git:20260718.2ee4e41 to git:20260727.2ae3d48

44 added, 18 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: auto-wm

description: Use when the user wants Claude to auto-approve tool calls — "enable autonomic/autonomous work mode", "/auto-wm", "partner mode", "work by yourself for N hours", "no one will be around to approve/answer" — or to check status, switch modes, or turn it off ("awm status", "auto-wm away 4h", "auto-wm off").

---

# auto-wm — Autonomic Work Mode

## Overview

- Two modes, both auto-approving every tool call via a `PreToolUse` hook and logging each decision to an audit log. They differ on whether the user is around to be asked something, and on whether the mode expires:

+ Two modes, both auto-approving most tool calls via a `PreToolUse` hook and logging each decision to an audit log. They differ only on whether the user is around to be asked something:

- - **partner** (default) — you're at the keyboard: available for questions, brainstorming, feedback, hints. Tool calls auto-approve; `AskUserQuestion` is left completely alone, same as a session with no hooks. No expiry — stays on until you switch to away or disable it.

- - **away** — you're not around. Same auto-approval, but `AskUserQuestion` is denied (nothing to gain from asking) and the window expires on wall-clock time (default **4h**), checked by the hooks on every event — no cron or session timer needed.

+ - **partner** (default) — you're at the keyboard: available for questions, brainstorming, feedback, hints. Tool calls auto-approve; `AskUserQuestion` is left completely alone, same as a session with no hooks. Window defaults to **8h**.

+ - **away** — you're not around. Same auto-approval, but `AskUserQuestion` is denied (nothing to gain from asking). Window defaults to **4h**.

+ Three guards bound both modes, re-checked by the hooks on every event — no cron or session timer needed:

+ - **Wall-clock expiry.** No window is open-ended; anything longer than **12h** is capped to 12h. An elapsed window flips itself off and normal prompts resume.

+ - **Project scope.** The state records the directory AWM was enabled in. A call whose `cwd` is outside that tree is never auto-approved — enabling AWM in one repo does not arm it machine-wide.

+ - **Denylist.** Destructive shell commands (`rm -r`, `sudo`, force-pushes, piping the network into a shell, `crontab`, …), network egress (`WebFetch`, `WebSearch`), and writes outside the project are never auto-approved. They fall through to the normal permission prompt and are logged as `denylisted`.

Partner only ever starts because you explicitly ran `auto-wm` (or `/auto-wm`) — a session where auto-wm is never invoked keeps Claude Code's normal per-tool prompts. Once started, `enable`/`partner` and `away` are just the two states that mode can be in; switching between them overwrites the current one.

## Commands

All via `python3 ~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/scripts/awm.py`:

| Command | Effect |

|---|---|

- | `enable` / `partner` | Switch to partner mode: auto-approve, questions untouched, no expiry |

- | `away [DURATION]` | Switch to away mode: auto-approve, questions denied, expires (default 4h). Grammar: `Nh`, `Nm`, `NhMm`, or a bare number = hours (`4h`, `90m`, `1h30m`, `4`) |

+ | `enable` / `partner` `[DURATION]` | Switch to partner mode: auto-approve, questions untouched, expires (default 8h) |

+ | `away [DURATION]` | Switch to away mode: auto-approve, questions denied, expires (default 4h). Grammar: `Nh`, `Nm`, `NhMm`, or a bare number = hours (`4h`, `90m`, `1h30m`, `4`); anything over 12h is capped |

| `disable` (or `off`, `stop`) | Turn AWM off entirely — normal per-tool prompts resume |

- | `status` | Which mode, since when, time remaining (away only) |

+ | `status` | Which mode, since when, time remaining, and the project it is scoped to |

| `decision "<what and why>"` | Register a judgment call in the audit log |

## Invocation

- `/auto-wm [away DURATION | off | status | partner]` — no argument means `partner` (indefinite, default). Away mode must be asked for explicitly, since it changes how questions are handled and has a clock running.

+ `/auto-wm [away DURATION | off | status | partner DURATION]` — no argument means `partner` (8h, default). Away mode must be asked for explicitly, since it changes how questions are handled and has a clock running.

1. Run the matching `awm.py` command and relay its output (partner/away both print what changed).

2. On first enable (partner or away), smoke-test that the gate hook actually fires: run any trivial command (e.g. `true`), then `tail -2 ~/.claude/awm/decisions.jsonl` — a fresh `auto_approve` entry proves auto-approval is live. If no entry appears, check registration with `jq '.hooks.PreToolUse' ~/.claude/settings.json`; if missing, merge `~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/hooks/settings-snippet.json` into `~/.claude/settings.json` (preserve existing keys), then tell the user hooks load on `/hooks` or restart.

- 3. In the same reply, warn once (either mode): every command will be auto-approved, including destructive ones — equivalent to `bypassPermissions` with an audit trail. For away mode, also note that questions get denied outright.

+ 3. In the same reply, warn once (either mode): tool calls will be auto-approved without asking — close to `bypassPermissions`, minus the denylist, and with an audit trail. Say which project it is scoped to and when the window expires. For away mode, also note that questions get denied outright.

## Files (all user-level)

| File | Purpose |

|---|---|

- | `~/.claude/awm/state.json` | Marker: `enabled`, `mode` (`partner`/`away`), `enabled_at`, `duration`, `expires_at` (null for partner) |

- | `~/.claude/awm/decisions.jsonl` | Audit log: `mode_enabled/disabled/expired`, `auto_approve`, `question_denied`, `decision` |

+ | `~/.claude/awm/state.json` | Marker: `enabled`, `mode` (`partner`/`away`), `project`, `enabled_at`, `duration`, `expires_at` |

+ | `~/.claude/awm/decisions.jsonl` | Audit log: `mode_enabled/disabled/expired`, `auto_approve`, `question_denied`, `denylisted`, `out_of_scope`, `decision` |

| `~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/hooks/` | `awm_gate.py` (PreToolUse), `awm_context.py` (UserPromptSubmit) |

## While AWM is active (behavior contract)

**Partner mode:**

- Ask questions, brainstorm, or check in whenever it's genuinely useful — the user is available, so there's no reason to hold back the way away mode does. Tool calls still auto-approve, so the value of asking is about judgment and direction, not permission.

- Still worth registering notable judgment calls with `awm.py decision`, so there's a record even for things nobody was asked about.

**Away mode:**

- Never ask the user anything or wait for approval; the gate denies `AskUserQuestion` anyway. Pick the best-judgment option and continue.

- Register every significant judgment call with `awm.py decision` — option chosen, alternatives, why.

- Prefer reversible choices (branch instead of main, keep backups before overwrites); log anything risky before doing it.

## Common mistakes

- - **Marker in the project** (`.claude/` in a repo, `CLAUDE.md` edits) — it's user-level state; project files pollute git. Use `~/.claude/awm/` only.

+ - **State in the project** (`.claude/` in a repo, `CLAUDE.md` edits) — the *scripts* are scaffolded per project, but the *state* is user-level: enabled flag, window, decisions. Keep all of it in `~/.claude/awm/`; a state marker committed to a repo both leaks and misleads.

- **Permission allowlist ≠ AWM.** Adding `permissions.allow` entries doesn't approve everything; only the PreToolUse hook does.

- - **Treating partner mode like away mode.** Partner mode does not deny `AskUserQuestion` and does not expire — don't apply away's "never ask, always log" contract when the state file says `mode: partner`.

- - **Session cron for away's expiry** — dies with the session. The hooks compare `expires_at` to wall-clock instead.

+ - **Treating partner mode like away mode.** Partner mode does not deny `AskUserQuestion` — don't apply away's "never ask, always log" contract when the state file says `mode: partner`.

+ - **Reading a fall-through as a failure.** A denylisted or out-of-scope call is not an error: the normal permission prompt reaches the user, exactly as if AWM were off. Don't retry it a different way to get around the gate — ask.

+ - **Session cron for expiry** — dies with the session. The hooks compare `expires_at` to wall-clock instead.

- **Editing state.json by hand** — always go through `awm.py` so changes land in the audit log.

## Installing from ai-badger

- This skill is user-level by design: its state (`~/.claude/awm/`) and hook scripts

- (`~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/`) live outside any project, so the same install covers every repo you

- work in. `welcome-ai-badger` copies this directory to `~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/` once (not into

- `.ai-badger/`) and merges `hooks/settings-snippet.json` into `~/.claude/settings.json`. Re-running

- `welcome-ai-badger` on another project does not reinstall it.

+ Two things are user-level here, and one is not. Getting them mixed up is why this section used

+ to describe an install that never happened (review F-42).

+ **What `welcome-ai-badger` does:** it scaffolds this skill into `.ai-badger/skills/auto-wm/`

+ like every other skill. It does **not** copy anything to `~/.claude/skills/`, and it does

+ **not** merge `hooks/settings-snippet.json` into `~/.claude/settings.json`.

+ **What you do once, by hand:** the gate only fires if its two hooks are registered in

+ `~/.claude/settings.json`. Copy the hooks somewhere stable and merge the snippet:

+ ```bash

+ mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/auto-wm

+ cp -R .ai-badger/skills/auto-wm/. ~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/

+ # then merge hooks/settings-snippet.json into ~/.claude/settings.json, preserving existing keys

+ ```

+ The snippet's commands point at `~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/hooks/`, so the registered hooks keep

+ working in every repo — which is the point: **state is machine-wide** (`~/.claude/awm/`), and a

+ window enabled in one project is scoped to that project by `state.json`, not by which copy of

+ the scripts ran.

+ **Why the skill files are per project anyway:** they are versioned with the framework, so a

+ `den-refresh` updates them. Re-copy to `~/.claude/skills/auto-wm/` after an update that touches

+ `hooks/` — nothing does it for you.