Permission modes

A machine’s permission mode decides one thing only: what happens to a covered request that no rule matched. strict denies it, default prompts an operator and denies after 60 seconds of silence, and bypass allows it except on the protected floor. Prefer strict on anything unattended, and reach for the one-shot --approve flag instead of switching a whole machine to bypass.

The mode decides what happens to a covered request that no rule matched. It does not change what the rules themselves do, and it applies only on the paths the permission policy covers.

cmdop permissions mode          # show the current mode
cmdop permissions mode strict   # change it

Mode behavior

Prefer strict on a server. Move to default only when someone is actually there to answer — an unanswered prompt on an unattended machine is just a slow denial.

Bypass, and the thing you probably want instead

Switching the whole machine to bypass is rarely the right tool. For a single command, the global --approve flag auto-approves that invocation’s prompts without changing any persisted policy:

cmdop chat --approve

It is scoped to that one run and never written to disk, which makes it strictly safer than a mode change you might forget to revert.

If you do need bypass, note that its token is not generated for you:

cmdop permissions mode bypass --token <token>

The token must already exist in the machine’s permissions file — you author it there by hand before bypass mode can be enabled. There is no command that prints an existing one to copy. Do not store that token in a script, and do not treat bypass as a durable operating mode.

Verify after changing

cmdop permissions mode
cmdop permissions list

Changing the mode changes nothing outside Cmdop: OS users, file permissions, and network policy are unaffected, and the protected floor still denies what it denies — including under bypass.

Common questions

What is the safest Cmdop permission mode?

For unattended machines, use strict. It denies covered requests that match no rule, so the machine only runs actions you explicitly reviewed and allowed.

What does default mode do?

default prompts an operator for covered requests that no rule matched, then denies after 60 seconds if nobody answers. Use it only when someone is actually present to review prompts.

Is bypass mode permanent?

It should not be. bypass is for temporary, isolated troubleshooting and still cannot override the protected floor. For one command, use a scoped approval mechanism instead of changing the whole machine’s persisted mode.