproofai/ namespace — for example, failproofai/sanitize-jwt. The
namespace prevents collisions when you also load custom or third-party policies
with similar short names.
In your config you can refer to a built-in by either its short name or its
qualified name; both forms resolve to the same policy:
/, failproofai treats it as belonging to the default
namespace failproofai. Names that already contain a / (e.g. myorg/foo,
custom/my-hook) are kept as-is.
require-— block the Stop event until conditions are met.
Dangerous commands
Prevent agents from running operations that are hard to undo or that could damage the host system.block-sudo
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies any
sudo command.
Blocks invocations that include the sudo keyword. Pattern matching is done on parsed command tokens, not the raw string, to prevent bypass via shell operator injection.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | Exact command prefixes that are permitted. Each entry is matched against the parsed argv tokens. |
sudo systemctl status nginx is allowed, but sudo rm /etc/hosts is denied.
Patterns are matched against parsed tokens, not the raw command string. This prevents bypass via appended shell operators (e.g.
sudo systemctl status x; rm -rf / does not match sudo systemctl status *).block-rm-rf
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies
rm -rf, rm -fr, and similar recursive deletion forms.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPaths | string[] | [] | Paths that are safe to recursively delete (e.g. /tmp). |
block-curl-pipe-sh
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies
curl <url> | bash, curl <url> | sh, wget <url> | bash, and similar patterns.
No parameters.
block-failproofai-commands
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies commands that would uninstall or disable failproofai itself (e.g.
npm uninstall failproofai, failproofai policies --uninstall).
No parameters.
Infra commands
Stop coding agents from running infrastructure CLIs or triggering CI/CD pipelines. All policies in this category are opt-in (defaultEnabled: false) — agents that legitimately need to call kubectl, terraform, etc. will not be disrupted unless you enable the policy. When enabled, every invocation of the matched CLI is denied unless the command matches an entry in allowPatterns.
The pattern grammar is the same as block-sudo: tokens are matched against parsed argv, * is a wildcard for one token, and any command containing a standalone shell operator (&&, ||, |, ;) or a token with embedded shell metacharacters is rejected before allowlist matching to prevent injection bypasses.
block-kubectl
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies any
kubectl invocation.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | kubectl command prefixes that are permitted. |
kubectl get pods is allowed but kubectl apply -f deploy.yaml is denied.
block-terraform
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies any
terraform or tofu (OpenTofu) invocation.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | terraform/tofu command prefixes that are permitted. |
block-aws-cli
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies any
aws CLI invocation.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | aws CLI command prefixes that are permitted. |
block-gcloud
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies any
gcloud (Google Cloud) CLI invocation.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | gcloud command prefixes that are permitted. |
block-az-cli
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies any
az (Azure) CLI invocation.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | az CLI command prefixes that are permitted. |
block-helm
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies any
helm invocation.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | helm command prefixes that are permitted. |
block-gh-pipeline
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies the following
gh CLI subcommands that mutate state or trigger pipelines:
gh workflow run,gh workflow enable,gh workflow disablegh run rerun,gh run cancelgh pr mergegh release create,gh release deletegh cache deletegh secret set,gh secret delete
gh subcommands such as gh pr view, gh pr list, gh run list, gh release view, and gh api repos/.../... are not matched by this policy — they are routinely needed for workflow checks (including failproofai’s own require-ci-green-before-stop).
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPatterns | string[] | [] | Specific scripted invocations to allow even though they would otherwise be denied. |
Secrets (sanitizers)
Stop agents from leaking credentials into their context or output. Sanitizer policies fire on PostToolUse events. When Claude runs a Bash command, reads a file, or calls any tool, these policies inspect the output before it is returned to Claude. If a secret pattern is detected, the policy returns a deny decision that prevents the output from being passed back.sanitize-jwt
Event: PostToolUse (all tools)Default: Redacts JWT tokens (three base64url segments separated by
.).
No parameters.
sanitize-api-keys
Event: PostToolUse (all tools)Default: Redacts common API key formats: Anthropic (
sk-ant-), OpenAI (sk-), GitHub PATs (ghp_), AWS access keys (AKIA), Stripe keys (sk_live_, sk_test_), and Google API keys (AIza).
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
additionalPatterns | { regex: string; label: string }[] | [] | Additional regex patterns to treat as secrets. |
sanitize-connection-strings
Event: PostToolUse (all tools)Default: Redacts database connection strings that contain embedded credentials (e.g.
postgresql://user:password@host/db).
No parameters.
sanitize-private-key-content
Event: PostToolUse (all tools)Default: Redacts PEM blocks (
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----, -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----, etc.).
No parameters.
sanitize-bearer-tokens
Event: PostToolUse (all tools)Default: Redacts
Authorization: Bearer <token> headers where the token is 20 or more characters.
No parameters.
Environment
Protect sensitive environment configuration from being read or exposed by agents.block-env-files
Event: PreToolUse (Bash, Read)Default: Denies reading
.env files via cat .env, Read tool calls with .env as the file path, etc.
Does not block .envrc or other environment-adjacent files - only files named exactly .env.
No parameters.
protect-env-vars
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies commands that print environment variables:
printenv, env, echo $VAR.
No parameters.
File access
Keep agents working inside project boundaries and away from sensitive files.block-read-outside-cwd
Event: PreToolUse (Read, Bash)Default: Denies reading files outside the project root. The boundary is
CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR (set once per session by Claude Code), with a fallback to the session’s current working directory when that variable is unset. Using the project root rather than the live cwd means the boundary stays stable even after Claude cds into a subdirectory.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowPaths | string[] | [] | Absolute path prefixes that are permitted even if outside the project root. |
block-secrets-write
Event: PreToolUse (Write, Edit)Default: Denies writes to files commonly used for private keys and certificates:
id_rsa, id_ed25519, *.key, *.pem, *.p12, *.pfx.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
additionalPatterns | string[] | [] | Additional filename patterns (glob-style) to block. |
Git
Prevent accidental pushes, force-pushes, and branch mistakes that are hard to undo.block-push-master
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies
git push origin main and git push origin master.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
protectedBranches | string[] | ["main", "master"] | Branch names that cannot be pushed to directly. |
block-work-on-main
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies
git commit, git merge, git rebase, and git cherry-pick while the working tree is on main or master. Branch creation and switching (git checkout, git checkout -b, git switch, git switch -c) are not affected.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
protectedBranches | string[] | ["main", "master"] | Branch names on which commit/merge/rebase/cherry-pick is denied. |
block-force-push
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Denies
git push --force and git push -f.
No policy-specific parameters. Use the cross-cutting hint to suggest alternatives:
warn-git-amend
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to proceed carefully when running
git commit --amend. Does not block the command.
No parameters.
warn-git-stash-drop
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to confirm before running
git stash drop. Does not block the command.
No parameters.
warn-all-files-staged
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to review what it is staging when it runs
git add -A or git add .. Does not block the command.
No parameters.
Database
Catch destructive SQL operations before they execute against your database.warn-destructive-sql
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to confirm before running SQL containing
DROP TABLE, DROP DATABASE, or DELETE without a WHERE clause.
No parameters.
warn-schema-alteration
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to confirm before running
ALTER TABLE statements.
No parameters.
Warnings
Give agents extra context before potentially risky but non-destructive operations.warn-large-file-write
Event: PreToolUse (Write)Default: Instructs Claude to confirm before writing files larger than 1024 KB. Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
thresholdKb | number | 1024 | File size threshold in kilobytes above which a warning is issued. |
The hook handler enforces a 1 MB stdin limit on payloads. To test this policy with small content, set
thresholdKb to a value well below 1024.warn-package-publish
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to confirm before running
npm publish.
No parameters.
warn-background-process
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to be careful when launching background processes via
nohup, &, disown, or screen.
No parameters.
warn-global-package-install
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Instructs Claude to confirm before running
npm install -g, yarn global add, or pip install without a virtual environment.
No parameters.
Package managers
Enforce which package managers the agent is allowed to use.prefer-package-manager
Event: PreToolUse (Bash)Default: Disabled. When enabled, blocks any package manager command not in the
allowed list and tells Claude to rewrite the command using an allowed manager.
Detects: pip, pip3, python -m pip, npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, uv, poetry, pipenv, conda, cargo.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
allowed | string[] | [] | Allowed package manager names. Any detected manager not in this list is blocked. When empty, the policy is a no-op. |
blocked | string[] | [] | Additional manager names to block beyond the built-in list (e.g. ['pdm', 'pipx']). |
blocked to append managers not in this list.
Example configuration:
pip install flask and pdm install flask are both denied with a message telling Claude to use uv or bun instead. Commands like uv pip install flask are allowed because uv is in the allowlist and is checked first.
AI behavior
Detect when agents get stuck or behave unexpectedly.warn-repeated-tool-calls
Event: PreToolUse (all tools)Default: Instructs Claude to reconsider when the same tool is called 3+ times with identical parameters - a common sign the agent is stuck in a loop. No parameters.
Workflow
Enforce a disciplined end-of-session workflow. These policies fire on the Stop event and deny the agent from stopping until each condition is met. They follow a natural dependency chain: commit → push → PR → CI. If a policy denies, later policies in the chain are skipped (deny short-circuits). All workflow policies are fail-open: if the required tool is not available (e.g.gh not installed, no git remote), the policy allows with an informational message explaining why the check was skipped.
Per-CLI Stop semantics
Stop enforcement looks slightly different across the seven supported CLIs because each one exposes a different “agent finished” hook contract. The outcome is the same — the agent doesn’t get away with stopping while a workflow gate is failing — but the mechanics differ. The table below summarizes; only Pi has a user-visible quirk worth understanding before you enable arequire-*-before-stop policy.
| CLI | When the gate fires | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Same agent loop, immediately | Claude continues working — fixes the issue, then attempts to finish again. No interruption visible to you. |
| Codex | Same agent loop, immediately | Same as Claude. |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | Same agent loop, immediately | Same as Claude (uses Copilot’s {decision:"block", reason} retry channel — verified empirically against Copilot CLI 1.0.41). |
| Cursor Agent | Same agent loop, immediately | Same as Claude (uses Cursor’s {followup_message} channel — capped at loop_limit, default 5 retries). |
| Gemini CLI | Same agent loop, immediately | Same as Claude (uses Gemini’s {decision:"block", reason} channel on AfterAgent). |
| OpenCode | Same agent loop, immediately | Same as Claude (uses OpenCode’s client.session.prompt(...) SDK call routed through hookSpecificOutput.additionalContext). |
| Pi (pi-coding-agent) | Next user turn | Pi visibly stops when the gate fires — its agent loop exits and you’re returned to the prompt. The gate then fires the next time you submit a prompt: failproofai prepends a MANDATORY ACTION REQUIRED directive to that turn’s system prompt, instructing the LLM to complete the workflow step (commit, push, etc.) before doing whatever you asked. |
Pi limitation. Pi’s
AgentEndEvent (the upstream equivalent of Claude’s Stop hook) has no Result type — by the time it fires, Pi’s agent loop has already exited. Pi cannot be forced to retry the same loop the way Claude / Copilot / Cursor / Gemini / OpenCode can. failproofai shifts the gate to Pi’s before_agent_start event (which fires after the next user prompt) so the workflow check still enforces, just on the next turn rather than the current one.What this means in practice:- After Pi stops, the deny reason is captured in-memory keyed by Pi session id. The very next prompt you submit in the same Pi process drains it: the LLM sees the
MANDATORY ACTION REQUIREDdirective at the top of its system prompt, commits (or pushes / opens the PR / waits for CI), and only then continues with your request. The captured deny reason is one-shot — once drained, the gate is clear. - The gate is bounded by Pi’s process lifetime. If you
Ctrl+CPi or quit between turns, the in-memory entry is dropped along with the process and the gate is missed. Claude, Copilot, Cursor, Gemini, and OpenCode have the same bound (kill the agent and the gate is missed) — Pi just makes it more visible because the agent visibly exits before the gate fires. - A pending deny is also cleared on
session_shutdownfor any reason (new/resume/fork/quit), so a stale gate from a prior session cannot leak into a fresh session started in the same Pi process.
Stop policies under any of the other six supported CLIs. We are tracking Pi upstream for a future Result type on AgentEndEvent that would let us close this gap.require-commit-before-stop
Event: StopDefault: Denies stopping when there are uncommitted changes (modified, staged, or untracked files). Returns an informational message when the working directory is clean. No parameters.
require-push-before-stop
Event: StopDefault: Denies stopping when there are unpushed commits or when the current branch has no remote tracking branch. Suggests
git push -u to create a tracking branch if needed. Fails open if no remote is configured.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
remote | string | "origin" | Remote name to push to. |
require-pr-before-stop
Event: StopDefault: Denies stopping when no pull request exists for the current branch, or when the existing PR is closed without merging. Instructs Claude to create a PR with
gh pr create. When the PR is merged, the policy allows (the work has shipped) and the message hints to switch off the branch (git checkout main && git pull).
No parameters.
This policy requires GitHub CLI (
gh) to be installed and authenticated.
Run gh auth login with a personal access token that has repo scope for read access to
pull requests. If gh is not installed or not authenticated, the policy fails open and reports the reason to Claude.require-no-conflicts-before-stop
Event: StopDefault: Denies stopping when the current branch cannot cleanly merge into the base branch. The policy first confirms there is an
OPEN PR on GitHub for the branch — without one, there is no merge target to enforce, so the entire policy short-circuits to allow. Once an OPEN PR is confirmed, two independent probes run:
- Local —
git merge-tree --write-tree --name-only origin/<baseBranch> HEAD. On conflict, the deny message names the conflicted files so Claude knows exactly what to resolve. - GitHub — reuses the
gh pr view --json mergeable,stateresult already fetched in the precheck. Catches conflicts that a stale localorigin/<baseBranch>would miss (e.g. someone landed a conflicting PR onmainsince the last fetch). ACONFLICTINGresult denies. AnUNKNOWNresult also denies and instructs Claude to wait ~10 seconds and re-check before attempting to stop again — this prevents false negatives while GitHub recomputes.
gh is not installed, no PR exists for the branch, the PR’s state is not OPEN (e.g. MERGED, CLOSED), or gh pr view returns unparseable output. Also fails open when origin/<baseBranch> is missing locally or when no commits are ahead of base — those Layer 1 fall-throughs still consult the cached PR mergeability before allowing.
Parameters:
| Param | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
baseBranch | string | "main" | Base branch to check for conflicts against. |
GitHub CLI (
gh) is required for this policy. The policy uses gh pr view to confirm
an OPEN PR exists before running any conflict probe — without gh, the policy
short-circuits to allow. Run gh auth login with a personal access token that has
repo scope for read access to pull requests.require-ci-green-before-stop
Event: StopDefault: Denies stopping when CI checks are failing or still running on the current branch. Checks both GitHub Actions workflow runs and third-party bot checks (e.g. CodeRabbit, SonarCloud, Codecov). Treats
skipped and cancelled conclusions as success. Returns an informational message when all checks pass.
No parameters.
This policy requires GitHub CLI (
gh) to be installed and authenticated.
Run gh auth login with a personal access token that has repo scope for read access to
Actions workflow runs and the Checks API. If gh is not installed or not authenticated, the policy fails open and reports the reason to Claude.Disabling individual policies
Remove a specific policy fromenabledPolicies in your config, or toggle it off in the dashboard’s Policies tab.
enabledPolicies do not run, even if policyParams entries exist for them.
