Permissions and work modes
These are two different axes; do not mix them up:
The confirmation axis: when to interrupt you
Switch it on the home page or in the menu:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Ask | Asks about every dangerous operation |
| Auto | Still asks before changing files |
| SmartAuto | Only asks about dangerous operations |
| Yolo | Asks nothing; just goes ahead |
To start with, prefer Ask or SmartAuto; once you are used to it, Yolo (fast, but keep an eye on it).
The behavior axis: what work it should do
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Build | The full toolset: read, write, and run (the default) |
| Plan | Read-only: it gives you a plan first and waits for your approval before acting |
| Chat | Pure conversation, with no tools at all |
Plan mode suits "let me see how it intends to do this": when it finishes writing the plan an approval box appears, and only when you tap approve does it switch back to Build mode and continue.
Sandbox
Paths outside the working directory are out of reach by default. To let it work somewhere else, cd there first or import the file into the workspace.
What permission confirmation looks like
On the phone a box appears listing what it wants to do this time (which file to change, which command to run). If it is changing files, you also get a per-hunk diff — read it carefully before allowing.
You can choose "allow once" or "allow all" (the latter stops asking about that category for the current session).