A stop hook for Claude Code that prevents the agent from stopping prematurely. When the agent finishes a response and is about to stop, Taskmaster intercepts and prompts it to re-examine whether all work is truly done.

1. Agent tries to stop — the stop hook fires.
2. Transcript check — the hook scans recent transcript for incomplete tasks or errors.
3. Agent is prompted to verify: original requests addressed, plan steps completed, tasks resolved, errors fixed, no loose ends.
4. If work remains, the agent continues working. If truly done, the agent confirms and the hook allows the stop on the next cycle.

The prompt respects user intent — if the user explicitly changed their mind, withdrew a request, or said to skip something, those items are treated as resolved.

git clone https://github.com/blader/taskmaster.git
cd taskmaster
bash install.sh

This will:

• Copy the skill to ~/.claude/skills/taskmaster/
• Register the stop hook in ~/.claude/settings.json

Restart your coding agent after installing.

If you prefer to install manually:

1. Copy SKILL.md to ~/.claude/skills/taskmaster/SKILL.md
2. Copy check-completion.sh to ~/.claude/skills/taskmaster/hooks/check-completion.sh
3. Make it executable: chmod +x ~/.claude/skills/taskmaster/hooks/check-completion.sh
4. Add this to your ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
 "hooks": {
 "Stop": [
 {
 "hooks": [
 {
 "type": "command",
 "command": "$HOME/.claude/skills/taskmaster/hooks/check-completion.sh",
 "timeout": 10
 }
 ]
 }
 ]
 }
}

cd taskmaster
bash uninstall.sh

Control the maximum number of continuation cycles via the TASKMASTER_MAX environment variable:

# Default: 10 continuations before the hook stops blocking
export TASKMASTER_MAX=20 # allow up to 20
export TASKMASTER_MAX=0 # infinite — never cap (relies on transcript analysis only)
export TASKMASTER_MAX=1 # minimal — one review pass then allow stop

On each stop attempt, the hook evaluates two things:

1. Counter — how many times it has already blocked in this session (capped at TASKMASTER_MAX, or uncapped if 0).
2. Transcript signals — scans the last 50 lines of the session transcript for pending/in-progress tasks or tool errors.

The hook allows the agent to stop when:

• The counter reaches TASKMASTER_MAX (hard cap), OR
• The hook already fired once (stop_hook_active=true) AND no incomplete signals are found in the transcript (the agent reviewed its work and there's nothing left).

The hook blocks (forces continuation) otherwise, sending the agent a checklist prompt to re-examine its work.

• Claude Code with hooks support
• jq (for the install script and the hook itself)
• bash

MIT