[DOCS] `/permissions` Recently-denied tab docs omit that approving a denial now persists as an allow rule on close (v2.1.191)

Open 💬 0 comments Opened Jun 25, 2026 by coygeek

Documentation Type

Missing documentation (feature not documented)

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/auto-mode-config

Section/Topic

"Review denials" section under Configure auto mode (the "Recently denied tab" paragraph). The same gap also exists in the permission-modes.md page under the When auto mode falls back section.

Current Documentation

The auto-mode-config.md "Review denials" section currently says only this about the Recently denied tab:

When auto mode denies a tool call, the denial is recorded in /permissions under the Recently denied tab. Press r on a denied action to mark it for retry: when you exit the dialog, Claude Code sends a message telling the model it may retry that tool call and resumes the conversation. Repeated denials for the same destination usually mean the classifier is missing context. Add that destination to autoMode.environment, then run claude auto-mode config to confirm it took effect.

The permission-modes.md page describes the same surface with a single sentence:

Each denied action shows a notification and appears in /permissions under the Recently denied tab, where you can press r to retry it with a manual approval.

Both pages describe one action on the tab (r to retry) and never mention what happens when the user approves a denial — neither says anything about the approval creating an allow rule, where the rule is stored, or whether it survives the dialog closing.

What's Wrong or Missing?

The v2.1.191 release notes add the following fix:

Fixed /permissions Recently-denied tab: approving a denial now persists on close instead of being silently discarded.

The two doc pages that describe the Recently denied tab do not reflect this fix:

A. New behavior is not documented at all

Neither auto-mode-config.md nor permission-modes.md says anything about what approving a denied tool call from the Recently denied tab actually does after v2.1.191. Users running v2.1.191 can approve a denial and have no idea that this approval now writes a permission rule that survives the dialog closing — they may still assume the approval was throwaway, the same way it was before the fix.

B. The doc implies a single in-flight action (`r` to retry)

Both paragraphs frame the Recently denied tab as a place to "mark for retry" or "retry with manual approval." That framing only covers the r action and leaves the user with no model for what "approve" does. The docs imply the only durable outcome is a retry message back to the model, not a saved allow rule.

C. No pointer to where the persisted rule is stored

Even after the fix, the docs do not say which settings file the persisted approval lands in (project, user, or local), nor that it appears in /permissions alongside other permissions.allow rules, nor that the persisted rule follows the same matching semantics as any other permissions.allow rule. Users who want to audit or revoke the rule after closing the dialog have no documented path to find it.

Suggested Improvement

Update both pages so the Recently denied tab paragraph reflects the v2.1.191 behavior. The auto-mode-config.md "Review denials" section should become something like:

When auto mode denies a tool call, the denial is recorded in /permissions under the Recently denied tab. From there you can: Approve the denied action. As of v2.1.191, the approval is persisted as a permissions.allow rule on close, so the same tool call won't be denied again. The rule is added to your user settings and appears in the Allow tab alongside your other allow rules; audit or revoke it from there if needed. Retry with a manual approval: press r on a denied action. When you exit the dialog, Claude Code sends a message telling the model it may retry that tool call and resumes the conversation. This does not change your rules. Repeated denials for the same destination usually mean the classifier is missing context. Add that destination to autoMode.environment, then run claude auto-mode config to confirm it took effect.

The permission-modes.md "When auto mode falls back" paragraph should be updated in parallel:

Each denied action shows a notification and appears in /permissions under the Recently denied tab, where you can press r to retry it with a manual approval. Approving a denial from that tab now persists as a permissions.allow rule (as of v2.1.191); only r retries without writing a rule.

Impact

Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand

Additional Context

Affected Pages:
| Page | Line(s) | Context |
|------|---------|---------|
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/auto-mode-config | 174 | "Review denials" section, primary description of the Recently denied tab |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/permission-modes | 244 | "When auto mode falls back" subsection, second mention of the Recently denied tab |

Total scope: 2 pages affected.

Version reference: Behavior changed in v2.1.191. The fix line in the release notes is: