Sync permissions with Claude Code

Sentinel’s rule database is the source of truth for permissions; ~/.claude/settings.json is a mirror. With sync on, edits flow both ways automatically.

1. Enable sync. In Settings, turn on Claude Code sync (claudeCodeSyncEnabled).

2. Import what you already have. Click Import from Claude Code settings.json to pull your existing allow/deny rules into Sentinel. This runs in import mode — the file wins for any rule that exists in both.

3. Manage rules in the UI. Add allow/deny/ask rules in the Security → Permission Rules panel. Allow and deny rules are pushed to settings.json; ask rules stay in Sentinel.

How the two stay in sync

• You edit in Sentinel → a push writes the allow/deny state to settings.json, preserving every other key in the file.
• You hand-edit settings.json → a debounced pull imports the change with merge semantics, then pushes back a normalized file.

ask rules migrate to Sentinel

If you add an ask rule directly to settings.json, the next pull imports it into Sentinel and the following push strips it from the file — ask lives in Sentinel only, so approvals have a single surface. See Permission rules.

Conflicts and duplicates

If the same rule appears in multiple buckets in the file, the most restrictive wins (deny > ask > allow). Duplicate file entries for the same raw text are collapsed. The UI is the safer path — it’s atomic and can’t produce ambiguous states.