Autonomy Modes
The Mode picker on an agent's page controls how independently it acts once it's running. It's the sole source of how autonomously the agent behaves — a project rule, a tool's own output, and the model itself never change it. Nothing else about an agent's configuration affects this; its persona describes what it's for, and Mode separately governs what it's allowed to do without stopping to ask you first.
The four modes
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Auto | Proceeds through read and write actions without pausing for your approval. |
| Approval (default) | Pauses for your approval before every write action, not only destructive ones. |
| Plan | Pauses for your approval before every write action, the same as Approval. |
| Plan (collect) | Pauses for your approval before every write action, the same as Approval. |
Auto is the outlier. It's the only one of the four where a write proceeds without stopping to ask first. Approval, Plan, and Plan (collect) all pause before every write action in the same way — whichever of the four you choose, a destructive action always pauses too, the one boundary no mode relaxes.
What counts as destructive
Regardless of mode, NEXUS treats some actions as destructive and always pauses for your explicit approval before taking one. Destructive actions are, broadly, the ones that are difficult or impossible to undo — for example, deleting something outright, an irreversible git operation such as a force-push or rewriting history, dropping or erasing a data store, broadening permissions widely, or running code from an untrusted or external source, among other high-consequence categories. This boundary doesn't move. Even in Auto, one of these always stops for your approval first.
Where to go next
- Persona & identity — the fields Mode is independent of.
- Providers & working directory — what a shell actually runs, separate from how autonomously it's allowed to act.
- Running & monitoring — Start Shell, and the live status an agent shows while Mode governs its turns.
- Settings reference — the same Mode field, in the contextual settings panel.