Hook Development for Claude Code Plugins

Adapted from claude-plugins-official/plugin-dev/skills/hook-development. Trimmed to what we actually author (our plugin already has 6 event matchers covering 7 hook handlers — see hooks/hooks.json).

Hook types

Prompt-based (LLM-driven, for complex reasoning)

{
  "type": "prompt",
  "prompt": "Evaluate if this tool use is appropriate: $TOOL_INPUT",
  "timeout": 30
}

Supported events: Stop, SubagentStop, UserPromptSubmit, PreToolUse.

Use for: context-aware decisions, flexible evaluation, natural-language reasoning.

Command (deterministic, for fast checks)

{
  "type": "command",
  "command": "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/validate.mjs",
  "timeout": 60
}

Use for: fast deterministic validations, file-system ops, external tools, performance-critical paths.

Our convention: all our command hooks are .mjs (Node.js) — see hooks/pre-bash-destructive-guard.mjs, hooks/enforce-scope.mjs. The v3.0 migration moved us off bash for native Windows support.

Configuration formats

This is where people trip up. Two formats exist; they are NOT interchangeable.

Plugin hooks/hooks.json — wrapper format

{
  "description": "Plugin hook description (optional)",
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Write|Edit",
        "hooks": [
          { "type": "command", "command": "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/validate.mjs" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

• hooks wrapper is required
• description is optional

User .claude/settings.json — direct format

{
  "PreToolUse": [
    {
      "matcher": "Write|Edit",
      "hooks": [
        { "type": "command", "command": "~/my-hook.sh" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

• No wrapper
• No description

Mixing these up is the #1 reason new hooks don't fire.

Hook events

Event	When	Use for
PreToolUse	Before tool runs	Validate, modify, block
PostToolUse	After tool completes	React to result, log
UserPromptSubmit	User submits prompt	Add context, validate
Stop	Main agent stopping	Completeness check
SubagentStop	Subagent stopping	Task validation
SessionStart	Session begins	Context load
SessionEnd	Session ends	Cleanup, logging
PreCompact	Before compaction	Preserve critical state
Notification	User notified	Logging, reactions

PreToolUse output schema

{
  "hookSpecificOutput": {
    "permissionDecision": "allow|deny|ask",
    "updatedInput": { "field": "modified_value" }
  },
  "systemMessage": "Explanation shown to Claude"
}

Stop / SubagentStop output

{
  "decision": "approve|block",
  "reason": "Why blocked / approved",
  "systemMessage": "Additional context"
}

SessionStart: persist env vars

echo "export PROJECT_TYPE=nodejs" >> "$CLAUDE_ENV_FILE"

$CLAUDE_ENV_FILE is unique to SessionStart hooks.

Input schema

All hooks receive JSON on stdin:

{
  "session_id": "abc123",
  "transcript_path": "/path/to/transcript.jsonl",
  "cwd": "/current/working/dir",
  "permission_mode": "ask|allow",
  "hook_event_name": "PreToolUse"
}

Event-specific extras:

• PreToolUse/PostToolUse: tool_name, tool_input, tool_result
• UserPromptSubmit: user_prompt
• Stop/SubagentStop: reason

Access in prompt hooks via $TOOL_INPUT, $TOOL_RESULT, $USER_PROMPT.

Environment variables

Var	Scope	Purpose
$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR	All	Project root
$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT	Plugin hooks	Plugin directory — use this, never hardcode paths
$CLAUDE_ENV_FILE	SessionStart only	Persist env vars
$CLAUDE_CODE_REMOTE	All (conditional)	Set if running remote

Portability rule

// ✅ Portable — works everywhere the plugin installs
{ "command": "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/guard.mjs" }

// ❌ Broken — only works on the operator's machine
{ "command": "~/Projects/.../guard.mjs" }

Matchers

"matcher": "Write"                       // Exact tool
"matcher": "Read|Write|Edit"             // Multiple
"matcher": "*"                           // All tools
"matcher": "mcp__.*__delete.*"           // Regex — all MCP delete tools
"matcher": "mcp__gitlab_.*"              // Specific MCP server

Matchers are case-sensitive.

Security best practices

Validate inputs (command hooks)

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

input=$(cat)
tool_name=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.tool_name')

if [[ ! "$tool_name" =~ ^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$ ]]; then
  echo '{"decision": "deny", "reason": "Invalid tool name"}' >&2
  exit 2
fi

In Node/.mjs hooks (our convention), same principle — parse stdin JSON, validate structure before trusting.

Path safety

file_path=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.tool_input.file_path')

# Deny path traversal
[[ "$file_path" == *".."* ]] && { echo '{"decision":"deny","reason":"Path traversal"}' >&2; exit 2; }

# Deny sensitive files
[[ "$file_path" == *".env"* ]] && { echo '{"decision":"deny","reason":"Sensitive file"}' >&2; exit 2; }

Our enforce-scope.mjs implements this for wave-scope boundaries.

Quote variables

echo "$file_path"        # ✅
cd "$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR" # ✅
echo $file_path          # ❌ unquoted injection risk

Timeouts

Defaults: command hooks 60s, prompt hooks 30s. Set explicitly when the work is known-slow:

{ "type": "command", "command": "...", "timeout": 10 }

Parallel execution

All matching hooks run in parallel — they don't see each other's output, ordering is non-deterministic. Design for independence.

Lifecycle limitation — NO hot-swap

Hooks load at session start. Changes to hooks.json or hook scripts do not affect the running session.

To test hook changes:

1. Edit hook
2. Exit Claude Code
3. Restart (claude or cc)
4. Verify with /hooks command or claude --debug

This is the #2 reason "my hook isn't working" — the change hasn't loaded yet.

Debugging

Debug mode

claude --debug

Surfaces hook registration, execution logs, stdin/stdout JSON, timing.

Test a command hook directly

echo '{"tool_name":"Write","tool_input":{"file_path":"/test"}}' | \
  ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/guard.mjs
echo "Exit code: $?"

Validate JSON output

output=$(./your-hook.mjs < test-input.json)
echo "$output" | jq .

Invalid JSON breaks silently — always verify.

Conditional activation

Pattern: check for a flag file or config before running:

#!/bin/bash
FLAG_FILE="$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR/.enable-strict-validation"
[[ ! -f "$FLAG_FILE" ]] && exit 0   # Flag not present, skip
# ... validation logic

Or config-based (matches our Session-Config pattern):

CONFIG_FILE="$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR/.claude/config.json"
enabled=$(jq -r '.strictMode // false' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
[[ "$enabled" != "true" ]] && exit 0

Our in-house examples (read these, not the upstream examples/)

• hooks/pre-bash-destructive-guard.mjs — policy-driven command blocker, 13 rules in .orchestrator/policy/blocked-commands.json
• hooks/enforce-scope.mjs — wave-scope boundary enforcement using .orchestrator/wave-scope.json
• hooks/on-session-start.mjs — banner + session init
• hooks/post-edit-validate.mjs — validates edits after the fact
• hooks/on-stop.mjs — session-event capture + metrics

Do / Don't

Do:

• Prompt-based hooks for complex logic, command hooks for fast deterministic checks
• Always ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} for paths
• Validate every input field before trusting it
• Quote all shell variables
• Set explicit timeouts for known-slow work
• Return structured JSON on stdout

Don't:

• Hardcoded paths
• Trust tool_input without validation
• Long-running hooks (blocks the tool call)
• Rely on execution order (hooks run in parallel)
• Mutate global state
• Log sensitive data to stdout/stderr

Runtime Profile Control (#211)

All hook handlers support runtime opt-out via two environment variables without any settings-file changes. This is implemented in hooks/_lib/profile-gate.mjs.

Env vars

Variable	Values	Behaviour
SO_HOOK_PROFILE	full | minimal | off	Preset bundle (default full = all on).
SO_DISABLED_HOOKS	Comma-separated names	Disable individual hooks; overrides profile.

Profile bundles

• full (default): all hooks run — identical to pre-#211 behaviour when env is unset.
• minimal: only on-session-start + pre-bash-destructive-guard.
• off: no hooks run.

Wiring a new hook into the gate

Every new hook handler must add the gate call as the very first executable statement after imports. The pattern is two lines at the top of the file, immediately after the import block:

import { shouldRunHook } from './_lib/profile-gate.mjs';
if (!shouldRunHook('your-hook-name')) process.exit(0);

Use the kebab-case file stem without the .mjs extension as the hook name (e.g. my-hook for hooks/my-hook.mjs). When the hook exits 0 here it is silent — no stdout, no stderr — so Claude Code sees a clean allow.

Failure modes

• Unknown SO_HOOK_PROFILE value → falls back to full + single stderr warning.
• SO_DISABLED_HOOKS with extra whitespace or mixed case is normalised automatically.
• defaultEnabled param of shouldRunHook is for future opt-in hooks; pass false for any handler that should be off by default in full profile.

Tests

tests/hooks/profile-gate.test.mjs (10 tests) covers: full/minimal/off profiles, disabled-list override, unknown-profile fallback + warning, defaultEnabled=false, whitespace normalisation, empty disabled-list.

Robust Plugin Root Resolution (#212)

Hook handlers and scripts that need the plugin directory must NOT read process.env.CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT directly. Use resolvePluginRoot() from scripts/lib/plugin-root.mjs instead, which implements a 4-level fallback so manual installs (where the env var is absent) still work.

Fallback order

Level	Source	Condition
1	CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT env var	Returned immediately when set and is a directory
2	CODEX_PLUGIN_ROOT env var	Returned immediately when set and is a directory
3	Walk up from import.meta.url	Looks for package.json with name: "session-orchestrator"
4	Walk up from process.cwd()	Same marker; catches manual install paths outside the repo tree

Levels 1 and 2 are fast paths — no filesystem walk is performed when either env var is set. This preserves backward compat with all existing deployments.

When all four levels fail a PluginRootResolutionError is thrown with a triedPaths array listing what was attempted.

Usage in hook handlers

import { resolvePluginRoot, PluginRootResolutionError } from '../scripts/lib/plugin-root.mjs';

// Throws on failure — handle or let it bubble (hooks have top-level catch)
const pluginRoot = resolvePluginRoot();

scripts/lib/platform.mjs's resolvePluginRoot() delegates to this helper internally, so any caller already using the platform module gets the 4-level fallback transparently.

Tests

tests/lib/plugin-root.test.mjs (10 tests) covers: env-claude, env-codex, walk-from-import-meta, walk-from-cwd, all-fail-throws-named-error, env-precedence, PluginRootResolutionError class shape.

Implementation checklist

• Event chosen (PreToolUse / Stop / …) matches intent
• Prompt-based vs. command decided based on whether reasoning is needed
• hooks/hooks.json uses wrapper format, NOT settings direct format
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} for all paths
• Input validation on every field you read from stdin
• Timeout set if work is known-slow
• Tested directly via echo '...' | hook.mjs
• Tested in-session with claude --debug
• README/docs updated

References

• Official hooks docs
• Upstream: patterns.md, advanced.md — read these for edge cases we haven't hit yet