github / github/app

Tool whitelist for interactive mode (permissions)

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Description

### Feature summary

Tool whitelist for interactive mode on a global level (not only per session or repo)

### What problem are you trying to solve?

Currently Interactive mode requires manual approval for every tool call, including safe read-only operations (grep, cat, find, git log, git status, etc.). The only alternative is /allow-all which also approves destructive operations.

This feature request was also opened in the copilot-cli repo: https://github.com/github/copilot-cli/issues/1973

### Proposed solution

A user-scoped / global `permissions-config.json` instead of on a per-repo basis (https://github.com/github/copilot-cli/issues/1973#issuecomment-4335076889), could both be a solution for the copilot CLI and for the Copilot App too. Nice to have: from the settings menu you could edit these easily.

Workaround for github CLI at this time is a command line alias that includes the right allow flags (https://github.com/github/copilot-cli/issues/1973#issuecomment-4040243845). Modifuing the command line arguments in the copilot app is not supported so this is even a bigger problem here.

### Workflow impact

This would reduce the amount of times copilot asks for manual approval drastically, while still following principle of least privilege (that's why I don't use /allow-all-tools or auto mode)

### Installation context

_No response_

### Additional context

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by tracing interactive-mode approval behavior and the existing /allow-all path in the Copilot App. Then inspect how user settings and per-repository permissions are represented. Done means a user-scoped permissions configuration can allow selected safe tools globally while preserving approval for unlisted or destructive operations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
authorization, desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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