Trusted Folders

The Trusted Folders feature is a security setting that gives you control over which projects can use the full capabilities of the Gemini CLI. It prevents potentially malicious code from running by asking you to approve a folder before the CLI loads any project-specific configurations from it.

Enabling the Feature

The Trusted Folders feature is disabled by default. To use it, you must first enable it in your settings.

Add the following to your user settings.json file:

{
  "security": {
    "folderTrust": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

How It Works: The Trust Dialog

Once the feature is enabled, the first time you run the Gemini CLI from a folder, a dialog will automatically appear, prompting you to make a choice:

• Trust folder: Grants full trust to the current folder (e.g., my-project).
• Trust parent folder: Grants trust to the parent directory (e.g., safe-projects), which automatically trusts all of its subdirectories as well. This is useful if you keep all your safe projects in one place.
• Don’t trust: Marks the folder as untrusted. The CLI will operate in a restricted “safe mode.”

Your choice is saved in a central file (~/.gemini/trustedFolders.json), so you will only be asked once per folder.

Why Trust Matters: The Impact of an Untrusted Workspace

When a folder is untrusted, the Gemini CLI runs in a restricted “safe mode” to protect you. In this mode, the following features are disabled:

1. Workspace Settings are Ignored: The CLI will not load the .gemini/settings.json file from the project. This prevents the loading of custom tools and other potentially dangerous configurations.

2. Environment Variables are Ignored: The CLI will not load any .env files from the project.

3. Extension Management is Restricted: You cannot install, update, or uninstall extensions.

4. Tool Auto-Acceptance is Disabled: You will always be prompted before any tool is run, even if you have auto-acceptance enabled globally.

5. Automatic Memory Loading is Disabled: The CLI will not automatically load files into context from directories specified in local settings.

Granting trust to a folder unlocks the full functionality of the Gemini CLI for that workspace.

Managing Your Trust Settings

If you need to change a decision or see all your settings, you have a couple of options:

• Change the Current Folder’s Trust: Run the /permissions command from within the CLI. This will bring up the same interactive dialog, allowing you to change the trust level for the current folder.

• View All Trust Rules: To see a complete list of all your trusted and untrusted folder rules, you can inspect the contents of the ~/.gemini/trustedFolders.json file in your home directory.

The Trust Check Process (Advanced)

For advanced users, it’s helpful to know the exact order of operations for how trust is determined:

1. IDE Trust Signal: If you are using the IDE Integration, the CLI first asks the IDE if the workspace is trusted. The IDE’s response takes highest priority.

2. Local Trust File: If the IDE is not connected, the CLI checks the central ~/.gemini/trustedFolders.json file.