[DOCS] In settings to deny rules override allow rules or the other way round?

[xpluscal]

Documentation Type

Unclear/confusing documentation

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings#permission-settings

Section/Topic

Permission Settings

Current Documentation

allow	Array of permission rules to allow tool use. Note: Bash rules use prefix matching, not regex	[ "Bash(git diff:*)" ]
ask	Array of permission rules to ask for confirmation upon tool use.	[ "Bash(git push:*)" ]
deny	Array of permission rules to deny tool use. Use this to also exclude sensitive files from Claude Code access. Note: Bash patterns are prefix matches and can be bypassed (see Bash permission limitations)	[ "WebFetch", "Bash(curl:*)", "Read(./.env)", "Read(./secrets/**)" ]

allow Array of permission rules to allow tool use. Note: Bash rules use prefix matching, not regex [ "Bash(git diff:)" ] ask Array of permission rules to ask for confirmation upon tool use. [ "Bash(git push:)" ] deny Array of permission rules to deny tool use. Use this to also exclude sensitive files from Claude Code access. Note: Bash patterns are prefix matches and can be bypassed (see Bash permission limitations) [ "WebFetch", "Bash(curl:*)", "Read(./.env)", "Read(./secrets/**)" ]

What's Wrong or Missing?

From the docs it is unclear if allow rules precede deny rules or not.

Example:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Bash(ls:*)",
      "Bash(pwd)"
    ],
    "deny": [
      "Bash(*)"
    ]
  }
}

Which one here takes precedence? Thanks!

Suggested Improvement

Be clear as to how allow vs deny works.

Impact

High - Prevents users from using a feature

Additional Context

This has significant impact on security posture and using claude code / the agent sdk in production.

[github-actions[bot]]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/6970
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/11132
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/6527

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

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[GomezDerek]

I support that this should be explicitly noted in the docs

[CallisteH]

Hi, did you find a workaround for this ?

Specially for Read(files), the deny seems to take precedence. Allow is useless for files for now.

Se we can't have a whitelist of files