Permissions and prompts
Claude Code stops and asks you things: whether it may run a command or edit a file, a question with options to pick from, a plan to approve, a form an MCP server wants filled in. This chapter covers each of these cards, the permission modes that decide what Claude Code asks about at all, and the question Claudette asks before Claude Code first works in a folder.
What counts as a permission, and the rules and modes behind it, are Claude Code’s own: see Claude Code’s permissions docs. The pages here say what Claudette shows of them and how you answer.
In this chapter
- Permission cardsWhen Claude Code needs your permission to use a tool, such as running a command or editing a file, the tab shows a card in the conversation and waits for you.
- Permission modesA permission mode decides how much Claude Code asks about before it acts.
- QuestionsClaude sometimes stops to ask you something with options to pick from, instead of guessing.
- Approving a planIn Plan mode, Claude looks around and writes a plan instead of changing anything, then asks you to approve it before it starts.
- MCP servers asking for inputAn MCP server can ask you something in the middle of a turn: a missing detail, a choice, or a sign-in to finish in the browser.
- Folder trustA folder can carry its own Claude Code configuration: hooks, commands, environment variables, MCP servers.