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Intensity levels

Example — “Add a cache for these API responses”:
  • lean: “Added it. functools.lru_cache would cover this in one line if a hand-rolled cache class isn’t needed.”
  • full: “@lru_cache(maxsize=1000) wraps the fetch call. Skipped a bespoke cache class, add one once lru_cache demonstrably can’t keep up.”
  • max: “Holding off on caching until a profiler flags it. Then: @lru_cache. A custom TTL cache just reimplements stdlib.”
Switch levels any time: /margaret lean|full|max, or turn it off: /margaret off, “stop margaret”, “normal mode”. The level sticks until changed or the session ends.

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Setting the default level

Priority order, checked in this sequence:
  1. Environment variable
  2. Config file — ~/.config/margaret/config.json (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/margaret/config.json if set; %APPDATA%\margaret\config.json on Windows):
  3. Built-in default: full.
Use "off" to skip auto-activation and start /margaret by hand when wanted.

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Status line

Shows the current level ([MARGARET], [MARGARET:MAX]). Not wired in automatically — add to ~/.claude/settings.json:
Swap in margaret-statusline.ps1 on Windows.

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Hooks

Three lifecycle hooks drive the persona in hook-based hosts (hooks/claude-hooks.json): Mode resolution logic lives in hooks/margaret-config.js, shared by all three hooks.

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Security review config

Optional, both no-op if absent:
  • .margaret/security-instructions.md — extra categories/context appended to /margaret-guard’s standard set.
  • .margaret/security-exclude — one path glob per line (e.g. vendor/**), findings in matching files are dropped.

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Uninstalling cleanly

Run before removing the plugin — it only removes the statusLine segment margaret owns, leaving any combined statusline intact: