Permission modes

Permission modes define what kind of tools Voss may run. Each role in a team declares its own mode, so a reviewer can be locked to plan while a backend worker gets scoped edit.

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Plan mode

Plan mode is the default for voss, voss ui, voss chat, and voss do. It is for reasoning, inspection, and architecture work. Use plan mode when you want:

• A repo summary
• A change plan
• A risk assessment
• A pull request description
• A no-mutation investigation

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Edit mode

Edit mode is the default for voss edit. It allows reads and scoped file writes, but denies shell_run. Use edit mode when you know which files or directories Voss should work on.

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Auto mode

Auto mode is for higher-trust flows where the agent may need to run more tools. It still depends on lower-level safeguards such as cwd jailing, shell allowlists, timeouts, and project policy.

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Observe mode

Observe mode is a stricter read-only tier for runs nobody is watching. It denies writes, shell, and network tools outright instead of prompting.