Anthropic is turning Claude Code’s auto mode on by default

Anthropic also said that in testing, auto mode proved safer than manual review — in a study with 1,053 paid testers, auto mode caught 89% of harmful actions, while human review only caught 13.6%. (Perhaps that’s because “manual review can become habitual: users approve 97% of permission prompts in Claude Code.”)

In a post on X, Claude Code Head Boris Cherny said, “The team and I use Auto mode exclusively, and have been for many months. I couldn’t imagine going back to permission prompts!”

The company also said it’s been adding new safety features like prompt injection screening and customizable hard deny rules to prevent things like data exfiltration.