Permissions

Control filesystem access with declarative permission rules for Deep Agents

Control which files and directories an agent can read or write to using declarative permission rules. Pass a list of rules to permissions= and the agent’s built-in filesystem tools respect them.

Permissions require deepagents>=1.9.1.

Permissions only apply to the built-in filesystem tools (ls, read_file, glob, grep, write_file, edit_file). Custom tools and MCP tools that access the filesystem are not covered. Permissions also do not apply to sandbox backends, which support arbitrary command execution via the execute tool.

Use permissions when you need path-based allow/deny rules on the built-in filesystem tools. Use backend policy hooks when you need custom validation logic (rate limiting, audit logging, content inspection) or need to control custom tools.

Basic usage

Rule structure

Examples

Subagent permissions

Composite backends

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