Think-Short — install terse-mode hooks

sonnet install / remove project | global

What it does

/brewtools:think-short installs (or removes) a small set of hooks that inject a fixed brevity directive into the Claude Code session. Run the skill with a free-text intent — “make responses shorter”, “stop the preamble” — and it asks via AskUserQuestion whether to apply to the current Project or Globally. It then copies four files into the target hooks directory — three hook scripts and think-short-prompt.md (the directive body) — and registers three hook entries in the appropriate settings.json. The task hook injects the directive by prepending it to the subagent prompt: ${injection}\n\n${tool_input.prompt}.

There are no profiles, no on/off toggle, no blacklist, and no persisted configuration. The only runtime state is an ephemeral per-session counter written to the OS temp directory.

The same directive body is injected at every point:

Be terse. Results first, no preamble/filler/sycophancy. ASCII only.
Grep before Read. Edit over Write. Parallel calls in one message.
Plan the full edit set, then execute.

Keep code simple - do not over-engineer. Before writing anything new,
check existing code and libraries for the needed functionality.
Prefer extending or abstracting a similar class over adding a new one.

When to use

Situation	Suggested invocation
Long automated runs where preamble accumulates across many subagent turns	/brewtools:think-short install in this project
Consistent brevity across all projects on this machine	/brewtools:think-short install globally
Undo a previous installation	/brewtools:think-short remove
Output-heavy sessions where you want periodic reinforcement, not constant injection	Install project-scope — counter hook fires every 10 turns, not every turn

Examples

Install for the current project:

/brewtools:think-short make responses shorter, install in this project

Install globally (all projects on this machine):

/brewtools:think-short install for all my projects globally

Remove a previously installed instance:

/brewtools:think-short remove the terse hooks

In all three cases the skill calls AskUserQuestion to confirm scope (Project vs. Global) before writing any files.

Workflow

Delegation

The spawn prompt carries six fields. A bare one-line task is never enough:

Field	Content
GOAL	the user wants terse-mode hooks installed or removed for this target; pure file + settings wiring
ROLE	own the file copy/strip and the settings.json merge — never edit hook logic or unrelated settings keys
SCOPE	in — the 4 assets, the target .claude/ dir, its settings.json; global target is Bash-only (protected path)
CONTEXT	the plugin cache is already verified and every path resolved; nothing copied yet, no sibling writer
CONSUMER	the settings file is loaded by the next Claude Code session — a malformed merge breaks that session, not this one
DONE	which hooks were installed or removed, plus the exact settings.json path touched

That CONSUMER line is the reason the agent must report the exact path: the failure surfaces one session later, so it has to be checkable now.

How it works

Three hooks are installed, each targeting a different injection point:

Hook	Event	Behavior
think-short-session.mjs	SessionStart	Injects the full directive; resets the per-session prompt counter in $TMPDIR; prunes stale counters from prior sessions
think-short-prompt-counter.mjs	UserPromptSubmit	Injects the directive on every 10th user prompt (turns 10, 20, 30 — never turn 1, which is covered by SessionStart)
think-short-task.mjs	PreToolUse:Task|Agent	Injects the full directive into every spawned subagent; coexistence-safe (see below)

The counter hook keeps injection periodic, not per-turn. Turns 2–9 run without re-injection; at turn 10 the hook fires again to reinforce brevity after context drift.

Installation targets

Scope	Hook files written to	Settings file updated
Project	.claude/hooks/	.claude/settings.json
Global	~/.claude/hooks/	~/.claude/settings.json (via Bash)

Global installs use the Bash tool for all file operations because ~/.claude/* is a protected path — the Write and Edit tools are blocked there in every permission mode, including bypassPermissions.

Task hook injection

Removal

Re-run the skill and describe removal intent. The skill deletes all four copied files (the three hook scripts and think-short-prompt.md) and strips the corresponding three entries from settings.json. It does not touch entries added by other skills or plugins.