pks claude managed-settings

beta

Render a Claude Code managed-settings.json from your registered plugin marketplaces, to stdout or straight into the OS-level policy location.

Author: Poul Kjeldager

Usage: pks claude managed-settings [options]

Category: infrastructure

pks claude managed-settings produces a Claude Code managed-settings.json from the marketplaces registered in ~/.pks-cli/claude-marketplace.json. It is the step that bakes marketplace policy into a devcontainer or enterprise image, so every Claude Code session started on that image sees the same managed configuration.

Prerequisites

Registered marketplaces. The registry at ~/.pks-cli/claude-marketplace.json is populated elsewhere in pks, not by this command. With nothing registered the render is effectively empty.
Write access to the target path. /etc/claude-code/ normally requires root. The command does not elevate.

What managed settings are

Claude Code reads an OS-level managed-policy file at /etc/claude-code/managed-settings.json. Settings there are applied to sessions on that machine regardless of the user's own configuration. This command renders that file; it does not install, elevate, or validate against a running Claude Code.

1. Inspect the render

pks claude managed-settings

The rendered JSON goes to stdout. Read it before writing it anywhere — this is the fastest way to confirm your marketplace registry contains what you expect.

2. Write it to a file

pks claude managed-settings --output ./managed-settings.json

Parent directories are created as needed.

3. Install it as machine policy

sudo pks claude managed-settings --output /etc/claude-code/managed-settings.json

This is the canonical target. In a Dockerfile, run the same command as part of the image build rather than at container start, so the policy is present before any session begins.

Options

Flag	Description
`--output <PATH>`	Write to a file instead of stdout, creating parent directories as needed.

Verify

pks claude managed-settings

You should see JSON on stdout reflecting your registered marketplaces. Output that looks empty or default means no marketplaces are registered yet.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause and fix
The render is empty or default	No marketplaces are registered. This command does not register them — populate `~/.pks-cli/claude-marketplace.json` through the marketplace commands first.
Permission denied writing to `/etc/claude-code/`	The command does not elevate. Run it under `sudo`, or render to a writable path and install the file separately.
Claude Code ignores the file	Confirm the path is exactly `/etc/claude-code/managed-settings.json` on the machine running Claude Code, not on your build host.