permission-tuner

Permission Tuner

Reduce permission prompts by fixing their causes, not by piling up rules.

Trigger

Use when:

• Permission prompts interrupt flow repeatedly
• Auto mode keeps blocking routine work or falls back to prompting everything
• Starting a new project and want to configure permissions

How Prompts Happen

• Rules resolve first: deny > ask > allow. A matching ask rule prompts even in auto mode, and a PreToolUse hook returning allow cannot override it.
• In auto mode, anything no rule resolves goes to a classifier. After 3 blocks in a row or 20 in a session, auto mode pauses and prompts for everything until you approve one.
• Auto mode drops broad allow rules: Bash(*), wildcarded interpreters like Bash(node *), package-manager run commands, Agent, and Monitor.
• Hooks that exit 2 on harmless commands count as denials and push the session toward that fallback.

Workflow

Step 1: Gather data

Rules merge across scopes, so check every file that exists, not only the user file. /permissions shows the rules Claude Code actually loaded, and claude auto-mode config shows the effective autoMode (the classifier ignores autoMode in .claude/settings.local.json).

for f in ~/.claude/settings.json .claude/settings.json .claude/settings.local.json; do
  [ -f "$f" ] && jq --arg f "$f" '{file: $f, mode: .permissions.defaultMode, allow: (.permissions.allow|length), ask: (.permissions.ask|length), deny: (.permissions.deny|length), autoMode: (.autoMode != null)}' "$f"
done
claude auto-mode config
ls -t ~/.claude/projects/*/*.jsonl | head -20 | xargs grep -ho '"toolDenialKind":"[^"]*"' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

toolDenialKind values seen in transcripts (undocumented, may change): permission-rule (rule or hook), automode-blocked (classifier), automode-parsing-error and automode-unavailable (no verdict, not tunable), user-rejected (you said no).

Step 2: Pick the right fix

Symptom	Fix
Prompt on something you always approve	Remove or narrow the ask rule
permission-rule on a harmless command	Fix the hook false positive or narrow the deny rule
Classifier blocks work in your own repos, registries, local services	Add an autoMode.environment entry
Classifier blocks one routine pattern	Add an autoMode.allow entry
Want outward actions only when you asked	Add an autoMode.soft_deny entry
Want a human check every time	Keep a short permissions.ask rule

Step 3: Generate rules

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Bash(git status)",
      "Bash(npm test)",
      "Bash(npm run lint)"
    ],
    "ask": [
      "Bash(git push --force*)",
      "Bash(git push * main)",
      "Bash(git push * main *)",
      "Bash(git push *:main)",
      "Bash(git push *:main *)",
      "Bash(git push * master)",
      "Bash(git push * master *)",
      "Bash(git push *:master)",
      "Bash(git push *:master *)",
      "Bash(gh pr merge *)",
      "Bash(npm publish*)"
    ],
    "deny": [
      "Bash(rm -rf *)",
      "Read(**/.env)",
      "Read(**/.env.*)"
    ]
  },
  "autoMode": {
    "environment": [
      "$defaults",
      "Source control: repositories under github.com/your-org are trusted; feature-branch pushes are routine."
    ],
    "allow": ["$defaults"],
    "soft_deny": [
      "$defaults",
      "Merging a pull request needs the user's approval for that specific merge."
    ]
  }
}

autoMode only takes effect in ~/.claude/settings.json, managed settings, or --settings. Keep "$defaults" in each list. Check the result with claude auto-mode config and review custom rules with claude auto-mode critique.

Output

PERMISSION TUNER REPORT

Mode: [mode]   Rules: [X] allow, [Y] ask, [Z] deny   autoMode: [yes/no]
Denials: [n] permission-rule, [n] classifier, [n] no verdict, [n] you rejected

Remove (ask rules you always approve):
  - Bash(...) -- approved [n]x

Add to autoMode.environment:
  + "..." -- clears [n] blocks

Add to autoMode.allow / soft_deny:
  + "..."

Fix hooks:
  ! [script] blocked [n] harmless commands

Keep asking:
  ~ force push, merge, publish, deploy

Estimated prompts saved per session: ~[N]

Rules

• Prefer autoMode entries over new ask rules
• Destructive operations stay in deny or ask
• Always present changes for user approval before applying
• Never write autoMode into project settings
• Include estimated prompt savings