No-Numb
Build with Claude Code without your brain going numb. No-Numb quizzes you on the code Claude just wrote — and, by default, blocks the session from continuing until you pass.
The middle ground: built fast like an agent, understood like you wrote it yourself.
The problem
When you build with an AI agent you operate at high altitude — you set the goal, the agent makes the thousand low-level decisions. You ship working software you can describe at a high level, but if someone asked you to explain the internals, the data flow, or why a particular approach was chosen, you couldn't. The learning that used to be a side effect of writing code is now optional, and the path of least resistance skips it.
The names for this are dry but real: cognitive offloading, automation complacency, skill atrophy. We just call the feeling numb.
No-Numb makes the good habit — actually understanding what got built — the default path instead of the disciplined-person path. A skill can be ignored; a hook enforces. And being tested is itself one of the most reliable ways to make knowledge stick (the testing effect), so the friction isn't a tax on the feature — the friction is the feature.
How it works
- You build with Claude Code as normal.
- When Claude finishes a turn in which it edited or wrote a file, a
Stop hook intercepts and has Claude generate a short comprehension quiz about what it just did this turn — drawn from its own context, not generic trivia.
- Questions arrive one at a time as multiple choice (Claude Code's native
AskUserQuestion UI).
- Get one wrong → it shows the right answer and explains why, then you retake the full quiz (lightly reworded so you can't memorize the key).
- Until you pass, the session won't move on. The only way past without passing is a deliberate interrupt (Esc) — skipping is possible, but it's a choice, not the easy path.
Pure conversation turns (no file edits) are never quizzed. Genuinely cosmetic changes (a rename, a color tweak, a typo) are skipped by Claude's judgment.
Miss a question and it shows the correct answer and explains why — that explanation is the part that makes the understanding stick:
The two dials
That's the entire config surface — two keys in ~/.no-numb/config.json:
{
"enabled": true,
"depth": "standard"
}
enabled — true (default) or false. true is the forcing function; false does nothing. If you install a tool whose whole purpose is the forcing function, you want it on — so it defaults on. (The file is optional; with no file at all, the defaults apply.)
depth — "standard" (default) or "deep". One black-and-white test decides which a question is:
Do you need to read the code to answer it? Yes → deep. No → standard.
standard — questions you can answer from understanding the decisions (why this breaks, why this approach, what the failure mode is), without opening a file.deep — questions you can only answer by going and reading the code (it tells you where to look). More granular, but still reasoning over rote recall.
Neither level tests "what does this app do" — that's the high-level understanding you don't lose. Both aim below the awareness line, at the part that vaporizes.
The same kind of change, quizzed at deep — now you have to open the file and read it to answer:
Want a quiz without the gate? Run /no-numb:quiz-me any time for a voluntary self-check.
Install
Prerequisites: Claude Code with plugin support, and jq on your PATH (the hook uses it).
/plugin marketplace add Ciucky/no-numb
/plugin install no-numb@no-numb
Or, to try it locally from a clone:
/plugin marketplace add /path/to/no-numb
/plugin install no-numb@no-numb
No-Numb creates ~/.no-numb/config.json with these defaults on first run, so there's always a file to edit. Change "enabled" to false to pause it, or "depth" to "deep" for harder questions. It lives in your home directory (not the plugin folder) so your settings survive plugin updates, and an existing file is never overwritten.
Honest notes
- It costs extra tokens. No-Numb deliberately prompts Claude to generate and grade a quiz after editing turns — that spend is the learning loop. The
enabled: false switch is your affordability valve for deadline days; /no-numb:quiz-me is the on-demand alternative.
- It's a forcing function, not DRM. The hook guarantees a quiz starts; the skill keeps going until you pass. You can always hit Esc, disable the plugin, or interrupt. The point is that learning is on by default and skipping is a deliberate act.
- Plugins run code. No-Numb ships a Bash hook (
hooks/gate.sh) and a skill. Read the source before you install — it's short, and reviewing plugins before trusting them is the right habit.
License
MIT.
