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Designing a Tiered Permission System for AI Desktop Agents

Fazm Team··2 min read
permissionsai-safetyux-designdesktop-agentarchitecture

Designing a Tiered Permission System for AI Agents

The two extremes of AI agent permissions both fail:

  • Full YOLO mode: The agent does whatever it wants. Fast, but one wrong click sends an unfinished email or deletes an important file.
  • Full approval mode: The agent asks permission for every single action. Safe, but so slow you might as well do the task yourself.

The answer is a tiered system.

Three Permission Tiers

Tier 1: Auto-approve (low risk)

  • Reading screen content
  • Navigating between apps
  • Scrolling and viewing
  • Typing in search fields

These actions are reversible and have no side effects. The agent should never need to ask permission for them.

Tier 2: Batch approve (medium risk)

  • Filling form fields
  • Clicking buttons
  • Creating new documents
  • Modifying existing files

These are presented as a plan for approval. Five related actions, one confirmation. "I will open HubSpot, navigate to Acme Corp, update the deal stage, add notes, and save. Approve?"

Tier 3: Explicit approve (high risk)

  • Sending messages (email, Slack, text)
  • Deleting files or records
  • Making purchases
  • Modifying permissions or settings

Each of these requires individual confirmation with a preview of exactly what will happen.

Allowlists Over Blocklists

Allowlists work better than blocklists for AI agents. Instead of trying to list everything dangerous (you will miss something), list what is safe:

  • "This agent can auto-approve all actions in Safari and Finder"
  • "This agent requires approval for anything in Mail or Slack"
  • "This agent cannot interact with Terminal at all"

The per-app granularity matches how people think about risk. You trust the agent with your browser. You do not trust it with your email. Simple.


Fazm uses tiered permissions for safe desktop automation. Open source on GitHub. Discussed in r/ClaudeCode.

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