Relative path permission patterns don't match absolute tool paths

[markus-psx]

Description

Relative path patterns in permissions.allow (e.g., Write(.claude/**)) don't prevent permission prompts when the Write tool uses absolute paths internally.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create .claude/settings.json in a project with:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Write(.claude/**)",
      "Write(./**)"
    ]
  }
}

2. Restart Claude Code session (to load fresh permissions)

3. Ask Claude to write a file to the .claude/ directory

4. Claude uses the Write tool with an absolute path like:
   /Users/username/path/to/project/.claude/temp-file.txt

5. Result: Permission prompt appears despite the Write(.claude/**) rule

Expected Behavior

According to the documentation, patterns like .claude/** or ./path should resolve relative to the current working directory. The pattern Write(.claude/**) should match writes to any file in the .claude/ subdirectory without prompting.

Actual Behavior

The permission prompt still appears, suggesting the relative pattern isn't being matched against the absolute path the Write tool uses.

Environment

• Claude Code CLI
• macOS (Darwin 25.2.0)
• Project-level settings in .claude/settings.json

Workaround Attempted

Using absolute paths in user-level ~/.claude/settings.json works, but this isn't portable for team projects where different developers have different checkout paths.

Additional Context

The same settings file has Read(./**) and Edit(./**) patterns - it would be helpful to know if these have the same issue or if it's specific to the Write tool.

[tino]

And annoyingly, Claude is quite bad at sticking to using relative paths lately. I have to approve a lot of commands that are allowed, or tell it to use rel paths.

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.