claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Feature request: disabledSkills setting + status bar indicator for per-session skill toggle [1 comments, 2 participants]

Problem

Skills like superpowers are powerful but sometimes overkill for casual conversations. Since they auto-trigger based on instructions loaded at session start, there's no way to know if they'll fire or turn them off without digging into settings manually.

Two things are missing:

1. A disabledSkills setting in settings.json to suppress specific skills globally or by pattern
2. A visible indicator in the status bar showing whether skills are active

I tried adding "disabledSkills": ["superpowers:*"] to ~/.claude/settings.json but it was rejected:

Settings validation failed:
- : Unrecognized field: disabledSkills

Workaround (until native support lands)

I built a hook-based workaround that achieves the same effect:

~/.claude/superpowers.state — flag file containing on or off

~/.claude/superpowers-hook.sh — UserPromptSubmit hook that injects context when disabled:

#!/bin/bash
STATE_FILE="$HOME/.claude/superpowers.state"
state=$(cat "$STATE_FILE" 2>/dev/null || echo "on")

if [ "$state" = "off" ]; then
  printf '{"hookSpecificOutput":{"hookEventName":"UserPromptSubmit","additionalContext":"[SUPERPOWERS DISABLED] Do NOT auto-invoke any superpowers:* skills this session. Only use them if the user explicitly says use superpowers."}}'
fi

~/.claude/toggle-superpowers.sh — toggle script run via ! ~/.claude/toggle-superpowers.sh:

#!/bin/bash
STATE_FILE="$HOME/.claude/superpowers.state"
current=$(cat "$STATE_FILE" 2>/dev/null || echo "on")

if [ "$current" = "off" ]; then
  echo "on" > "$STATE_FILE"
  echo "Superpowers ENABLED"
else
  echo "off" > "$STATE_FILE"
  echo "Superpowers DISABLED"
fi

Status bar indicator added to custom statusline script:

sp_state=$(cat ~/.claude/superpowers.state 2>/dev/null || echo "on")
if [ "$sp_state" = "off" ]; then
  printf " \033[2;31m[✖️ superpowers]\033[0m"
else
  printf " \033[1;32m[✔️ superpowers]\033[0m"
fi

Registered in settings.json:

"hooks": {
  "UserPromptSubmit": [
    { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "/bin/bash ~/.claude/superpowers-hook.sh" }] }
  ]
}

Requested native solution

1. disabledSkills array in settings.json supporting exact names and wildcards (e.g. "superpowers:*")
2. Built-in status bar token showing active/disabled skill groups — so users can glance at the status bar each session and know what's armed
3. Optionally: a /skills toggle command for per-session override without editing files