Claude settings

Claude Settings

Show which token-saving levers are currently on or off in the user-level Claude Code settings, let the user flip any of them, and apply the change safely. This is a toggle, not an install: it is safe to re-run any time to flip features back.

Hard rules

• Never write without an explicit user choice. Use the AskUserQuestion tool when it's available in the session; where it isn't, ask in plain text with the same numbered options and stop until the user replies. Selecting nothing means writing nothing.
• Merge, never rewrite. The settings file holds unrelated keys (model, enabledPlugins, tui, ...). Only set or delete the exact keys the user chose, via jq. Never emit a hand-built full file.
• Leave scoped permission rules alone. Only bare tool names in permissions.deny (e.g. "NotebookEdit") remove the tool's definition from the prompt payload. Entries containing ( — e.g. "Bash(rm *)" — are scoped rules: they block execution but save zero tokens. Never add, remove, or reorder them, and never offer them as toggles.
• jq is required. If command -v jq fails, stop and tell the user to install it. Never fall back to editing the JSON by hand or with sed.
• User-level file only. The target is ${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.claude}/settings.json. Do not touch project .claude/settings.json files even if present.
• Walk through everything, every run. The walkthrough has two mandatory halves: the feature flags (step 3a) and the built-in tools catalog (step 3b). Never end the asking phase after the feature flags alone — 3b runs even if the user selected nothing in 3a.

Feature catalog

A feature is ON when its key is absent from the settings file or set to any value other than the "value when OFF" below. To turn a feature back ON, delete the key (restores the default and keeps the file minimal) rather than writing the opposite value, unless the user explicitly wants it pinned.

Feature	Settings key	Value when OFF	Token impact	What you lose when OFF
Bundled skills catalog	disableBundledSkills	true	Large	Built-in skills catalogue in the system prompt
Workflows	disableWorkflows	true	Large	Workflow tool and workflow commands
Artifacts	disableArtifact	true	Medium	Artifact tool (publishing to claude.ai)
Background agents	disableAgentView	true	Medium	claude agents, /background, supervisor
claude.ai connectors	disableClaudeAiConnectors	true	Medium	Auto-fetched claude.ai MCP connectors
Remote control	disableRemoteControl	true	Small	Controlling the session remotely
Hooks + status line	disableAllHooks	true	Varies	ALL hooks and the custom status line
Auto memory	autoMemoryEnabled	false	Medium	Automatic memory across sessions
File checkpointing	fileCheckpointingEnabled	false	Small	File snapshots for /rewind
Auto-compact	autoCompactEnabled	false	Small	Automatic compaction; caution: hitting the context limit then ends the session, which may cost more than it saves
Away summaries	awaySummaryEnabled	false	Small	Session recap after returning from absence

Built-in tools (permissions.deny)

Adding a bare tool name to permissions.deny strips that tool's definition from the prompt payload entirely. A tool is ON when its bare name is absent from the array. Walk the user through every group below — don't cherry-pick a few candidates. Accept any other bare tool name the user asks for.

Group	Tools	What you lose when denied
Plan mode	EnterPlanMode, ExitPlanMode	Plan mode entirely
Scheduling & remote	CronCreate, CronDelete, CronList, ScheduleWakeup, RemoteTrigger, PushNotification	Scheduled/recurring tasks, remote triggers, push notifications
Web	WebFetch, WebSearch	Fetching URLs and searching the web (docs lookups suffer)
Agent teamwork	SendMessage, TaskOutput, TaskStop, Monitor	Messaging/inspecting background agents (keep if you use subagents)
Editor & review extras	NotebookEdit, DesignSync, ReportFindings, LSP	Jupyter edits, design sync, structured review findings, language-server queries
Session niceties	TodoWrite, AskUserQuestion	Todo tracking; interactive multiple-choice questions

Caveats to state when offering these:

• Never offer to deny core tools (Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, Agent, Skill, ToolSearch) — that breaks basic operation, and if the user insists, warn them first.
• Denying AskUserQuestion degrades every interactive skill, including this one (it falls back to plain-text questions). Flag this explicitly if selected.
• Tools whose feature also has a settings flag (e.g. Artifact / disableArtifact, Workflow / disableWorkflows) are better turned off via the flag — offer the flag, not the deny entry.
• This list tracks the current Claude Code tool set and may lag behind new releases; if the user names a tool not listed here, take it at face value as long as it's a bare name.

Steps

1. Read current state — one call

CFG="${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.claude}/settings.json"
command -v jq || echo "NO-JQ"
[ -f "$CFG" ] && jq . "$CFG" || echo "MISSING"

• NO-JQ → stop and tell the user to install jq.
• MISSING → treat the current state as {} (everything ON) and note the file will be created on apply.
• jq parse error → stop. Show jq's error and the file path and tell the user to fix or delete the file themselves. Never write over a file that doesn't parse.

2. Show the state table

Render two compact tables for the user:

1. Features: Feature | State (ON/OFF) | Token impact | What turns off — one row per catalog entry, state derived from the catalog rules.
2. Built-in tools: Group | Tools | State — one row per group from the tools catalog, marking each tool ON or OFF (OFF = its bare name is in permissions.deny).

If scoped deny rules exist, mention how many there are and that they will be preserved untouched — do not list them as toggles.

3a. Ask about feature flags

With AskUserQuestion, one call with multiSelect questions grouped as: Big wins (bundled skills, workflows, artifacts, background agents), Cloud & session extras (connectors, remote control, away summaries, auto memory), Local machinery (hooks, checkpointing, auto-compact). Show each item only in its meaningful direction — "Disable X" when it's ON, "Re-enable X" when it's OFF — with the token-impact hint in the label.

3b. Ask about built-in tools — mandatory, never skip

Always follows 3a, regardless of what was (or wasn't) selected there. With AskUserQuestion, use multiSelect questions, one per tools-catalog group (max 4 questions per call, 4 options per question — spread the groups over as many calls as it takes). Every tool gets its own option. The only exceptions are sets that are useless apart and always toggle as one: "Cron tools" (CronCreate/CronDelete/CronList) and "Plan mode" (EnterPlanMode/ExitPlanMode). Never merge other tools just to fit the option limit — split the group across two questions or an extra call instead. Same direction rule as 3a: "Remove X" when ON, "Restore X" when OFF.

Without AskUserQuestion, list all toggles from 3a and 3b as one numbered list and ask the user to reply with the numbers to flip (e.g. 1 2 8) or none, then stop and wait.

After both halves: drop any selection that already matches the current state. If nothing remains (or the user selected nothing), report "no changes made" and end.

4. Confirm and apply

Show the exact change set as key: old → new (plus deny additions/removals), then confirm with AskUserQuestion (options: apply / cancel) — plain-text yes/no only when the tool is unavailable. On apply, run atomically in one command — compose the jq filter from these building blocks:

• Turn a feature OFF: .disableWorkflows = true / .autoMemoryEnabled = false (value from the catalog)
• Turn a feature ON: del(.disableWorkflows)
• Remove a tool: .permissions.deny = (((.permissions.deny // []) + ["TodoWrite"]) | unique)
• Restore a tool: .permissions.deny -= ["TodoWrite"], then del(.permissions.deny) if the array is empty and del(.permissions) if permissions is then empty

CFG_DIR="${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.claude}"
CFG="$CFG_DIR/settings.json"
mkdir -p "$CFG_DIR"
tmp="$(mktemp "$CFG_DIR/settings.json.XXXXXX")"
jq '<FILTER>' "$CFG" >"$tmp" && jq empty "$tmp" && mv "$tmp" "$CFG" || rm -f "$tmp"

When the file is missing, seed it with jq -n '<FILTER>' >"$tmp" instead.

5. Report

Tell the user what changed (key: old → new) and remind them:

• Changes that affect the system prompt (feature flags and denied tools) take effect after a restart or /clear.
• /context before and after shows the actual token savings.
• Re-running /claude-settings flips anything back.