Settings Editor

The Settings Editor lets you manage Claude Code permissions, environment variables, and other settings through a visual interface instead of editing JSON files by hand.

Permissions

Permissions control which tools and actions Claude Code is allowed to use. They consist of allow and deny rules using glob patterns.

Allow Rules

Allow rules grant Claude Code permission to use specific tools or perform actions. Each rule is a glob pattern such as:

Bash(*) — allow all bash commands
Read(~/projects/**) — allow reading files in the projects directory
Write(src/**) — allow writing to the src directory

Deny Rules

Deny rules block specific tools or actions. Deny rules take precedence over allow rules when both match. Examples:

Bash(rm -rf *) — deny destructive remove commands
Write(.env) — deny writing to environment files

Disallowed Tools

You can also completely disable specific tools by adding them to the disallowed tools list. This prevents Claude Code from using those tools entirely.

Environment Variables

The Environment tab lets you manage key-value environment variables that are passed to Claude Code. These variables are available during Claude Code sessions and can be used by MCP servers and hooks.

Add, edit, or remove variables using the visual editor.

Scope: Global vs. Project

Settings can be configured at three levels:

Level	File	Scope
Global	`~/.claude/settings.json`	Applies to all projects
Project Shared	`<project>/.claude/settings.json`	Shared with the team via version control
Project Local	`<project>/.claude/settings.local.json`	Your personal overrides, gitignored

When the same setting exists at multiple levels, the most specific level wins:

Project Local > Project Shared > Global

Global Settings

Access global settings by clicking Global Settings in the sidebar or pressing Cmd+,. The global settings editor has four tabs:

Permissions — global allow/deny rules
Environment — global environment variables
MCP Servers — globally configured MCP servers
Advanced — raw JSON view