defaultMode
A Claude Code settings key, read out of the shipped bundle. No mined inventory carries it: everything below comes from what this site has written about it.
Saying yes to the auto-mode prompt now actually saves auto as your default permission mode.
Not Anthropic's. This is the line from the earliest changelog entry here that named it, v2.1.225.
In the changelogs
16Releases whose published page names defaultMode.
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v2.1.282
Broken managed settings now fail safe, including permission and sandbox blocks
An invalid value in managed settings now becomes its most restrictive value, and a block with an unreadable deny rule loses its allow grants
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.282
Remote Control project-thread child sessions get automatic compaction
Child sessions started for a project thread over Remote Control now have automatic compaction turned on unless you have set it yourself
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.281
Hidden
claude -p --cloudheadless cloud-print path added, but compiled offCode for a headless
claude -p --cloudrun is added, but the switch that enables it returns false, so no one can use it in 2.1.281found in this entry's text
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v2.1.257
New tengu_settings_mode_widening_carry_ignored telemetry for settings-level widening
Project or local settings can no longer widen the effective permission mode via defaultMode.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.242
Cloud-hosted sessions now refuse local CLI options instead of quietly dropping them
Running with --cloud now tells you which local CLI options were ignored or refused, and why.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.232
IDE connect payload can advertise a permission-mode nudge
IDE connections can be told auto mode was only a fallback and which default would be offered instead.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.232
IDE hosts can drive the auto-mode default nudge
Your editor can show and answer the prompt offering auto as your default permission mode.
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.225
Auto-default nudge actually flips the mode, and reports the outcome
Saying yes to the auto-mode prompt now actually saves auto as your default permission mode.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.225
The bypassPermissions consent flag reaches startup mode resolution
Setting defaultMode to bypassPermissions now works in VS Code when you have enabled the consent setting.
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.225
VS Code-owned sessions get their own settings defaultMode handling
In VS Code sessions, unsafe default permission modes from settings are refused and fall back to normal.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.213
/import— Migrate Config from Other AI Coding Agentsfound in this entry's text
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v2.1.205
/doctorredesigned as a comprehensive 8-check repair skillfound in this entry's text
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v2.1.110
bypassPermissions Mode Scoping
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.70
Remote Mode: Restricted defaultMode Settings
found in this entry's text
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v1.0.93
Permission Mode Persistence
found in this entry's text
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v1.0.22
Enhanced Permission Modes
found in this entry's text
First cited
1The earliest release whose published evidence quoted defaultMode was v2.1.281, 23 Sep 2026. That is the oldest release this project wrote about it, so it is a floor on the name's age and not the release that introduced it. It is not a presence reading: which builds carried the name is the table below.
Presence across releases
0The miner has never read a build containing this name. It is here because a changelog entry of ours names it, which is evidence that it existed and not evidence of which releases carried it. The inventory starts at v2.1.138 and everything older than that was never mined.
Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the settings key does. All settings keys.