cloud-environment: compose the claude-permissions floor into cloud sessions

[kyle-sexton]

Type: Bug

Owner decision 2026-09-29 on melodic-software/claude-code-plugins#3172: option A. The owner approved filing the fix here. This issue references #3172 and does not close it; #3172 stays open until this ships.

Summary

The fleet's reviewed permission floor (components/claude-permissions) has no composition mechanism that reaches Claude Code cloud sessions. The one active consumer mechanism, the dotfiles chezmoi user-layer template, never runs in a cloud session (no chezmoi apply there), so cloud sessions get neither the deny safety floor nor the allow grants an unattended loop needs.

Current behavior

A fresh cloud session's ~/.claude/settings.json has no permissions block. The classifier alone governs every shell and tool call, with no reviewed deny floor and no pre-approved grants for routine unattended verbs (git add, git commit, git push, gh pr create, gh issue comment). Re-verified 2026-09-29 from claude-code-plugins#3172: no permissions in any scope, and components/cloud-environment/ and components/cloud-bootstrap/ contain no reference to claude-permissions or permissions.

Desired behavior

Before the first agent turn, a cloud session's ~/.claude/settings.json carries the full claude-permissions floor (allow and deny), composed by jq union and never by overwriting the file.

Approach (option A)

• Site: components/cloud-environment/setup.sh, not cloud-bootstrap.sh. The floor is fleet-wide, repo-agnostic data. Respect the README's "Calling contract (frozen)" and "Network prerequisite" sections: the entry-point path and env vars stay unchanged, steps may be added, and every step stays best-effort (|| true, script always exits 0, logged WARN on failure).
• Scope: compose the full floor, not a cloud-specific subset. Plugin-scoped allow entries for plugins a repo has not installed match nothing, so they are inert.
• Mechanism: jq union of claudePermissions.allow and claudePermissions.deny from components/claude-permissions/claude-permissions.json into ~/.claude/settings.json. Never overwrite existing content. Honoring withdraw is optional (advisory per that key's own framing).
• Precedent for the merge shape: the dotfiles chezmoi ~/.claude/settings.json modify-template.

Verification

• Extend components/cloud-environment/setup.test.sh and components/claude-permissions/claude-permissions.test.sh; do not replace them.
• Live check: after the composition step runs in a fresh environment, ~/.claude/settings.json contains both the deny floor and the unattended-loop allow grants.

Related

• Cloud sessions compose no permission floor: standards claude-permissions (allow AND deny) is never applied claude-code-plugins#3172 (originating issue and evidence; stays open until this ships)