codewhale/docs/MODES.md

Modes and Approvals

DeepSeek CLI has two related concepts:

• TUI mode: what kind of interaction you’re in (Normal/Plan/Agent/YOLO/RLM).
• Approval mode: how aggressively the UI asks before executing tools.

TUI Modes

Press Tab to cycle: Normal → Plan → Agent → YOLO → RLM → Normal.

• Normal: chat-first. Approvals for file writes, shell, and paid tools.
• Plan: design-first prompting. Approvals match Normal.
• Agent: multi-step tool use. Approvals for shell and paid tools (file writes are allowed without a prompt).
• YOLO: enables shell + trust mode and auto-approves all tools. Use only in trusted repos.
• RLM: externalized context store + REPL helpers. Tools are auto-approved (best for large files and long-context work).

Approval Mode

You can override approval behavior at runtime:

/set approval_mode suggest
/set approval_mode auto
/set approval_mode never

• suggest (default): uses the per-mode rules above.
• auto: auto-approves all tools (similar to YOLO/RLM approval behavior, but without forcing YOLO mode).
• never: blocks any tool that isn’t considered safe/read-only.

Workspace Boundary and Trust Mode

By default, file tools are restricted to the --workspace directory. Enable trust mode to allow file access outside the workspace:

/trust

YOLO mode enables trust mode automatically.

MCP Caveat (Important)

MCP tools are exposed as mcp_<server>_<tool> and currently execute without TUI approval prompts. Only configure MCP servers you trust.

See MCP.md.

Related CLI Flags

Run deepseek --help for the canonical list. Common flags:

• -p, --prompt <TEXT>: one-shot prompt mode (prints and exits)
• --workspace <DIR>: workspace root for file tools
• --yolo: start in YOLO mode
• -r, --resume <ID|PREFIX|latest>: resume a saved session
• -c, --continue: resume the most recent session
• --max-subagents <N>: clamp to 1..=20
• --profile <NAME>: select config profile
• --config <PATH>: config file path
• -v, --verbose: verbose logging