Permission Profiles
Ask, Write, and Minimal — how agentty gates writes, shell, and network.
A profile decides which tool effects run automatically and which prompt you first. Cycle them anytime with S-Tab; your choice persists across sessions.
| Profile | Pure reads | Writes / edits | Shell / build | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Write | auto | auto | auto | auto |
| Ask (default) | auto | prompt | prompt | prompt |
| Minimal | prompt | prompt | prompt | prompt |
Ask (default)
Read-only tools run automatically; writes, shell calls, and network calls each prompt before running. The safe default for an unfamiliar repo.
Write (autonomous)
Everything runs without prompting. Use this when you trust the task and want agentty to move fast — paired with the sandbox and workspace boundary, an autonomous run still can't escape your project directory or read your secrets.
Minimal
The most conservative profile — every tool prompts first, including pure reads, search, and definition lookup. Use it when you want to approve each step explicitly, even inspection. (In ACP mode this is the tier that makes Zed prompt on reads too.)
✦TipThe permission policy is a compile-time constexpr matrix guarded by static_asserts. Changing a policy cell breaks the build, not a test nobody runs — the safety guarantee is structural.