Patterns

All rule patterns are matched against the parsed command — not the raw string — so whitespace, quoting, and argument order are normalized for you.

Prefix matching (the default)

By default, a pattern matches any command that starts with the given tokens:

Pattern	Matches	Doesn’t match
git	git, git status, git push --force	jj git
docker run	docker run alpine, docker run -it ubuntu bash	docker ps
rm -rf	rm -rf ./build, rm -rf /tmp/foo	rm file.txt

This is usually what you want — allow git status really does mean “every invocation of git status, regardless of flags”.

Exact matching (trailing pipe)

Add a trailing | to force an exact match:

Pattern	Matches	Doesn’t match
git|	git (bare)	git status
ls|	ls (bare)	ls -la

Useful when you want to allow a bare command but ask about any flags.

Glob wildcards

Patterns support standard glob metacharacters:

Metachar	Meaning
*	Any characters except a path separator
**	Any characters including path separators (globstar)
?	Exactly one character
[abc]	Character class

Examples:

allow  git log *
ask    docker run *
deny-redirect **/.env*
deny-redirect **/secrets/**

Variables and subshells

When rippy sees a variable expansion ($VAR, ${FOO}) or a command substitution ($(…)) inside the command, it refuses to guess the expanded value and falls back to ask. This is conservative by design — it is better to ask a human than to approve rm $DIR without knowing what $DIR will be.

The same applies to function definitions, exotic quoting forms, and anything else the parser cannot reduce to concrete tokens. Fail-safe, not fail-clever.