alt Hacker NewsI manually approve everything (aside from the "allow commands like this" option). Not because I'm worried it's about to do something harmful but because I want to stop it from wasting tokens doing something stupid like implementing a feature I never asked ask for. I'm not even reading the commands, just checking it's going in vaguely the right direction.
I think my ideal setup would not involve approving commands, but approving summaries of proposed actions (whether they involve code exec or file edits). Kinda like plan mode but perpetual. Like most things, trying to solve it via CLAUDE.md is an exercise in futility.
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You can get some approximation of that with more detailed plans. I use a prompt like "Let's make a detailed plan. Write plan files as markdown to plans/feature-XYZ. [regular prompt]". That way you get much more thorough plans than with plan mode, and you can make it as detailed and deep as you want.
It can't account for things that only come up during implementation. But you can explore much more of the design space in planning to reduce the opportunities for Claude to wander down the wrong path during implementation
I run in manual mode not out of rogue agent or token waste concern but because I want to effectively pair program with the agent. I need to understand what is happening along with the how and why. I’m confident I’m slower than YOLO people but that’s a trade off I’m consciously making so I can stay in the loop to comprehend the codebase.
Your summary approval idea is interesting and feels maybe like a mini plan mode. My biggest frustration with the existing manual approval system is when Claude is exploring it gets tedious to approve each command. Being able to approve a block of commands or a mini plan AND have auto mode audit them for safety would probably be something I would consider for the expiration phase of my Claude use.