Smart Permissions¶

DevLoop intercepts every shell command the provider tries to run through Claude's PreToolUse hook. Commands are classified into three buckets: allow, block, escalate.

This is opt-in per project: devloop hooks installs the necessary .claude/settings.json and hook scripts.

Modes¶

Set DEVLOOP_PERMISSION_MODE in devloop.config.sh:

Always blocked¶

Regardless of mode, these are hard-blocked:

• rm -rf / or rm -rf ~
• curl ... | bash (or wget ... | sh)
• dd writes to /dev/sd*
• mkfs.*
• sudo rm -rf ...

If you have a legitimate need for any of these, run them outside the pipeline.

Always allowed¶

Safe inspection and routine dev commands skip the hook:

• cat, grep, find, ls, head, tail, wc, awk, sed (read-only)
• git status, git log, git diff, git show, git branch
• pytest, npm test, cargo test, go test, make test
• Build commands: npm run build, cargo build, go build, make
• Package install from a lockfile: npm ci, pip install -r ..., cargo install --locked
• Linters and formatters

Edit .devloop/permissions.yaml to add project-specific allows or denies.

Escalation¶

Unknown commands escalate. DevLoop tries three escalation channels in order:

1. Terminal prompt via /dev/tty — works in foreground sessions.
2. macOS dialog via osascript — works in devloop daemon mode.
3. Queue file at .devloop/permission-queue/<UUID>.json — picked up by devloop permit watch on Linux / headless / mobile.

After DEVLOOP_PERMISSION_TIMEOUT seconds (default 60) without a response, the command is auto-denied.

Managing escalations¶

devloop permit status            # show pending requests
devloop permit watch             # interactive prompt for pending requests
devloop permit grant [id]        # allow latest (or named) pending request
devloop permit deny [id]         # deny latest (or named) pending request
devloop permit log               # view audit log
devloop permit mode auto         # switch to auto mode (no escalations)

The TUI dashboard surfaces pending permits with a yellow chip (⚑ N pending) and the Focus Mode has a dedicated PERMIT tab when the queue is non-empty.

permissions.yaml¶

Per-project allow/deny lists live at .devloop/permissions.yaml. Edit with:

devloop permissions    # opens the file in $EDITOR

Example:

allow:
  - "docker compose up*"
  - "make migrate"
  - "yarn workspaces foreach run lint"
deny:
  - "drop database*"
  - "rm -rf node_modules"   # in this project we use yarn cache clean instead
escalate:
  # everything else not in the global allow list

Audit log¶

Every classified command lands in .devloop/permissions.log with a timestamp, classification, and the originating task ID. Tail it during a run to see what's being requested:

devloop permit log              # pretty-print
tail -F .devloop/permissions.log   # raw

Recommended configuration by environment¶