A new settings key disableAutoMode is now recognized both nested under permissions.disableAutoMode and at the top level. Setting it to "disable" turns off Claude Code's Auto mode, logging the warning "auto mode disabled: disableAutoMode in settings" when applied.
It flows through the same managed-settings merge logic as disableBypassPermissionsMode, and the new top-level path lets admins disable Auto mode via a simpler managed-settings path than the nested permissions.disableAutoMode form.
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
| [Starting permission mode](/docs/en/permission-modes#which-mode-a-session-starts-in) | Choose the permission mode your developers' terminal sessions start in instead of the built-in starting permission mode, or remove auto mode. [Switch …admin-setup see the edit
* Changed `autoModeEnabled`: unless it is `false`, new Code tab sessions now start in Auto mode where the selected model supports it, and when the key is not set the Code tab now offers Auto mode (previously only when it was `true`). Cowor…cowork/changelog see the edit
Anthropic's documentation has since written up disableAutoMode, on Changelog.