Permissions Analyzer

Permissions Analyzer

The mechanical scan of session history for frequently-approved commands is a job for Claude Code's built-in /fewer-permission-prompts skill and permission auto mode (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/permissions). This skill adds the layer neither provides: an opinionated safety filter plus a guarded write into the user's global ~/.claude/settings.json. The built-in scan does not apply the RED override below, so it can auto-allow commands this skill would reject — this skill applies the filter.

Modes

Pick the mode from the argument after /permissions-analyzer:

• disable (or off, stop, mute) — silence the proactive suggestion nudge. Run touch ~/.claude/.disable-permissions-analyzer-suggestions, confirm the tips are off for all sessions, and mention /permissions-analyzer enable turns them back on. Do not run the vet-and-merge flow.
• enable (or on) — re-enable the nudge. Check whether ~/.claude/.disable-permissions-analyzer-suggestions exists, run rm -f ~/.claude/.disable-permissions-analyzer-suggestions, then confirm — say the suggestions are back on if the marker existed, or that they were never disabled if it did not. Do not run the vet-and-merge flow.
• No argument (default) — run the vet-and-merge flow below.

The marker only governs the proactive suggestions; the flow is always available by running /permissions-analyzer with no argument.

Vet-and-merge flow

The goal: get safe, high-frequency commands onto the auto-allow list without letting anything that can execute arbitrary code slip through.

1. Get candidate commands. Prefer the built-in scan — point the user at /fewer-permission-prompts, which mines their session history and proposes an allowlist. Also accept a list the user pastes or the entries already in their permissions.allow. For users who want prompts gone entirely rather than command-by-command, mention permission auto mode as the broader option. With no candidates supplied and nothing to review, do not fabricate a classified list — route the user to /fewer-permission-prompts first, then vet what it returns.
2. Audit what the built-in already wrote, and strip RED. The built-in scan writes to the project .claude/settings.json allowlist without applying the RED override. When the user has already run it, read that allowlist (and the user's ~/.claude/settings.json), identify any RED entries, and — on the same explicit confirmation the write path requires — remove them from the allowlist. Flagging alone is not enough: a RED rule the built-in auto-allowed stays active until it is removed.
3. Classify each candidate into GREEN / YELLOW / RED using references/safety-tiers.md. The RED override is the whole point of this skill — see below.
4. Present grouped by tier in a table before asking for confirmation.
5. Merge the safe ones into ~/.claude/settings.json on explicit confirmation.

Read references/safety-tiers.md first

Classification rules and the permission syntax table live there. Two things matter most:

• The RED override. Anything that can execute arbitrary code — directly or via run/exec/start subcommands — is RED, even if the same tool is a "package manager" or "build tool". npm, npx, uv, bundle, pipx, bunx, deno, mise and bare interpreters (bash, python, node, ruby) are never auto-allow candidates.
• Read-only is not "looks read-only". A linter is GREEN only when it cannot mutate files (eslint without --fix, rubocop without -A/-a).

references/security-rationale.md covers the threat model (prompt injection, supply chain, side effects) — cite it when a user pushes back on a RED.

Constraints:

• Present the classified commands grouped by safety tier in a table before asking for confirmation.
• Dedup against the target file — the user's global ~/.claude/settings.json permissions.allow. Skip a command only if it is already allowed there; a command being present in the project .claude/settings.json allowlist is not a reason to skip promoting it to the global allowlist.
• Never write to ~/.claude/settings.json without explicit user confirmation via AskUserQuestion. Show the diff first.
• When merging accepted patterns into permissions.allow, preserve every other key in settings.json — surgical merge, never a full-file overwrite.
• Back up the file before attempting to repair a malformed settings.json.
• Use the Permission Syntax table in safety-tiers.md for rule format — don't improvise patterns.

Resources

• references/safety-tiers.md — Classification rules, RED override, permission syntax
• references/security-rationale.md — Threat model and defense layers