Permission modes¶
Choose how much an agent may do without asking you. Start with its default mode and change it when the task calls for a different level of control.
Change a conversation's mode¶
Open the conversation in Trunkline and use its permission control to choose from the modes that agent offers. The choice applies to that conversation's subsequent work. To approve just one pending action, answer its card instead of changing the whole conversation's mode.
For runs driven by Octomate, Claude Code and DeepSeek Harness can apply changes during a run. Inkling uses the new choice at its next tool deferral. Codex receives the change immediately when its thread is loaded and applies it to subsequent runs. A mode change does not undo tools already executed or answer an existing approval card. Command-triggered runs use the conversation's selected permissions too.
For a native session, use the permission controls in your agent's own interface. Octomate records that session; it does not change its local mode for you.
Choose a mode¶
| Agent | Starting choice | Other choices to recognise |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | default |
plan for planning, acceptEdits for automatically allowing edits, and other modes offered by Claude Code |
| Codex | user_review |
auto_review delegates approval decisions; full_access removes the usual sandbox and approval prompts |
| DeepSeek Harness | workspace-write |
The presets supplied by your harness, including danger-full-access |
| Inkling | default |
dontAsk makes assumptions and denies tools needing approval; bypassPermissions allows those tools without asking |
A mode that skips questions does not necessarily grant more access. Inkling's
dontAsk, for example, can leave a task incomplete because a required action was
denied. Read the agent's report for assumptions and skipped work.
Decide how much freedom the task needs¶
Keep review enabled when you want to check actions as they arise. An agent may still use tools already allowed by its mode without showing a card. Choose a broader mode only when you intend to grant that freedom for the conversation; permission names do not mean exactly the same thing across agents.
Use Allow for session, when offered, to avoid repeated requests for a particular tool without changing the entire mode. See Approvals and questions for answering cards and handling expired requests.