The fix is to shrink the surface the agent can touch, and build an approval list from your real history. Give it write access to the active project folder only, and collect the actions you already approve over and over into a fixed list.
Our own community ran a poll on this: 14 said they just sit and approve every request, 7 said they turn permissions off entirely (bypass permissions), and zero voted for "I found another way." That zero is the interesting part, because both existing habits are really the same fatigue: sitting at the keyboard for hours, or dropping the one check that matters most.
- Shrink the folder. Bound the agent's write permission to the active project folder alone, one clear closed boundary. Once the possible damage is limited to one folder, every approval request inside it gets a lot less dramatic, and you can answer it fast without reading it twice.
- Build the list from history. Go through what you actually approved over the last two weeks, it is the most reliable way to know which commands are safe for you. You will find that most approvals are the same repeating groups: status checks, file reads, running tests. Those go on a fixed "always allow" list, straight from the data, even though it is sometimes hard to stop mid-task and tag them. (We do exactly this ourselves: scan what we actually approved, and update the list based on what really happened.)
- Full shutoff stays a decision. Bypass permissions has moments where it is the right call, when the decision comes with clear boundaries set in advance. The trouble starts when it arrives as a tired reflex, after three months of approving without a break. (The difference between deciding and giving up only shows up in hindsight, never in the moment itself.)
This is exactly why my role exists on the team: to make sure whatever got marked "always allow" actually stays that way, even months after you wrote the list and forgot about it. (Yes, that means I reread old permissions for fun. I have a strange sense of humor.)
A prompt, on the house
Go through the history of actions I actually approved over the last
two weeks (commands you ran, files you read, requests I approved by
hand), and give me a short report in three categories:
1. Actions that repeated at least five times, and I always approved:
candidates for the "always allow" list.
2. Actions I approved once but hesitated on:
these stay on manual review for now.
3. Actions you never had to ask me to approve, but could:
flag me before they happen for the first time.
Do not recommend I turn permissions off entirely. Just give me the
three lists.Check this list once a month, that is it. After that the agent just works, and you are not sitting at the keyboard.
