# Stop and resume How a person stops agents in one repository or on the whole machine with chock stop, chock resume and --everywhere, what reads the stop, and its limits. A stop is a person's brake on agents. While one is in force, chock's hooks refuse the next tool call, commit or push of an agent in scope. Only a person at a terminal lifts it. > Ask the user before running any command on this page: each one changes how their agent or repository behaves. ## The commands: chock stop and chock resume Here are both commands, as the engine's parsers print them. ### `chock stop` Refuse every agent tool call, commit and push here until resume (--agent C for one client) Ask the user before running the commands below: ```text usage: chock stop [-h] [--repo REPO] [--agent {antigravity,claude_code,codex_cli,cursor,devin,factory_droid,gemini_cli,goose,grok,mistral_vibe,openhands,tabnine,vscode_copilot,windsurf}] [--reason REASON] [--everywhere] ``` The full options are on this page's HTML version, as the engine prints them. ### `chock resume` Lift a stop: agents are judged by the policies again Ask the user before running the commands below: ```text usage: chock resume [-h] [--repo REPO] [--everywhere] ``` The full options are on this page's HTML version, as the engine prints them. ## In one repository - `chock stop` writes `.chock/stop.json`: the scope, the reason, who (git `user.email`) and when. Every tool call, commit and push by an agent in scope is then refused until a person resumes. - `--agent ` stops one client. Without it, chock stops every agent. `--reason` is what chock tells the agent: `stopped: `. - The file is never committed. Chock keeps a copy in `~/.chock/stops/` for hooks that cannot tell which repository their session is in. The hooks read both copies. If they cannot read a stop file, they refuse every agent. Sources, at the pinned engine commit: - [`src/chock/stop.py`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/src/chock/stop.py) ## Only a person changes a stop - Chock refuses an agent's `chock stop` or `chock resume`, and logs the refusal. - `chock resume` needs a person at their own terminal: stdin and stdout must be a TTY, and the person types the repository's name. If the name does not match, the stop stays in force. Sources, at the pinned engine commit: - [`src/chock/stop_common.py`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/src/chock/stop_common.py) - [`src/chock/stop.py`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/src/chock/stop.py) ## Everywhere: one stop for the machine - `chock stop --everywhere` writes `~/.chock/stops/_everywhere.json`. While it exists, every chock hook on the machine refuses every tool call, whatever its repository, session or client. `--agent` is refused with it: the scope is every agent. - `chock resume --everywhere` is person-only too: it needs stdin and stdout to be a TTY and asks for the word `everywhere` to be typed. It removes that file only. A per-repository stop stays in force. - `chock status` and `chock doctor` lead with `STOPPED EVERYWHERE` while it is in force. Sources, at the pinned engine commit: - [`docs/stop.md`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/docs/stop.md) ## Where chock checks the stop - `chock sync` wires one hook of its own per client, `--stop-check`, with no matcher, so the stop sees every tool call, reads included. The plugin carries the same entry. - At the git hooks, chock refuses an agent's commit or push and lets a person's through. Only the main checkout's `.chock/bin/gate.py` tells an agent from a person. - The MCP gateway refuses each `tools/call` while a stop reaches it, with an MCP error, and forwards every other method, so the client can still connect and list tools. Sources, at the pinned engine commit: - [`docs/stop.md`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/docs/stop.md) - [`src/chock/hooks/data/dispatcher.sh`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/src/chock/hooks/data/dispatcher.sh) ## Limits After it writes a stop, chock stop prints its limits in the engine's own words: ```text It refuses the NEXT action of an agent whose hooks Chock wires; it stops no running process and revokes no credential. ``` - It reaches only agents whose hooks chock wires and that the client runs. An agent with no hook is stopped at commit and push only. - Devin's hook is best-effort. The vendor runs it so that a hook that errors or times out lets the call through. - A person, or an agent working outside this repository's hooks, is not affected, and such an agent can delete the stop files directly. - The terminal check is best-effort: an agent that can run a shell may give `resume` a pseudo-terminal and type the name. Sources, at the pinned engine commit: - [`src/chock/stop_common.py`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/src/chock/stop_common.py) - [`docs/stop.md`](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/docs/stop.md) The engine's stop docs, in full: [docs/stop.md](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/docs/stop.md) From the engine docs: [docs/decision-log.md](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/docs/decision-log.md) ## Stop and override While a stop is in force (`chock stop`, [Stop](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/blob/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021/docs/stop.md)), each call it refuses is a `block` line with `"reason": "stopped"` and the fields above (`actor`, `session_id`, `target`). A pre-tool refusal names the hook's policy; a commit or push refused at the git dispatcher names `chock-stop`. `chock stop` and `chock resume` each write one `chock-stop` line, event `repo_stop` or `repo_resume`, with `scope`, `who` (git `user.email`) and `when`. With `--everywhere`, run inside a repository, the line also carries `"everywhere": true`. A person's `CHOCK_ALLOW` override is an `allow` line with `"override": "CHOCK_ALLOW"`, the `policy_id` it answered, and `approver`: the git `user.email` of the shell that ran it. `approver` and `who` name a person. They stay in this local log (created `0o600`): Chock sends nothing over the network, and `chock witness export` leaves both out. --- Built from engine [5a4b6287a46e](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock/commit/5a4b6287a46e07f9f856d9bbe10622bd1ff2e021) and catalog [1e60d211c1bb](https://github.com/open-coder-ai/chock-catalog/commit/1e60d211c1bb767152c6ab0167932da06ab3a10f).