---
title: Who is JSON, and why did you give him full access? Reading agent permission prompts
slug: who-is-json-and-why-did-you-give-him-full-access-reading-agent-permission-prompts
published_at: 2026-10-20 13:00:00 +0000
updated_at: 2026-10-06 21:14:11 +0000
summary: The "who is JSON? give him full access" joke lands because we all click Allow always without reading. Five questions to ask a coding agent's permission prompt, and how to write an allowlist you won't regret.
tags: [ai, coding-agents, security]
author: CJ Avilla
url: https://www.cjav.dev/articles/who-is-json-and-why-did-you-give-him-full-access-reading-agent-permission-prompts
type: article
---

# Who is JSON, and why did you give him full access? Reading agent permission prompts

*Published: October 20, 2026*
*Tags: ai, coding-agents, security*

There's a joke going around this week: someone gets a permission prompt, asks "who is JSON?", and then gives him full access anyway.

It's funny because it's the most honest description of how most of us handle agent permission prompts. The fourth prompt in ten minutes shows up, it's in the way, and "Allow always" is right there.

I don't think the answer is to read every prompt like a contract. The answer is to make fewer, better decisions up front, so the prompts you still see are the ones worth reading. Here's how I do that.

## Five questions to ask any permission prompt

When an agent asks to do something, I run through these in about the time it takes to read the prompt.

### 1. Is this a read, a write, or a run?

Reads (open a file, list a directory, search) are cheap to allow. Writes inside the project are usually fine, because git is your undo button. **Runs** are where the risk lives: a shell command can do anything your user account can do, including things that have nothing to do with the task.

### 2. What's the blast radius?

`npm test` touches your project. `rm -rf` touches whatever path it's given. `git push --force` touches everyone else's copy of main. `curl ... | sh` touches whatever the internet decides. Same prompt, very different radius.

A useful rule: if the command can affect something outside this repo or this machine (a remote, a deploy target, a database, an API with a real key), I read it twice.

### 3. Can I undo it?

Edits to tracked files: yes, `git restore`. Deleting untracked files: no. Dropping a table: no. Sending an email, posting a comment, charging a card: no.

Irreversible actions get a manual yes every time, no matter how trustworthy the agent has been for the last hour.

### 4. What exactly does "always" cover?

This is the one people skip. "Allow always" usually saves a **pattern**, not the exact command you just saw. Depending on the tool, approving `git push origin feature-x` might save `git push` or even `git *`. Approving one `curl` to a docs site might save `curl` to anywhere.

Before you click it, check what pattern gets stored. If the tool shows you the rule, read the rule, not the command.

### 5. Why does it need this for *this* task?

If I asked for a CSS fix and the agent wants to read `~/.aws/credentials`, the prompt isn't the problem. The plan is. Stop and ask what it's trying to do. Often it's a reasonable but unnecessary detour ("let me check your deploy config"), and sometimes it's a prompt injection from a file or web page it just read.

## Write the allowlist before the session, not during it

Most coding agents let you keep allow and deny rules in a settings file. Writing that file once, calmly, beats approving things one at a time when you're mid-flow and impatient.

A shape that works for me:

**Allow without asking**
- Reading anything in the project
- Running the project's own test, lint, build and typecheck commands, written out exactly
- Read-only git: `status`, `diff`, `log`, `show`, `branch`
- Read-only `gh` (view PRs, issues, checks)

**Always ask**
- `git push`, `git reset --hard`, `git clean`, `git rebase`
- Any package install
- Any network request outside a short list of docs domains
- Anything with `sudo`, `chmod`, `chown`

**Deny outright**
- Reading `.env*`, `~/.ssh`, `~/.aws`, `~/.config/gh` and similar
- `rm -rf` outside the project
- Force-pushing to main
- Anything that deploys

Two notes on writing rules:

- **Be exact with run rules.** `npm run test` is a good rule. `npm *` lets the agent run `npm publish`.
- **Deny beats allow.** Put the scary things in deny even if you think nothing in allow covers them. Patterns are easy to get subtly wrong.

## Prune the "always" list every week or so

"Allow always" decisions pile up. A month in, most people have a list of rules they don't remember adding, some of them much broader than intended.

Open the settings file, read the allow list top to bottom, and delete anything you can't explain in one sentence. It takes two minutes and it's the closest thing to a security review your agent setup will get.

## Pair permissions with a real sandbox

Permissions are the agent asking. A sandbox is the operating system saying no. You want both: rules for the common case, and a filesystem and network boundary for when a rule is wrong. If you haven't checked what your sandbox can actually reach, do that next.

## So, who is JSON?

JSON is whoever you're about to give `run any command` to without reading the prompt. Sometimes he's great. He'll tidy up `node_modules` and fix the flaky test. Then you ask him to "clean up the garbage" and he frees `.git/`.

Read the prompt. Know what "always" means. Keep the scary stuff in deny.

*I make shirts about this kind of thing at [The Paperclip Factory](https://thepaperclipfactory.com/collections/gifts-for-ai-engineers?utm_source=cjav.dev&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=who-is-json), my shop of AI and developer jokes.*


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