---
title: "Workspaces"
description: "Give the agent access to local files for powerful browser + file automations"
---

Workspaces let the agent read and write files on your computer. Combine browser automation with local file operations—research on the web, then save reports directly to your folder.

## Why Workspaces?

Without a workspace, the agent can only interact with browser tabs. With a workspace, it can:

- **Read files** from your selected folder
- **Write files** like reports, spreadsheets, or markdown
- **Run shell commands** within the folder

The real power: do both browser automation AND file operations in a single task.

## Setting Up a Workspace

<img src="/features/workspace/workspace-selector.png" alt="Select a workspace folder for the agent to operate in" />

1. Click the workspace dropdown (next to the prompt input)
2. Select a recent folder or click **Choose a different folder**
3. Grant BrowserOS access to that folder when prompted

The agent is sandboxed to your selected folder—it cannot access files outside of it.

To disable file access, select **No workspace** and the agent will work with browser tabs only.

## Try It: Research and Create a Report

With a workspace selected, try this prompt:

```
Read the top 3 stories on Hacker News, read the comments too, and write an HTML report.
```

The agent will:
1. Navigate to Hacker News
2. Read each top story and its comments
3. Generate an HTML report summarizing the findings
4. Save the report to your workspace folder

<img src="/features/workspace/workspace-research-and-create-example.png" alt="Agent researching Hacker News and generating an HTML report" />

## Example Use Cases

**Organize your downloads**
> Go through my Downloads folder and organize files by type—documents, images, videos, archives.

**Competitive research report**
> Research key trends about [topic] on Reddit, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Create an HTML report with your findings.

**Web scraping to files**
> Visit these 10 product pages, extract the name, price, and description, and save the results as a markdown file.

**Content aggregation**
> Find the top posts from these 5 subreddits today and compile them into a daily digest document.

## Security

- The agent can **only** access the folder you select—no parent directories or other locations
- You can revoke access anytime by selecting **No workspace**
- All file operations happen locally on your machine

## Feedback

Workspaces is a new feature. If you have feedback or feature requests, [open a GitHub issue](https://github.com/browseros-ai/BrowserOS/issues).
