Configuration
Claude Code
Run safe-chains --setup to automatically configure the hook in ~/.claude/settings.json. Or manually add:
"hooks": {
"PreToolUse": [
{
"matcher": "Bash",
"hooks": [
{
"type": "command",
"command": "safe-chains"
}
]
}
]
}
Restart your Claude Code sessions to activate the hook. Updating the safe-chains binary takes effect immediately.
Cleaning up approved commands
Once safe-chains is active, most of your existing Bash(...) approved commands in ~/.claude/settings.json and .claude/settings.local.json are redundant. safe-chains already handles them with stricter, flag-level validation.
More importantly, broad patterns can weaken your security. A pattern like Bash(bash *) will approve bash -c "rm -rf /" — Claude Code matches the pattern before safe-chains gets a chance to recursively validate the inner command.
Review your approved commands and remove any that safe-chains covers. A good prompt for this:
Find every .claude folder on my system — ~/.claude, any .claude
folders at the top of my projects directory, and .claude folders
inside individual repos. For each settings.json and
settings.local.json, check every Bash(...) pattern against
safe-chains (run `safe-chains "command"` to test). Flag overly
broad patterns like Bash(bash *) or Bash(sh *) that bypass
safe-chains' recursive validation. Present me with a suggested
list of changes for each file before making any edits.
Or, to clear out all approved Bash commands from every Claude settings file at once:
find ~/.claude ~/projects -maxdepth 4 -name 'settings*.json' -path '*/.claude/*' | while read f; do
jq '
if .approved_commands then .approved_commands |= map(select(startswith("Bash(") | not)) else . end |
if .permissions.allow then .permissions.allow |= map(select(startswith("Bash(") | not)) else . end
' "$f" > "$f.tmp" && mv "$f.tmp" "$f" && echo "Cleaned $f"
done
This removes every Bash(...) entry but leaves non-Bash permissions (WebFetch, Edit, etc.) untouched.
OpenCode (experimental)
Generate OpenCode permission.bash rules from safe-chains’ command list:
safe-chains --opencode-config > opencode.json