---
id: "0030"
date: 2026-07-13
status: Accepted
supersedes:
superseded-by:
affected-paths: [plugins/os-shortcuts/]
affected-components: [os-shortcuts, plan-mode]
---

# 0030 — Read-only work uses Claude Code plan mode; no /readonly shortcut command

## Context

The 2026-07-09 AI-workflow audit (finding #2) showed the user typed 'read-only, do NOT change anything' near-verbatim 15+ times. A backlog card proposed either documenting a convention or building a /readonly skill in os-shortcuts. Claude Code plan mode already enforces read-only at the permission layer, while a prompt or skill saying 'don't change anything' is only advisory; os-shortcuts has no mechanism to switch the client into plan mode or enforce filesystem permissions, so a /readonly slash command would imply stronger enforcement than it actually has.

## Decision

The convention for read-only tasks is to start them in Claude Code plan mode (shift+tab / --permission-mode plan). No /readonly skill is built in os-shortcuts. Per-task read-only expectations are expressed by entering plan mode, not by injected or skill-carried phrasing.

## Consequences

Easier: read-only is enforced at the permission layer rather than trusted to prompt compliance; no new skill to maintain or cache-refresh; the os-shortcuts surface stays small. Harder: the user must remember the plan-mode keybinding instead of a memorable slash command; any standing read-only phrasing beyond 'no changes' (reporting expectations, output format) still has to be typed per task or captured elsewhere.

## Alternatives rejected

1) Build /os-shortcuts:readonly as a thin skill that instructs the model to behave read-only and states the user's expectations - rejected: skills cannot activate plan mode, so the command would be advisory-only while its name implies enforcement; a false sense of safety is worse than the keybinding. 2) Inject standing read-only rules via os-context session-start prompts - rejected: read-only is a per-task property, not an always-true rule; injecting it globally would contradict sessions that are supposed to write.
