Feature Request: Expose Active Permission Mode to `PreToolUse` Hook

Hey, this is a great feature request. I've been wrestling with a similar issue myself when trying to build more intelligent hooks. Having to either manually approve every edit or just blanket-approve them isn't ideal, especially when you want different security postures for different tasks.

I took a look through the documentation to see if there was a way to figure this out, and it looks like you're right. The PreToolUse hook input schema in the Hooks reference doc doesn't include the permission mode. The hook runs before the permission system kicks in, so it seems like that context isn't passed down.

While we wait for a feature like this to hopefully get implemented, I've been experimenting with a workaround that's a little more dynamic than a hardcoded variable. It's not perfect, but it might help.

Since the hook's input JSON includes the cwd, the hook script can actually read the project's .claude/settings.json file to check the configured defaultMode.

Here's a rough idea of how you could do it in a bash script using jq:

#!/bin/bash

# Read the JSON input from Claude Code
input_json=$(cat)

# Get the current working directory from the input
cwd=$(echo "$input_json" | jq -r '.cwd')
project_settings_file="$cwd/.claude/settings.json"
user_settings_file="$HOME/.claude/settings.json"

# Default to 'default' mode
active_mode="default"

# Check for the mode in project settings, then user settings
if [ -f "$project_settings_file" ]; then
    mode_from_file=$(jq -r '.permissions.defaultMode // "default"' "$project_settings_file")
    if [ "$mode_from_file" != "default" ]; then
        active_mode="$mode_from_file"
    fi
elif [ -f "$user_settings_file" ]; then
    mode_from_file=$(jq -r '.permissions.defaultMode // "default"' "$user_settings_file")
    if [ "$mode_from_file" != "default" ]; then
        active_mode="$mode_from_file"
    fi
fi

# Now you can use the $active_mode variable in your logic
if [ "$active_mode" == "acceptEdits" ]; then
    # Your logic to auto-approve file edits
    echo "Auto-approving based on acceptEdits mode." >> /tmp/serena_mcp.log
    # Return JSON to approve the tool use
    echo '{"hookSpecificOutput": {"hookEventName": "PreToolUse", "permissionDecision": "allow"}}'
    exit 0
else
    # Your logic to prompt for approval
    echo "Prompting for approval in mode: $active_mode" >> /tmp/serena_mcp.log
    # Fall through to default behavior or your custom prompt logic
    exit 0 # Exit 0 to let the standard permission prompt happen
fi

The main limitation here, as mentioned in the IAM docs, is that this only gets the default mode from the settings files. It won't know if a user started a session with a temporary override like claude --permission-mode plan.

So, I completely agree that your proposed solution of adding active_permission_mode directly to the hook payload is the right way to go. It would be much cleaner, more reliable, and would cover all cases.

Thanks for writing this up. Fingers crossed the team sees this

That's a really good solution @coygeek. I will give it a try later. Thanks!

This was added over a month ago. I will close this but also update the Hooks Reference documentation.

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