Modes and Approvals

DeepSeek CLI has two related concepts:

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

TUI Modes

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

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.

Approval Mode

You can override approval behavior at runtime:

/config
# edit the approval_mode row to: suggest | auto | never

Legacy note: /set approval_mode ... was retired in favor of /config.

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

Small-Screen Status Behavior

When terminal height is constrained, the status area compacts first so header/chat/composer/footer remain visible:

Loading and queued status rows are budgeted by available height.
Queued previews collapse to compact summaries when full previews do not fit.
/queue workflows remain available; compact status only affects rendering density.

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 Behavior

MCP tools are exposed as mcp_<server>_<tool> and use the same approval flow as built-in tools. Read-only MCP helpers may auto-run in suggestive approval modes; MCP tools with possible side effects require approval.

See MCP.md.

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

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