Access control and permissions

Access control and permissions

We support fine-grained permissions so that you're able to specify exactly what the agent is allowed to do (e.g. run tests, run linter) and what it is not allowed to do (e.g. update cloud infrastructure). These permission settings can be checked into version control and distributed to all developers in your organization, as well as customized by individual developers.

Permission system

Claude Code uses a tiered permission system to balance power and safety:

Configuring permissions

You can view & manage Claude Code's tool permissions with /permissions. This UI lists all permission rules and the settings.json file they are sourced from.

• Allow rules will allow Claude Code to use the specified tool without further manual approval.
• Deny rules will prevent Claude Code from using the specified tool. Deny rules take precedence over allow rules.
• Additional directories extend Claude's file access to directories beyond the initial working directory.
• Default mode controls Claude's permission behavior when encountering new requests.

Permission rules use the format: Tool or Tool(optional-specifier)

A rule that is just the tool name matches any use of that tool. For example, adding Bash to the list of allow rules would allow Claude Code to use the Bash tool without requiring user approval.

Permission modes

Claude Code supports several permission modes that can be set as the defaultMode in settings files:

Working directories

By default, Claude has access to files in the directory where it was launched. You can extend this access:

• During startup: Use --add-dir <path> CLI argument
• During session: Use /add-dir slash command
• Persistent configuration: Add to additionalDirectories in settings files

Files in additional directories follow the same permission rules as the original working directory - they become readable without prompts, and file editing permissions follow the current permission mode.

Tool-specific permission rules

Some tools support more fine-grained permission controls:

Bash

• Bash(npm run build) Matches the exact Bash command npm run build
• Bash(npm run test:*) Matches Bash commands starting with npm run test.

Read & Edit

Edit rules apply to all built-in tools that edit files. Claude will make a best-effort attempt to apply Read rules to all built-in tools that read files like Grep, Glob, and LS.

Read & Edit rules both follow the gitignore specification. Patterns are resolved relative to the directory containing .claude/settings.json. To reference an absolute path, use //. For a path relative to your home directory, use ~/.

• Edit(docs/**) Matches edits to files in the docs directory of your project
• Read(~/.zshrc) Matches reads to your ~/.zshrc file
• Edit(//tmp/scratch.txt) Matches edits to /tmp/scratch.txt

WebFetch

• WebFetch(domain:example.com) Matches fetch requests to example.com

MCP

• mcp__puppeteer Matches any tool provided by the puppeteer server (name configured in Claude Code)
• mcp__puppeteer__puppeteer_navigate Matches the puppeteer_navigate tool provided by the puppeteer server

Additional permission control with hooks

Claude Code hooks provide a way to register custom shell commands to perform permission evaluation at runtime. When Claude Code makes a tool call, PreToolUse hooks run before the permission system runs, and the hook output can determine whether to approve or deny the tool call in place of the permission system.

Settings precedence

When multiple settings sources exist, they are applied in the following order (highest to lowest precedence):

1. Enterprise policies
2. Command line arguments
3. Local project settings (.claude/settings.local.json)
4. Shared project settings (.claude/settings.json)
5. User settings (~/.claude/settings.json)

This hierarchy ensures that organizational policies are always enforced while still allowing flexibility at the project and user levels where appropriate.