Start In Manual Mode On Purpose
Manual permission mode shows you a diff before every single change — accept or reject. It's slightly nagging and exactly how you learn to read what the agent does; graduate to accept-edits only once the diff-accept cycle feels like routine.
Why it works
Manual mode shows you a diff before any change touches your files — you accept or reject each one. It feels slow and that's the point: the first week is you learning to read what an agent does, and that literacy is what makes the faster modes safe later. Skipping straight to auto modes is skipping the week that builds your judgment.
How to do it
- Check the permission selector near the prompt field; keep the default manual mode for week one.
- Give a task; when the agent wants to edit a file, a diff appears.
- Read it: green lines are added, red are removed. You don't need to 'know code' to see shape and scope.claude code
index.html +267 −0 Accept Reject
The whole workflow in one bar: read the counts, then decide. - Click Accept if it matches your intent, Reject if it doesn't — nothing applies without you.
- By day 3–5, when accepting feels like a rubber stamp, switch to accept-edits mode.
- Return to manual any time you're doing something delicate — the selector switches per session, any time.
Copy this
prompt
Before I accept: summarize this diff in two plain-English sentences — what changes, and what could break if you're wrong.
What to watch for
- Accepting without reading trains the worst possible habit; if you're going to rubber-stamp, at least read the agent's own summary of the change.
- Bypass ('no questions') mode is not the next step after manual — it's for isolated sandboxes, not your laptop.
Sources
Original: conon.aiDocumentation: code.claude.com