Customizing Safety

Kalami installs 17 deny patterns by default. You can remove, add, or upgrade them to match your workflow.

Checking current safety

npx kalami status

Shows your deny pattern counts (default + custom) and any upgrade suggestions.

Removing a deny pattern

Use allow with a substring that matches the patterns you want to remove:

# Remove all .env deny patterns
npx kalami allow .env

# Allow force push
npx kalami allow force-push

# Allow sudo commands
npx kalami allow sudo

The command removes all deny patterns matching the substring and lists what was removed.

Upgrading to mechanical enforcement

When a prose rule keeps getting violated, upgrade it to a hard deny:

# Block all npm commands mechanically
npx kalami harden npm

# Block all rm -rf commands
npx kalami harden rm-rf

After hardening:

• The deny pattern is added to .claude/settings.json
• Claude Code blocks the command before it executes
• npx kalami status shows the hardened rule with its "since" date

Reverting a hardened rule

npx kalami unharden npm

This removes the mechanical deny and clears the state. The operation reverts to prose-only enforcement.

Automatic upgrade suggestions

When npx kalami status detects a pattern violated 3 or more times, it suggests hardening:

Upgrade available:
  npx kalami harden force-push  (violated 4 times)

This means prose rules aren't enough — Claude keeps doing it despite the instruction. Mechanical enforcement is recommended.

Available harden recipes

Recipe	What it blocks
.env	Read/Edit all .env files
npm	npm install, ci, run, exec
force-push	git push --force, -f, --force-with-lease
rm-rf	All rm -rf commands
sudo	All sudo commands
hard-reset	git reset --hard
ssh	Read/Edit ~/.ssh/*
aws	Read/Edit AWS credentials and config

Custom deny patterns

You can also add custom deny patterns directly in .claude/settings.json:

{
  "permissions": {
    "deny": ["Bash(docker rm -f*)", "Edit(production.config.*)"]
  }
}

Custom patterns survive reinstall and uninstall.