stay-focused

A Claude Code skill that keeps edits surgical.

Install

In Claude Code, run:

/plugin marketplace add josharsh/stay-focused

Or manually:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/stay-focused
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/josharsh/stay-focused/main/skills/stay-focused/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/stay-focused/SKILL.md

Why I Built This

I kept asking Claude for small changes and getting back large diffs. A one-line fix would come with a refactored helper, reorganized imports, renamed variables, and error handling I never asked for. The code worked, but I'd spend more time reviewing the stuff I didn't request than the thing I did.

/stay-focused makes Claude check itself before every edit. If it's about to touch something you didn't ask for, it stops and asks first.

Demo

You: Fix the email regex in src/auth/login.ts

Claude: Stay Focused enabled. I'll flag any changes that go beyond what you ask for.

I found the bug in login.ts — the regex is missing the + quantifier.

> **Scope check:** You asked me to fix the email regex in login.ts.
> I'm about to also refactor the validation helper in utils/validators.ts.
> This is outside your request. Should I proceed or stay focused?

You: Stay focused.

Claude: **Done.** Changed 1 file: src/auth/login.ts. Skipped: refactor of utils/validators.ts.

How It Works

Before every edit, Claude compares the change against your original request:

• In scope -- files you mentioned, required imports, fixing errors introduced by the change. No interruption.
• Out of scope -- unmentioned files, adjacent refactors, extra error handling, variable renames, helper extractions. Gets flagged.
• Bugs found -- if Claude spots a real bug (crash, security issue) while working, it flags it separately so you decide.

It's lightweight. Only flags clear overreach, not obvious necessities.

Commands

Command	What it does
/stay-focused	Activate scope enforcement
/stay-focused off	Disable it

Testing

Tested with skillmother:

skillmother test skills/stay-focused/

Uninstalling

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/stay-focused

License

MIT