davila7/claude-code-templates · warning

Warning: Error loading user permissions

Error message

Warning: Error loading user permissions

What it means

loadUserPermissions reads the user-level Claude Code settings to extract which components the user has explicitly allowed, warning and returning partial/empty results if reading or parsing fails. Like the other dashboard warnings, it is non-fatal: the dashboard continues but the user-permissions view will be incomplete.

Source

Thrown at cli-tool/src/plugin-dashboard.js:459

          }
        }
      }

      // Load user-level MCPs
      const userMcpFile = path.join(this.claudeDir, '.mcp.json');
      if (await fs.pathExists(userMcpFile)) {
        const mcpData = JSON.parse(await fs.readFile(userMcpFile, 'utf8'));
        for (const [name, config] of Object.entries(mcpData.mcpServers || {})) {
          permissions.mcps.push({
            name,
            source: 'User',
            plugin: null,
            config
          });
        }
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.warn(chalk.yellow('Warning: Error loading user permissions'), error.message);
    }

    return permissions;
  }

  async loadPluginPermissions(plugin) {
    const permissions = {
      agents: [],
      commands: [],
      hooks: [],
      mcps: []
    };

    try {
      // Load plugin agents
      const agentsDir = path.join(plugin.path, 'agents');
      if (await fs.pathExists(agentsDir)) {
        const agentFiles = await fs.readdir(agentsDir);

View on GitHub (pinned to a0851ed10c)

Solutions

1. Run `jq . ~/.claude/settings.json` to verify the file parses
2. Repair the JSON (or remove the file to let Claude Code regenerate defaults) and re-run the dashboard
3. Confirm HOME is set correctly in headless/CI environments
4. Keep permissions entries as arrays of strings to match the expected schema

Example fix

// before
// ~/.claude/settings.json: { "permissions": { "mcps": null } }
// after
{ "permissions": { "mcps": [] } }

const fs = require('fs-extra');
async function userSettingsReadable(settingsPath) {
  if (!(await fs.pathExists(settingsPath))) return false;
  try { JSON.parse(await fs.readFile(settingsPath, 'utf8')); return true; }
  catch { return false; }
}

catch (error) {
  console.warn(`User permissions unavailable (${error.message}); continuing with empty set`);
  return permissions;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling loadUserPermissions when ~/.claude/settings.json (or the configured user settings path) is unreadable or invalid JSON, or when fields like permissions.agents/commands/hooks/mcps have unexpected types that break the spread/push logic.

Common situations: Malformed user settings.json from manual editing; settings file truncated by a crash during write; HOME unset or pointing somewhere unexpected in CI/containers so the settings path resolves oddly; schema drift after a Claude Code upgrade.

Related errors

• Warning: Error loading permissions
• Warning: Error loading plugin permissions for ${plugin.name}
• Invalid session file - corrupted or not a Claude Code sessio
• Failed to load permissions
• Warning: Could not read agents directory ${agentsDir}:

AI-assisted analysis of davila7/claude-code-templates@a0851ed10c (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d8ff2c2b78ce7ff0. Report an issue: GitHub.