[FEATURE] Add "Enable auto-mode" option to permission request dialogs

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Mar 31, 2026 by shawnm-anthropic Closed Apr 4, 2026

Problem Statement

When auto mode gets turned off (for various reasons like encountering a tool that requires explicit permission), users face an avalanche of back-to-back permission requests. This makes it very difficult to get the 2 seconds of uninterrupted time needed to navigate to settings and re-enable auto mode.

Currently, users must either:

  1. Manually approve each permission request one-by-one, or
  2. Try to find a brief pause to navigate away and re-enable auto mode

This creates a frustrating user experience, especially when multiple permission requests queue up rapidly.

Proposed Solution

Add "Enable auto-mode" as a new option in permission request dialogs, alongside the existing options like:

  • Yes, allow
  • Yes, allow for this session
  • Always allow
  • No, deny

The new option would:

  1. Approve the current permission request
  2. Enable auto-mode for the remainder of the session
  3. Allow subsequent permission requests to be handled automatically by the auto-mode classifier

User Experience

When a permission prompt appears, users would see something like:

Claude wants to run: npm test

  > Yes, allow
    Yes, allow for this session
    Always allow
    Enable auto-mode (approve this and future requests automatically)
    No, deny

Selecting "Enable auto-mode" would:

  1. Immediately approve the current pending request
  2. Switch the session to auto-mode
  3. Continue processing any queued requests using auto-mode

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

Interactive mode (TUI)

Use Case Example

  1. User is working with auto-mode enabled
  2. A tool triggers that auto-mode can't classify (e.g., a sensitive operation)
  3. Auto-mode gets disabled, prompting for explicit permission
  4. User approves the operation
  5. Multiple follow-up tool calls also need permission
  6. Instead of approving each one, user selects "Enable auto-mode"
  7. Current request is approved and auto-mode handles the rest

Additional Context

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