rampart

Native Ask Prompt (action: ask)

action: ask surfaces Claude Code’s built-in inline approval dialog when a policy rule matches, instead of blocking the command outright. The user sees the command details and can approve or deny without leaving their session.

When to Use It

Use action: ask when a command is sensitive but not always dangerous — you want a human in the loop without hard-blocking legitimate use:

• Running destructive-but-sometimes-needed commands (rm -rf build/, database resets)
• Outbound network calls in trusted projects
• Commands that modify configuration files
• Anything where context matters and you trust the user to decide

For commands that should never run (credential access, exfiltration), use action: deny instead.

Policy Syntax

action and when must be nested inside a rules: list — not at the policy level:

policies:
  - name: ask before running tests
    rules:
      - action: ask
        when:
          command_contains:
            - pytest
            - npm test
        message: "Running test suite — proceed?"

  - name: ask before dropping databases
    rules:
      - action: ask
        when:
          command_matches:
            - "dropdb *"
            - "psql * DROP *"
        message: "This will delete a database. Are you sure?"

Ask Options

audit: true — Log User Decisions

By default, action: ask prompts don’t log the user’s response. Add audit: true to record approvals and denials:

policies:
  - name: audited-deploys
    rules:
      - action: ask
        ask:
          audit: true    # ← log the user's decision
        when:
          command_matches:
            - "kubectl apply *"
        message: "Deploy to cluster?"

With audit: true, the audit trail includes whether the user approved or denied the prompt. This is useful for compliance, debugging, and understanding agent behavior patterns.

headless_only: true — Block in CI

Use headless_only: true when you want interactive approval locally but hard denies in CI/headless environments:

policies:
  - name: production-safety
    rules:
      - action: ask
        ask:
          audit: true
          headless_only: true    # ← deny in CI, prompt interactively
        when:
          command_matches:
            - "*--env=production*"
        message: "Production operation requires approval"

Behavior:

• Interactive session (TTY, user present): Shows native approval prompt
• Headless/CI (no TTY, no rampart serve): Blocks with a deny

This lets you write one policy that works both locally (with prompts) and in CI (with denies). See CI/Headless Agents for more details.

require_approval Alias

action: require_approval is now an alias for action: ask with audit: true:

# These are equivalent:
- action: require_approval
  message: "Needs approval"

- action: ask
  ask:
    audit: true
  message: "Needs approval"

The alias exists for backwards compatibility. New policies should prefer the explicit action: ask syntax for clarity.

⚠️ Common mistake: putting action: ask directly inside the policy (as a sibling of name or rules). rampart policy lint will catch this and explain the correct structure.

What the User Sees

When a matching command is intercepted, Claude Code displays:

Hook PreToolUse:Bash requires confirmation for this command:
Rampart: Running test suite — proceed?

Do you want to proceed?
> 1. Yes
  2. No

Esc to cancel · Tab to amend · ctrl+e to explain

Pressing ctrl+e expands an AI-generated explanation of what the command does and its risk level — this is a Claude Code native feature, not Rampart.

Scoping to Specific Tools

By default, a policy applies to all tools. Scope it to bash-only or specific tools using match:

policies:
  - name: ask before shell commands with curl
    match:
      tool: Bash
    rules:
      - action: ask
        when:
          command_contains:
            - curl

Difference from require_approval

	action: ask	action: require_approval
UI	Inline in Claude Code session	Rampart dashboard / rampart watch
Requires rampart serve	No	Yes
User stays in session	Yes	No (must switch terminal)
Best for	Interactive development	Automated agents / CI

When rampart serve is not running and a require_approval rule fires, Rampart automatically falls back to the native ask prompt.

Limitations

Works in --dangerously-skip-permissions mode

action: ask shows the native approval prompt even when Claude Code is launched with --dangerously-skip-permissions. Claude Code honors hook-returned permissionDecision: ask regardless of the bypass flag — the user still sees the inline dialog and must approve or deny.

Claude Code only

action: ask triggers Claude Code’s native permission prompt. On other agents:

• Cline — treated as a block (cancel: true)
• Other agents — treated as deny

rampart policy lint will warn if you use action: ask without scoping the policy to match.agent: [claude-code].

Requires Claude Code v2.0+

The permissionDecision: ask hook response was introduced in Claude Code v2.0. Older versions may treat it as allow.

Testing Your Policy

Use rampart policy lint to validate before deploying:

rampart policy lint ~/.rampart/policies/my-policy.yaml

And test end-to-end:

rampart test ~/.rampart/policies/my-policy.yaml

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