Switching Methods & Cycle Order

There are four ways to switch or set the permission mode in Claude Code.

Switch Methods

1. Shift+Tab: Cycles through default, acceptEdits, and plan in the terminal.
2. Commands: Use /plan to enter plan mode.
3. CLI Flags: --permission-mode <mode> or --dangerously-skip-permissions.
4. Settings File: Set permissions.defaultMode in your settings.json.

Shift+Tab Cycle Order

flowchart LR
  D[default] --> A[acceptEdits]
  A --> P[plan]
  P --> B{Bypass enabled?}
  B -- Yes --> BP[bypassPermissions]
  BP --> AC{Auto eligible?}
  B -- No --> AC
  AC -- Yes --> AT[auto]
  AT --> D

Persistent Settings

You can define the default mode for all sessions in ~/.claude/settings.json or per project in .claude/settings.json:

{
  "permissions": {
    "defaultMode": "acceptEdits"
  }
}