Skill tool fails with 'Unknown skill' in dontAsk permission mode

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Apr 5, 2026 by brendanjerwin Closed May 15, 2026

Description

When running Claude Code with --permission-mode dontAsk and Skill included in --allowed-tools, invoking the Skill tool fails with Unknown skill: <skill-name> even when the skill's SKILL.md file exists in the expected location.

Reproduction

  1. Create a skill with a valid SKILL.md in the skills/<name>/ directory
  2. Launch Claude Code with --permission-mode dontAsk --allowed-tools "Skill,..."
  3. Attempt to use the Skill tool to invoke the skill
  4. Result: Unknown skill: <skill-name>

Expected behavior

The Skill tool should discover and load skills from the skills/ directory regardless of permission mode.

Workaround

The agent can read SKILL.md directly via the Read tool and follow its instructions manually. This works but bypasses the Skill tool's discovery mechanism.

Environment

  • Claude Code (latest)
  • Linux (NixOS-managed systemd service)
  • Permission mode: dontAsk with explicit allowed-tools list

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