installer re-registers the unconditional codedb-block-legacy.sh hook, overriding user removal

[edouard-andrei]

The installer writes codedb-block-legacy.sh into ~/.claude/hooks/ and merges it into ~/.claude/settings.json PreToolUse on every run (install/install.sh, the merge_hook("PreToolUse", ...) call around L299).

Problems:

• The hook hard-blocks (exit 2) grep/rg/cat/head/tail/sed/awk/find unconditionally whenever the codedb binary exists — including outside git repos and on files codedb has never indexed.
• It fires before Claude Code's permission evaluation, so it overrides the user's own permissions.allow.
• Removing the settings entry does not stick — any reinstall/update run silently re-adds it. Removed it three times now.

Suggestions (either would fix it):

• Scope the hook: only block when the cwd's repo toplevel is actually codedb-indexed (~/.codedb/projects/*/project.txt) and every path argument resolves inside that repo. I run a scoped variant locally and it works well — happy to PR it.
• And/or respect an opt-out: skip the hook merge when e.g. CODEDB_NO_HOOKS=1, or do not re-add an entry the user has removed.

Related: #344 documented the hook setup, but the unconditional blocking + re-registration behavior is not covered there.

[justrach]

Picking this up — opened #663 (into release/0.2.5828) implementing the scope + redirect design from the discussion, coercion last / fail-open:

1. Scoped — the hook now only intercepts when cwd is at/under a codedb-indexed root (~/.codedb/projects/*/project.txt). Degenerate / and bare-$HOME roots are skipped, so an indexed home doesn't block all of ~. Outside an indexed repo it's a no-op — the native tool runs, no collateral blocking of unindexed dirs or ~/.claude.
2. Path-aware — an absolute path outside the repo (cat /etc/hosts, grep x /tmp/f) is allowed even inside an indexed repo; codedb can't read it anyway.
3. Redirect, not dead-end — a block now names the exact codedb substitute for that command (grep→codedb_search, cat→codedb_read, find→codedb_find/codedb_glob, …) and notes native tools work outside the repo or with CODEDB_NO_HOOKS=1.
4. Opt-out — CODEDB_NO_HOOKS=1 disables it entirely.

Verified across the full behavior matrix (in-repo relative → block+redirect; not-indexed → allow; in-repo absolute-outside → allow; bare-home → allow; opt-out → allow; non-listed command → allow).

Still open from your report: problem (c), the installer silently re-registering the hook after you remove it. That's a separate installer-merge change — I can follow up (honor a removal marker / skip re-adding a user-deleted entry, or gate the merge on CODEDB_NO_HOOKS=1 at install time). And thanks for the scoped-variant offer — the approach here matches it.

[54rt1n]

This is a continual very frustrating (and expensive, in actual $$'s of tokens wasted) issue. I don't see anything in the documentation on how to permanently disable this ''feature'.

[justrach]

Fixed in v0.2.5833. Removal now sticks, and there are three explicit ways to turn the hook off:

1. Delete it once — it stays gone. The installer writes a registration receipt (~/.codedb/hooks-registered); if the receipt exists but the PreToolUse entry is missing from ~/.claude/settings.json, the installer treats that as deliberate removal and persists the opt-out marker instead of re-registering — including on the unattended 24h auto-update runs that caused the re-registration reported here.
2. Permanent kill-switch: touch ~/.codedb/no-hooks (or run the installer with CODEDB_PERSIST_NO_HOOKS=1). The hook exits 0 immediately when the marker exists, and the installer never re-adds it.
3. Per-run: CODEDB_NO_HOOKS=1 disables the hook for that run.

The hook itself also changed shape: it now only fires inside a codedb-indexed repo (never for paths outside it, never outside git repos) and is fail-open by design.

@54rt1n — sorry about the wasted tokens. After updating to 0.2.5833 (codedb update or re-run the installer), deleting the hook from settings.json is permanent; touch ~/.codedb/no-hooks if you want it gone regardless of state.