Isolated and system terminals
For each project, you choose whether a tool runs with a private profile of its own or with your everyday one. Separately, you choose how much agents may do without asking.
Isolated or system default
Every agent CLI keeps a folder of its own: your login, your settings, your plugins, your conversation history. Connecto lets each project decide which folder a tool uses. The choice is made separately for Claude and for Codex. A new project uses the system default; isolated is an advanced option. A project that an earlier build set up keeps the mode it had.
In system mode Connecto writes nothing into your ~/.claude or ~/.codex. It hands each launch its hooks on the command line (a settings file kept in Connecto's own run folder for Claude, -c options for Codex) and only reads the tool's transcripts to follow a turn. Anything the tool itself stores there, it stores as it does in your own terminal. Your own settings apply too: if they turn hooks off, Connecto cannot see that terminal's turns.
| System default default | Isolated (advanced) | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile folder | Your own ~/.claude or ~/.codex. | A private one for this project, inside Connecto's data folder. |
| Login | The one you already have. | Its own. The project needs its own sign-in. |
| Settings and plugins | Yours, as in your own terminal. | Only the project's, plus its packages. |
| History | Mixed with your other sessions. | Kept with the project, apart from everything else. |
When to use which
- System default when you want Connecto to behave like your own terminal, with the plugins, memory and login you already rely on, and no second sign-in. Most people want this.
- Isolated (advanced) when a project must stay separate: client work on a different account, an experiment you do not want touching your setup, or a project where only the team's packages should apply.
Changing it
Click the gear on the project's row to open Project Settings. Under Claude config and Codex config, choose System default or Isolated (advanced). Restart the project's terminals to apply it.
The same in both
- The CLI that runs is Connecto's own copy of the binary.
- A terminal inherits only
USER,LOGNAME,PATHandLANGfrom your environment. A secret you exported in your shell profile is not passed to the agent. - Neither is a sandbox. See below.
Logging in again. In an isolated project (the advanced option), Log in starts a fresh profile for that tool and keeps the previous one on disk.
How agents are launched
This is a different question: how much may an agent do without asking? It is set once for the whole app, per tool, in Settings → HOW AGENTS ARE LAUNCHED.
| Mode | Claude | Codex |
|---|---|---|
| Bypass default | Skip permission checks. | Skip approvals and the sandbox. |
| Auto | A model reviews each action. | Automatic review, sandboxed. |
| Prompt | Ask before acting: Claude's normal permission prompts. | Ask before acting: Codex's normal approvals. |
- The mode applies to every terminal started from then on, whoever starts it: you, another agent, or a remote user. A running terminal keeps its mode until it is restarted.
- Agents working together run best without prompts, which is why Bypass is the default. With Auto or Prompt, an agent can stop at a permission prompt while nobody is looking. An automation can answer the ones you choose.
Isolated does not mean sandboxed. An isolated profile keeps logins and settings apart. It does not limit what an agent can touch. In Bypass mode an agent can change anything your account can change, in any project.