A warning is a new operating mode.

Claude Code 2.1.285 changed one startup failure. If the operating system denies access to the managed settings file, the client now warns and starts without that file's policies. Other read errors and malformed managed files still stop the session.

That split is reasonable product behavior. It also creates a security state that operators must name. "Started" no longer proves "started under the expected policy." A launcher, status line, session log, or support playbook that records only process success loses the important part.

The same release added a switch to disable WebFetch and a managed setting that limits API providers. It also tightened sandbox inheritance so project settings cannot weaken an administrator-required sandbox. These controls belong in the policy receipt, but none repairs a policy source that was never loaded.

Claude Code's settings documentation gives operators two useful witnesses. The status view lists the setting sources loaded for the current session. The doctor command reports rejected entries. Neither should be replaced by a check that a file merely exists.

The permissions documentation says the client evaluates rules in deny, ask, allow order. It also says the client enforces those rules, not the model. If the client loses a managed rule source, a prompt that repeats the rule is not an equivalent control.

Build the fallback outside the missing channel. Mark the session reduced. Limit the task. Capture the active sources. Run one negative check. Restore normal authority only after the expected policy source is visible again.