How to Configure Tool Approval Modes and Set Up Approval Workflows in Reasonix

Reasonix provides three tool approval modes—Ask, Auto, and Yolo—that control whether tool calls require explicit user confirmation, allowing you to balance safety and automation based on task risk and environment.

Reasonix is an AI coding assistant with a sophisticated tool permission subsystem that governs how external operations like file writes, shell commands, and network calls are executed. Understanding how to configure tool approval modes and design approval workflows is essential for both interactive development and automated CI/CD pipelines. This guide covers the complete configuration surface based on the esengine/DeepSeek-Reasonix source code.

Understanding the Three Tool Approval Modes

Reasonix implements three distinct modes that determine when user intervention is required. These modes operate independently of collaboration modes (Plan, Goal, etc.) and are managed by the desktop composer's tool permission subsystem.

Ask Mode

Ask mode demands confirmation for every controlled tool call. When a tool requires approval, Reasonix presents an approval card with four options:

• Allow once – permits this single invocation
• Allow for the session – remembers the decision until restart
• Always allow – persists the permission to user configuration
• Deny – blocks and cancels the operation

Use Ask mode for high-risk edits, unfamiliar repositories, or production-critical changes. This is the default mode in Reasonix, ensuring safe behavior for headless runs.

Auto Mode

Auto mode automatically approves ordinary tool permissions while preserving safeguards. Explicit ask/deny rules, sandbox limits, and certain privileged calls still require confirmation. This mode suits daily coding tasks, small fixes, and trusted workspaces where you want efficiency without completely bypassing security boundaries.

Yolo Mode

Yolo mode skips ordinary tool-approval prompts, allowing writes and commands to run continuously. However, explicit deny rules and sandbox constraints still apply. Reserve Yolo mode for bulk mechanical edits on disposable branches or roll-back-able worktrees where interruption would impede productivity.

Mode	Ordinary Tools	Explicit Rules	Sandbox Limits	Best For
Ask	Requires approval	Enforced	Enforced	High-risk, production work
Auto	Auto-approved	Enforced	Enforced	Daily development
Yolo	Auto-approved	Enforced	Enforced	Bulk edits, safe environments

Configuring Tool Approval Modes

CLI Configuration

Switch modes on-the-fly using the --permission-mode flag or its aliases. Headless runs (reasonix run) default to Ask mode and fail closed on pending approvals unless explicitly configured otherwise.

# Run with automatic approvals (short flag)

reasonix run --auto "implement the TODOs in main.go"

# Run with automatic approvals (long flag)

reasonix run --permission-mode auto "implement the TODOs in main.go"

# Run in Yolo mode

reasonix run -y "refactor all test files"

# Explicit Ask mode (redundant but explicit)

reasonix run --permission-mode ask "deploy to staging"

The --auto and -y flags are convenience aliases for --permission-mode auto and --permission-mode yolo respectively, as implemented in the CLI argument parser.

User Configuration File

Set a permanent default mode in `~/.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instagit@latest"]
    }
  }
}