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When an agent calls a sensitive or external tool, PraisonAI can pause and ask you before it runs. Your choices can be saved as project rules for next time.

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Quick Start

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="Coder",
    instructions="Edit files as requested",
    approval=True,
)
agent.start("Refactor utils.py")
With the CLI: 
praisonai --approval console run "Refactor utils.py"
You will see a prompt like: 
⚠ Tool Approval Required
Tool: edit(path='utils.py', ...)
Risk: medium
Agent: Coder

Options:
  [a] Allow once
  [A] Always allow (persist rule)
  [d] Deny
  [D] Always deny (persist rule)

Your choice:

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When approval is required

Approval runs when any of these apply:
  • The agent has approval=True (or a CLI --approval backend)
  • The tool is in the default dangerous-tools list (e.g. bash, write, delete)
  • The tool has trust_level == "external" in the tool registry

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Approval modes

CLI flagPermissionModeValueBehaviour
--approval consoleDEFAULTdefaultPrompt for each sensitive call
--approval planPLANplanBlock write, edit, delete, bash, shell
--approval accept-editsACCEPT_EDITSaccept_editsAuto-approve edit/write tools
--approval bypassBYPASSbypass_permissionsSkip all checks
The CLI uses --approval bypass but the enum value is bypass_permissions.

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Persistence

Press [A] or [D] to write a PermissionRule to .praisonai/permissions/rules.json (priority 100, scoped to the project directory). Manage rules with: 
praisonai permissions list
praisonai permissions allow "bash:git *"
FileShared?
rules.jsonYes — commit for team rules
approvals.jsonNo — local session data

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Non-interactive and CI

praisonai --yes --approval console run "Check deployment"
PRAISONAI_NON_INTERACTIVE=1 praisonai --approval console run "Check deployment"
Without a TTY, prompts default to deny so CI pipelines fail closed.

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Best practices

Use --approval plan until you trust the agent’s behaviour in a codebase.
Tools marked external always prompt — verify third-party integrations before allowing.
Team-wide allow/deny patterns belong in version control.

Permissions CLI

praisonai permissions reference

Permission Modes

All modes for agents and CLI

Permissions Module

Python SDK API