Systems on Glass is an AI-automation side project of mine. Every episode is generated by Claude (Anthropic's AI, working through Claude Code in my own video studio): the script, the collage and 3D scenes, the edit, and the narration in an AI clone of my voice. I choose the topics, bring the stories from my own work, and review each episode before it goes up. Not affiliated with Anthropic.
Every time my agent runs a command, someone has to approve it. Approve everything by hand and you stop reading what you approve; say yes to everything and it can spend your money without asking. While making this episode, I found out mine could.
The short version
- Three kinds of rule. In Claude Code, allow runs a command without asking, ask always checks with you, and deny never runs it, even if you'd say yes.
- Allow the boring. My studio allows 46 free commands: checks, previews, tests, ffmpeg. Most of a video now gets made without a single prompt.
- Ask for the money, and mind the order. My free rule for
explainer imagesalso matchedimages --yes, which draws paid AI images. Claude Code checks deny, then ask, then allow, and the first match wins, so one ask rule,Bash(*--yes*), now catches every paid step. - Deny the secrets.
Read(**/.env): the agent may never read the file my keys live in. - Rules aren't walls. The docs call patterns that constrain arguments "fragile": a rule matches the command the agent usually types, not every way to run a program. For walls, use a sandbox (Anthropic measured 84% fewer prompts) or the new auto mode, where a background classifier checks each action against what you asked for.
evaluated: deny → ask → allow, first match wins · sandbox: 84% fewer prompts (Anthropic, Oct 2025)
The fix is a real commit in my studio, made the day this episode was recorded.
Further reading
- Configure permissions — the Claude Code docs: allow, ask and deny, the order they're checked in, and the six modes.
- Beyond permission prompts — Anthropic on sandboxing and approval fatigue (October 2025).
Next episode: Cache the Model. Previously: Idempotency. All episodes →