Permission modes & thinking¶
Two controls next to the message input decide how much rope Claude gets: the permission mode button (what it may do without asking) and the effort gauge (how hard it thinks). Both are per-session with a global default.
Permission modes¶
The colored button beside the input shows the current mode; click it to pick a level, ordered least to most permissive. The list comes from the engine the session runs on — the default engine (the Claude Code SDK engine) offers these six. The input border takes on the mode's color so you always know which session is armed and which is read-only.
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Plan | Read-only — explore and design, no writes |
| Ask (default) | Reads auto-allowed; every edit and command waits for your approval on a permission card |
| Don't Ask | Auto-deny anything not pre-approved by your allow rules |
| Accept Edits | Auto-approve edits in the workspace (plus in-scope file commands like mkdir/mv/cp); ask for the rest |
| Auto | An AI classifier reviews each tool call — reads and in-project edits sail through, riskier operations get blocked |
| YOLO | Skip all permission checks (bypassPermissions) |
Interactive permission cards¶
On the default SDK engine, any mode that would ask pauses the turn on an approve/deny card right in the chat — the elapsed timer freezes, and background tabs get a badge plus a click-to-go toast so you notice the wait from another session. Deny with an optional note back to Claude, or approve. Cards also surface the engine's own "always allow" options — allow this exact command in this project, allow a directory, or switch mode — exactly like the CLI's "don't ask again" prompts; pick one and Claude Code persists the rule itself (into your project's .claude/settings.local.json, say), so it won't ask again.
The default mode is Ask — reads run freely, but every edit and command waits for your approval on a card. Prefer Accept Edits to wave edits through and only get carded for commands, YOLO or Auto to let Claude just work, or Don't Ask to auto-deny anything your allow rules don't already cover. Plan stays read-only.
Pinning the classic engine
Start the server with --default-provider claude (or set default_provider: claude in config) to run the original line-protocol engine instead. It drives claude -p headless, where there is no interactive prompt: anything that would ask comes back to Claude as a denied tool call — Claude adapts (works around it or tells you what it wanted) — and an explainer card appears, "Claude tried to use Bash (git push) but was blocked by Don't Ask permission mode", pointing you at the permission button to loosen the mode and retry. On that engine the permissive modes (YOLO, Auto, Accept Edits) are where it shines; Don't Ask and Plan just deny.
Auto mode is a research preview
Auto maps to the CLI's --permission-mode auto, where a classifier model gates each call. It needs a recent CLI and model (Sonnet 4.6+/Opus 4.6+ on the Anthropic API; Team/Enterprise plans need an org owner to enable it). Also, headless auto sessions abort after 3 consecutive classifier blocks (or 20 total) — if Claude keeps getting blocked, the turn ends rather than looping.
Read the security notes before going YOLO
YOLO means Claude can run any command as the server user. That is the intended way to use this app — inside an isolated container or VM. See Read this first.
Per-session, with a default¶
Your chosen mode is saved with the session and restored when you reopen it. On the default SDK engine a mode switch applies immediately, even mid-turn — the running engine changes gear in place, so you can flip to Accept Edits while approval cards are stacking up and the rest of the turn follows the new mode (the system log confirms "applied to the running engine"). On the classic line-protocol engine — or whenever the live switch isn't possible — it takes effect on your next message instead, when the bridge respawns the idle Claude process with the new mode. The Set as default button in the popup makes the current mode the global default for new sessions (also editable in Settings).
Plan mode and plan approval¶
In Plan mode Claude explores read-only and ends with a plan. The plan renders as an interactive approval card — approve it and the session drops out of plan mode to execute; reject it and you stay planning. Tabs show a Plan ready for review badge while a plan waits. You can also enter plan mode for a single message by typing /plan in the input — see input modes.
Related: when Claude asks a clarifying question mid-turn (AskUserQuestion), the bridge by default stops it so you can answer — see When Claude asks you a question.
Effort levels¶
The circular gauge button next to the input controls Claude's effort — how many thinking tokens it spends — on a five-step scale: low, medium, high (the default), xhigh, max. The conic fill of the gauge shows the level at a glance (a fifth per step, glowing at max). It maps to the CLI's --effort flag.
- Click the gauge (or ++cmd+apostrophe++ / ++ctrl+apostrophe++) to open the level picker. Like permission modes, effort is per-session, with Set as default to change the global fallback.
- One-shot override: ++cmd+shift+apostrophe++ / ++ctrl+shift+apostrophe++ arms a temporary level for the next message only — first press bumps one level above your persistent setting, further presses cycle through the rest (including below it), and landing back on the persistent level disarms. A badge on the gauge shows the armed level; it clears itself after one send. Perfect for "give this one question the max treatment" without re-configuring.
Changing effort applies on your next message by respawning the idle process (unlike permission mode there's no live-apply here — the engine has no mid-session effort control).
Token profiles¶
If you have more than one Claude account (say, a personal Max plan and a work team seat), drop each OAuth token in a plain-text file under ~/.config/painapple-code/tokens/ — the filename becomes the profile name:
A profile chip then appears in the status bar next to the model name (it's hidden when the directory is empty). Click it to pick which account the current session bills to; the server sets CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN accordingly when it spawns Claude. Each session remembers its profile, and a global default is available.
The killer feature: when a turn ends rate-limited, the turn summary bar replaces its context bar with a Switch token: strip — one tap on another profile and you keep working on the other account's quota.
Choosing a model¶
The model name in the status bar is a selector — click it to switch the session's model. The catalog comes from the server's models.yaml (editable in Settings → Claude or by hand), including [1m] variants that run the same model with a 1M-token context window. A model switch applies from your next message onward, in the same conversation — on the default SDK engine the warm process changes model in place, so there's no respawn pause on your first message with the new model.
Optionally, a server-wide fallback_model key in ~/.painapple-code/config.json names a model to fall back to automatically when the primary is overloaded or unavailable (the CLI's --fallback-model) — the turn completes on the fallback instead of dying with an overload error.