Claude Code Auto Mode Is Now On By Default on Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry — Here's What to Configure

TL;DR: Claude Code auto mode is now on by default on Bedrock, Vertex AI, and Foundry — no env var needed; lock it off via disableAutoMode in settings. Bedrock now defaults to Claude Opus 4.8.

Auto mode replaces per-action permission prompts with a background safety classifier. On Claude.ai it has been available since May; on Bedrock, Vertex AI, and Foundry it previously required setting CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_AUTO_MODE=1. As of today's release, auto mode is on by default on all three cloud providers — no environment variable needed.

What changed

	Before	Now
Enable auto mode on Bedrock/Vertex/Foundry	Set CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_AUTO_MODE=1	On by default
Disable auto mode	Remove the env var	Set disableAutoMode in settings
Bedrock default model	Claude Opus 4.7	Claude Opus 4.8
autoMode setting location	.claude/settings.local.json accepted	Only ~/.claude/settings.json

To disable in managed settings

If your org requires human approval for every file write, shell command, or git push in a CI pipeline, auto mode bypasses those per-action checkpoints. Lock it off:

// ~/.claude/settings.json  (user-level)
// or your org's managed settings file
{
  "permissions": {
    "disableAutoMode": "disable"
  }
}

Note: autoMode is no longer read from .claude/settings.local.json (the repo-resident file). Move any existing autoMode config to ~/.claude/settings.json.

Bedrock default model

Bedrock (plus Vertex and Claude Platform on AWS) now default to Claude Opus 4.8. If your BYOC or API client was implicitly using Opus 4.7 by not pinning a model, set it explicitly:

export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="claude-opus-4-8"   # or set model: in settings.json

When to disable auto mode

• Regulated CI: pipelines with change-control requirements need explicit approvals; use --allowedTools / --disallowedTools flags in your CI scripts instead
• Shared Bedrock accounts: confirm team expectations before assuming auto mode is always safe for multi-user environments
• Audit trail: auto mode decisions are logged — check CloudTrail (Bedrock) or Cloud Logging (Vertex) for the permission-decision audit trail if your compliance team needs it

Sources: Claude Code changelog — Anthropic · Claude Code auto mode explained — Developers Digest · Anthropic Release Notes July 2026 — Releasebot