Knob

Permission mode

You might say: approval mode, tool approval setting, auto-approve policy

The setting that decides which tool calls run automatically and which stop for a permission request.

What it does
An AFK run has nobody to answer a permission request, so pre-approve safe tools and let the sandbox contain what those tools can reach.
Ask
Which tool calls may run unattended, and which must wait for a person?
Typical
Read-only / plan: reads auto, writes and shell blocked; Default: reads auto, writes ask; Auto-edit: edits auto, shell asks; Full-auto: reads, writes and shell auto.
Trouble
A run waits on a person who is away, or a loose mode lets an agent edit files and run commands you meant to review first.

What to look for

  1. A mode selector such as read-only, default, auto-edit, or full-auto
  2. An allowed-tools list in a headless command
  3. A paused run showing a permission request

Connections

Sources

  1. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission modeThe permission-gating slice of an agent mode — which tool calls trigger a permission request and which run automatically.
  2. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission modeRead-only / plan | Auto | Blocked | Research, planning, reviewing
  3. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission modeDefault | Auto | Ask | Day-to-day supervised work
  4. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission modeAuto-edit | Auto | Edits auto, shell asks | Trusted repos, mechanical changes
  5. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission mode"Yolo" / full-auto | Auto | Auto | Sandboxes, AFK runs
  6. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission requestThe model produces a tool call; instead of running it immediately, the harness pauses and asks.
  7. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, AFKUsually requires a permissive permission mode plus sandboxing to be safe.
  8. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, SandboxThe safety substrate that makes AFK practical.
  9. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, SandboxPermissions ask before an action runs; a sandbox limits what the action can reach if it does run.
  10. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission modeToo loose, and the agent edits files and runs commands you'd have wanted to see first.
  11. Matt Pocock, AI Coding Dictionary, Permission requestThe agent sits blocked until you answer, which is fine while you're watching and a problem when you're not.
  12. Anthropic, Run Claude Code programmatically, Start faster with bare modeThis example runs a one-off summarize task in bare mode and pre-approves the Read tool so the call completes without a permission prompt:

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Permission mode" (permission-mode) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/software-factory/ against my project

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

An AI agent wrote this map with the teardown skill. It can contain errors: check the sources before you rely on a part. About and legal