claude_mac/templates/settings/SETTINGS.md

Claude Code — Settings Rule Syntax

Rule syntax

Bash

"Bash(git status)"         // exact match
"Bash(npm run test:*)"     // wildcard suffix
"Bash(git push*)"          // prefix match
"Bash(curl * | bash)"      // pipe pattern — block code injection

Read / Edit — gitignore syntax

"Read(**/.env)"            // any .env in any subdirectory
"Read(**/secrets/**)"      // anything inside secrets/
"Read(src/**/*.ts)"        // all .ts under src/
"Edit(**/*.key)"           // deny writing any .key file — Edit covers
                           // Write/Edit/MultiEdit/NotebookEdit

Write(path) rules are inert: file permission checks only match Edit(path). Claude Code warns at startup for every Write(glob) rule. Always write the file-write ban as Edit(...).

WebFetch / WebSearch

"WebFetch(domain:docs.rs)" // specific domain only
"WebFetch"                  // all web fetches
"WebSearch"                 // no sub-patterns supported

Agent / Skill / MCP

"Agent(explorer)"
"Skill(deploy *)"
"mcp__github__*"           // all tools from github MCP server

defaultMode values

Value	Behavior	When to use
default	Prompts on first use of each tool	Normal development
acceptEdits	Auto-accepts file edits, prompts for Bash	Trusting sessions
plan	Read-only — Claude plans, cannot execute	Code review, audit
auto	Research preview — agentic default, permission model evolving. This config's default (BDR-004)	Daily driving with guardrails
bypassPermissions	Skips all prompts — dangerous	CI/CD only, sandboxed env

Auto mode (autoMode)

With defaultMode: auto, a classifier decides each action instead of a static prompt. The autoMode block is what you hand that classifier.

Key	What it holds
environment	Facts about the machine and the repo. Context, not rules.
allow	Action classes the classifier may clear on its own.
soft_deny	Destructive or irreversible actions. Explicit user intent clears them.
hard_deny	Security boundaries. User intent does not clear them.
classifyAllShell	true suspends every Bash allow rule so all shell goes through the classifier.

All four lists are prose spliced into the classifier prompt, not permission-rule syntax. Write Sending SIGKILL reaches processes outside this session, not Bash(kill -9 *).

$defaults

Each list replaces the built-in entries unless it contains the literal string "$defaults", which splices them in at that position. Put it first and your own entries refine what follows. Omit it and you silently drop every built-in rule, which is almost never the intent.

Scope it right

autoMode in ~/.claude/settings.json reaches every project on the machine. Project facts (this repo's deploy target, its secrets, its data) belong in that project's .claude/settings.local.json. A global block naming one repo feeds the classifier false facts in all the others.

ask is not a prompt under auto mode

Verified in-session (LRN-146, re-verified on 2.1.273 on 2026-09-16 with a node -e probe matching an ask rule): with defaultMode: auto, Bash rules in permissions.ask were auto-approved and raised no prompt. The auto-mode docs claim the opposite for "content-scoped" rules such as Bash(git push *); the observed behavior wins until a probe shows a prompt. deny is the only tier the classifier cannot lift.

So for a destructive command you want gated but still reachable, ask is the wrong tier. Use autoMode.soft_deny: blocked until the user's intent clears it. Keep deny for what must never run at all.

Picking a tier

You want	Tier
Never runs, no exception, matchable by a command pattern	permissions.deny
Never runs, and a pattern cannot express it (a read then a send, a prod target)	autoMode.hard_deny
Runs when the user asks for it, blocked otherwise	autoMode.soft_deny
Runs freely when a condition holds that only the classifier can judge (a local dev container, a package declared in the lockfile)	autoMode.allow
Runs freely	permissions.allow, or nothing

permissions.ask is not on this list on purpose. Under defaultMode: auto it gates nothing.

autoMode.allow is the exception tier: inside the classifier an allow entry overrides a matching soft_deny, built-in or yours, so word it as narrowly as the condition allows. It is also the only tier that can open an interpreter: under auto mode Claude Code suspends the static allow rules that grant arbitrary code execution (Bash(*), wildcarded interpreters such as Bash(node *)), so those commands reach the classifier whatever permissions.allow says. awk and echo pass through a static rule; node cannot.

Scope of intent

A soft_deny clears on the user's instruction, and this config scopes that to the current turn. An approval from an earlier turn is not an approval now. State the scope in the rules themselves: the classifier reads the list, it has no separate setting for this.

Security notes

• Read(**/.env) only blocks the Read tool. Bash(cat .env) bypasses it unless separately denied. → Use .claudeignore for hard file exclusion regardless of tool.
• disableBypassPermissionsMode: "disable" prevents switching to bypass mode mid-session.
• Prefer ask over allow for anything touching external systems.
• deny in ~/.claude/settings.json cannot be overridden by project-level allow — deny always wins.
• Under defaultMode: auto, ask does not raise a prompt (see above). A destructive command belongs in deny or in autoMode.soft_deny, not in ask.

managed-settings.json (enterprise)

OS	Path
Windows	C:\ProgramData\ClaudeCode\managed-settings.json
macOS	/Library/Application Support/ClaudeCode/managed-settings.json
Linux	/etc/claude-code/managed-settings.json