One: connector permissions
When you connect another app to Claude, it gives you a list of everything it can do in that app: read your emails, create a draft, delete a file, and so on. Each one can be set to one of three things.
-
Always allow
Claude uses it without asking. Keep this for things that only read, or that you’d happily let it do a hundred times a day.
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Ask first
Claude stops and asks you before it does it. The right setting for anything that sends, changes or creates something other people will see.
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Blocked
Claude can never use it. Use this for anything you don’t want it touching at all, like deleting.
To set them: in Claude, go to Customize > Connectors, pick the connector, and set each tool’s permission.
It’s your responsibility to go through that list and set each one. Do it the day you connect the app, not after something goes wrong.
Two: Claude Code’s five permission modes
The permission mode decides what Claude Code can do without asking you first. There are five.
| Mode | What Claude can do without asking | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Manual | Only read. You approve every edit, command and web request. | Sensitive work, or you want to see every single step. |
| 2. Edit automatically | Read, edit and create files, and run common file commands like moving and copying. | You’re working through changes you’ll review as they happen. |
| 3. Plan | Read and write a plan. Nothing changes until you approve it. | Any bigger build. Start here. |
| 4. Auto | Everything, with a second AI checking anything risky before it runs. | Longer tasks where you trust the direction and don’t want to keep clicking yes. |
| 5. Bypass permissions | Everything. No questions, no checks. | You want Claude to work through a job with no interruptions at all. |
Before Claude changes anything, it makes sure there’s a clear plan. On a bigger build I always start in Plan mode. Five minutes getting a good plan is better than an hour undoing a build.
How to switch modes
-
In the terminal
Press
Shift+Tabto cycle through the modes. The current one shows under the prompt. -
In VS Code
Click the mode label at the bottom of the Claude Code prompt box and pick one.
-
In the Claude desktop app
In the Code tab, use the mode selector next to the send button.
Worth knowing: new Claude Code sessions now start in Auto by default. If you’ve never changed it, that’s the mode you’re in.
How to choose
Decide by how sensitive the project is, and what information is inside it.
- Client data, money, anything you can’t undo: Manual, or Plan first and then Manual.
- A new build or a big change: Plan first, approve the plan, then let it work.
- Routine work on your own files: Edit automatically or Auto.
What you need
- For connector permissions: any Claude plan with a connector added.
- For permission modes: Claude Code on a paid Claude plan, in the terminal, VS Code or the desktop app.
Where this goes
Once you know what Claude is allowed to do on its own, you can start handing it work before you even sit down. That’s Day 25.
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