Critical: No way to bypass MCP tool approval prompts in VSCode extension

I'm experiencing the same issue with the chrome-devtools MCP server. I've tried every configuration combination mentioned in this thread and more:

Configurations attempted (none worked):

1. .claude/settings.json:

```json
{
"enableAllProjectMcpServers": true,
"permissions": {
"allow": ["*"],
"defaultMode": "bypassPermissions"
}
}

1. 'settings.json':

{
"claude-code.mcpServers.autoApproveTools": true,
"claude-code.mcpServers.autoApprove": ["chrome", "chrome-devtools"],
"mcpServers": {
"chrome": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-google-chrome"],
"autoApprove": ["*"]
}
}
}

1. mcp.json with server-level auto-approve:

{
"servers": {
"chrome-devtools": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest"],
"autoApprove": ["*"]
}
}
}

I was able to do it using the permissions key in settings.json:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__playwright"
    ],
    "deny": [],
    "ask": []
  }
}

Found a workaround, but wildcards still need fixing

I ran into this same issue and found what's going on. The wildcard syntax (mcp__[server-name]__*) doesn't work in settings.json for MCP tools, but specifying the actual tool names does.

What works:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__[server-name]__[tool-name]",
      "mcp__[server-name]__[tool-name]",
      etc..
    ]
  }
}

What doesn't work (but should):

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__[server-name]__*"
    ]
  }
}

So yeah, you can get around the constant prompts by listing out each tool explicitly in your .claude/settings.json. Not ideal since you have to know all the tool names upfront, but it does actually work.

The wildcard syntax really should be supported though - it's tedious to manually list every tool, especially for MCP servers with lots of tools. Would be great to get this fixed so mcp__[server-name]__* works as expected.

See the alert at the end of this section: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/iam#configuring-permissions

Unlike other permission types, MCP permissions do NOT support wildcards ().To approve all tools from an MCP server: ✅ Use: mcp__github (approves ALL GitHub tools) ❌ Don’t use: mcp__github__ (wildcards are not supported) To approve specific tools only, list each one: ✅ Use: mcp__github__get_issue ✅ Use: mcp__github__list_issues

I was able to do it using the permissions key in settings.json: { "permissions": { "allow": [ "mcp__playwright" ], "deny": [], "ask": [] } }

Yes it worked for me, the prefix 'mcp__' is needed otherwise it is not working the definition of my tool is in my .claude.json file under the windows user home dir.

 "projects": {
    "C:\\myproject": {
      "allowedTools": [],
      "mcpContextUris": [],
      "mcpServers": {
        "chrome-devtools": {
          "type": "stdio",
          "command": "npx",
          "args": [
            "-y",
            "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest"
          ],
          "env": {}
        }
      },
      "enabledMcpjsonServers": [],
      "disabledMcpjsonServers": [],
      "hasTrustDialogAccepted": true,
      "ignorePatterns": [],
      "projectOnboardingSeenCount": 1,
      "hasClaudeMdExternalIncludesApproved": false,
      "hasClaudeMdExternalIncludesWarningShown": false
    }
  }
```,

This issue has been inactive for 30 days. If the issue is still occurring, please comment to let us know. Otherwise, this issue will be automatically closed in 30 days for housekeeping purposes.

its still a problem, I think it respects the .claude/settings.local.json but we need an option for "Always allow tools from this MCP server", as described in the original ticket the approval dialog only has Yes/No options - no "Always Allow" or "Remember this choice"

It continues to be an issue, we do not see any official Anthropic response yet. so pls do not close it.

Still waiting.

I've got this problem, very annoying

Waiting ...

Any update? I faced this issue even with normal command which "always allow" already.

It happens in Claude Desktop too.

You can just place the following in your %userprofile%/.claude/settings.json

{
  "alwaysThinkingEnabled": true,
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Git",
      "Dotnet",
      "Npm",
      "Npx",
      "Node",
      "Pnpm",
      "Yarn",
      "Cargo",
      "Python",
      "Pip",
      "Pipx",
      "Bash",
      "Sh",
      "Powershell",
      "Pwsh"
    ],
    "allowMCPServers": [
      "github",
      "playwright"
    ]
  },
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "npx -y ccstatusline@latest",
    "padding": 0
  }
}

I had to restart my pc before it started working. StatusLine means this:

<img width="993" height="157" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4be5f650-1501-4c0c-aa7c-23c57b5b153d" />

You can modify your status-line using npx -y ccstatusline@latest

This issue has been automatically closed due to 60 days of inactivity. If you're still experiencing this issue, please open a new issue with updated information.

Why is this closed and marked as "not planned"? We have people still reporting this issue.

CC: @bcherny

This issue was closed incorrectly despite recent human comments. This behavior of the bot is reported at https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/16497. Please upvote that issue, so maybe it gets noticed.

+1 — experiencing this exact pain point specifically with Claude Code running as an MCP server in Claude for Desktop.

Read-only tools like Read, Grep, Glob, WebSearch, and WebFetch are already auto-allowed in the Claude Code CLI (they never prompt for permission, because they can't modify anything). But when the same tools are called through MCP in Claude Desktop, every single call triggers a permission prompt with no way to permanently allow them.

At minimum, read-only / non-destructive MCP tool calls should be allowlistable — either globally or per-server. Ideally Claude Desktop would respect the same permission tiers that Claude Code CLI already uses (read-only = auto-allowed, write = ask, etc.).

This is the #1 friction point in using Claude Code as an MCP server in Claude Desktop.

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.