Auto-Approve Safe Bash Commands Selectively

The default permission flow asks you to approve every bash command. That’s safe but slow. With pattern matching, you can auto-approve the safe ones.

Granular Bash Permissions

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Bash(git status*)",
      "Bash(git log*)",
      "Bash(git diff*)",
      "Bash(git branch*)",
      "Bash(npm test*)",
      "Bash(npm run lint*)",
      "Bash(npm run build*)",
      "Bash(npx tsc*)",
      "Bash(ls *)",
      "Bash(pwd)",
      "Bash(which *)",
      "Bash(cat package.json)",
      "Bash(gh pr *)",
      "Bash(gh issue *)"
    ],
    "deny": [
      "Bash(rm *)",
      "Bash(git push*)",
      "Bash(git reset*)",
      "Bash(npm publish*)",
      "Bash(curl * | bash*)"
    ]
  }
}

The Pattern

• Auto-approve: anything that only reads state
• Manual approval: anything that modifies state
• Deny outright: anything destructive

Project-Specific Approvals

Add in .claude/settings.json at the project level:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Bash(docker compose logs*)",
      "Bash(kubectl get *)",
      "Bash(kubectl describe *)"
    ]
  }
}

Tip

Start restrictive and add patterns as you get annoyed by approvals. If you keep approving the same command, add it to the allow list.