When the agent proposes a terminal command, I only get actions like Run once, Allow always, and Skip. That’s fast when I already trust the command—but often I don’t, especially when the suggestion is a chain (&&, |, subshells) or uses tools I don’t use every day (rg, jq, gh, PowerShell flags, etc.).
Right now I have to stop the flow, look up each part elsewhere, and guess whether the full pipeline matches what I intended. I’d like a built-in way to understand the command before I approve it.
Requested behavior
Add an Explain (or Explain command) option next to the existing approval controls. Selecting it would show a clear, structured breakdown of the exact command string being proposed—for example:
-
What runs — each program in the chain (e.g.
git,npm,bash,powershell) -
Arguments — what each flag, path, and token does in this invocation
-
Order of operations — for chained/piped commands, which step runs when and what it passes to the next
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Intent — brief note tying the command to the agent’s current task (why it’s suggesting this)
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Expected outcome — what success looks like vs. common failure modes (wrong directory, missing tool, destructive flags)
Why this matters
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Safety — I can verify the command does what I expect before anything runs on my machine.
-
Learning — I pick up unfamiliar CLI tools in context instead of tabbing out to docs every time.
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Trust — I’m more likely to use agent-driven terminal work when I’m not approving opaque one-liners.
Nice-to-have
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Remember “always explain for this session”
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Highlight risky patterns (recursive delete, force push, broad
chmod, etc.) in the explanation view
Workaround today
I can ask in chat (“explain this command”), but that’s separate from the approval UI and easy to miss when I’m focused on Run once vs Skip.