AI Vocabulary · 05 Agents
What is Permissions?
The rules that decide what an AI agent may do on its own, what it must ask about, and what it may never do.
Permissions define an agent's reach. Which files can it read? Which tools can it use without asking? Can it send emails, spend money, delete data? Most AI tools let you choose between asking before every action, auto-approving safe ones, and running fully on its own, often only recommended inside an isolated environment.
Each permission is a trade between speed and control. Too strict and you approve every small step, until you stop reading the requests. Too loose and the agent can do damage before anyone notices.
Why it matters for you
When something goes wrong with an agent, the first question is usually: why was it allowed to do that? Setting permissions consciously is the simplest form of risk management for AI.
Own it
Start with read-only access and add rights step by step, as trust is earned. Never give an agent more access than the person who supervises it would have. Review permissions like you review employee access, and keep human oversight on anything irreversible.
Where it comes from
Permissions are one of computing's oldest safety ideas. In 1975 Jerome Saltzer and Michael Schroeder described the "principle of least privilege": every program and user should have only the access it needs for the job (Wikipedia). Fifty years later, it is exactly the right rule for AI agents.
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