A surgical instrument includes a stapling head assembly and a shaft assembly configured to removably couple with the stapling head assembly. The stapling head assembly has a cartridge housing, a staple deck, a plurality of staples, a staple driver, a cylindraceous knife, and a trocar. The shaft assembly has a safety mechanism and a compression limiter. The safety mechanism is operatively connected to the staple driver and the cylindraceous knife and configured to prevent firing of the staple driver and the cylindraceous knife when the force load received is below a predetermined minimum force load. The compression limiter is operatively connected to the anvil to prevent proximal translation of the anvil when the force load received is greater than a predetermined maximum force load calibrated to a predetermined maximum tissue compression between the anvil and the staple deck.