Protect Agent Config

---
name: protect-agent-config
description: "Guard against an agent hand-editing its own guardrails. Agent instruction files (AGENTS.md and the per-agent wrappers), permission files (.claude/settings.json, .mcp.json), the dependency allowlist (.chock/dependency-allowlist.txt) and vendored enforcement (.chock/bin/, .chock/compiled/) define what the agent may do -- so a shell command that rewrites them is the agent modifying its own authority (MITRE ATLAS AML.T0081). The guard refuses shell writes to those paths -- a redirect, rm/mv/tee/sed -i, cp into the path, git checkout/restore, PowerShell Set-Content/Add-Content/Out-File; reads and copies out pass, and `chock sync` passes. Best-effort and deliberately coarse. The 'chock: approved-config-change' marker is friction plus an audit trail, not authentication. A second, tool_use-only gate refuses Edit/Write to the same paths; it never runs at commit, so a person stays free to edit them."
metadata:
  chock.artifact: rule
  chock.enforcement: advise
  chock.coverage_without_chock: advisory
---

# Protect Agent Config

Guard against an agent hand-editing its own guardrails. Agent instruction files (AGENTS.md and the per-agent wrappers), permission files (.claude/settings.json, .mcp.json), the dependency allowlist (.chock/dependency-allowlist.txt) and vendored enforcement (.chock/bin/, .chock/compiled/) define what the agent may do -- so a shell command that rewrites them is the agent modifying its own authority (MITRE ATLAS AML.T0081). The guard refuses shell writes to those paths -- a redirect, rm/mv/tee/sed -i, cp into the path, git checkout/restore, PowerShell Set-Content/Add-Content/Out-File; reads and copies out pass, and `chock sync` passes. Best-effort and deliberately coarse. The 'chock: approved-config-change' marker is friction plus an audit trail, not authentication. A second, tool_use-only gate refuses Edit/Write to the same paths; it never runs at commit, so a person stays free to edit them.

```
agent_config(AGENTS.md|wrappers|.claude/settings|.mcp.json|.chock/dependency-allowlist.txt|.chock/bin|.chock/compiled|.agents/policies/*/implementations): never(hand_edit|delete); regenerate_via(chock sync)
if(config_change_needed): propose_to_human; await(approval)  # an agent must not widen or disarm its own guardrails
```

This skill is advisory: the client reading it has no mechanism to enforce it. The same policy compiled by `chock` can refuse an agent's shell command before it runs; blocks on an agent's file writes and at turn end. See https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock