A permission mode decides how often Claude asks before acting. When the session's proactivity level is something other than default, Claude Code now picks the starting permission mode from it. The level comes from the hidden --proactivity flag, or is handed over when Claude Code restarts itself.
ask: auto mode where auto mode is available, otherwise the default modeproactive: auto mode where available, otherwise accept-edits mode
Bypass permissions is never picked this way. It does not happen when you gave a mode yourself (--permission-mode, --inherit-permission-mode, --dangerously-skip-permissions, or an agent's own permission mode), when the proactivity selector is off (what turns it off), or when CLAUDE_CODE_SUBPROCESS_ENV_SCRUB forces the default mode.
A session started with --proactivity ask or --proactivity proactive can begin in a different permission mode than before, often auto mode.