Why Cowork?
Without Cowork, the agent can only interact with browser tabs. With Cowork enabled, it gains full access to a folder on your machine through 7 filesystem tools:Read & write files
Read documents and data files, write reports, markdown, HTML, and other outputs
Edit files
Make targeted edits to existing files with surgical string replacement
Run commands
Execute shell commands within the sandboxed folder
Search content
Search file contents with regex or literal patterns across your project
Find files
Find files by glob pattern, with smart filtering of build directories
Browse directories
List directory contents with file sizes, sorted and organized
Setting Up Cowork
Cowork is available in Agent Mode only. In Chat Mode, the agent works with browser tabs only.
Filesystem Tools
Cowork provides 7 filesystem tools that the agent can use alongside browser automation:filesystem_read
filesystem_read
Read a file from the filesystem. Returns text content with line numbers, or image data for image files (PNG, JPG, GIF, WEBP, BMP, SVG, ICO). Supports pagination through large files with
Responses are capped at 2000 lines or 50KB per request.
offset and limit parameters.| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
path | string (required) | File path relative to working directory |
offset | number (optional) | Starting line number (1-indexed) |
limit | number (optional) | Max lines to read |
filesystem_write
filesystem_write
Create or overwrite a file. Automatically creates parent directories if they don’t exist.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
path | string (required) | File path relative to working directory |
content | string (required) | Complete file content to write |
filesystem_edit
filesystem_edit
Make a targeted edit by replacing an exact string match. If the exact match fails, a whitespace-tolerant fuzzy match is attempted. Preserves original line endings (CRLF, CR, LF) and BOM.
Returns a side-by-side diff of the change.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
path | string (required) | File path relative to working directory |
old_string | string (required) | Exact text to find |
new_string | string (required) | Replacement text |
filesystem_bash
filesystem_bash
Execute a shell command and return its output. Commands run in
Output is truncated to the last 2000 lines if too large. Returns the exit code on failure.
sh/bash on Unix or cmd on Windows.| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
command | string (required) | Shell command to execute |
timeout | number (optional) | Timeout in seconds (default: 120) |
filesystem_find
filesystem_find
Find files matching a glob pattern. Searches recursively while skipping common build directories (
Returns relative file paths sorted alphabetically.
node_modules, .git, dist, build, .next, coverage, __pycache__, and more).| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
pattern | string (required) | Glob pattern (e.g., *.ts, **/*.json) |
path | string (optional) | Directory to search (default: working directory) |
limit | number (optional) | Max results (default: 1000) |
filesystem_grep
filesystem_grep
Search file contents using regex or literal string matching. Skips binary files and files over 2MB.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
pattern | string (required) | Search pattern (regex by default) |
path | string (optional) | Directory or file to search |
glob | string (optional) | Filter files by glob (e.g., *.ts) |
ignore_case | boolean (optional) | Case-insensitive search |
literal | boolean (optional) | Treat pattern as literal string |
context | number (optional) | Lines of context around matches |
limit | number (optional) | Max matches (default: 100) |
filesystem_ls
filesystem_ls
List directory contents. Shows directories first (with trailing
Entries are sorted alphabetically, case-insensitive.
/), then files with human-readable sizes.| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
path | string (optional) | Directory path (default: working directory) |
limit | number (optional) | Max entries (default: 500) |
Try It: Research and Create a Report
With Cowork enabled, try this prompt:
Example Use Cases
Organize your downloads
Organize your downloads
Go through my Downloads folder and organize files by type: documents, images, videos, archives.
Competitive research report
Competitive research report
Research key trends about [topic] on Reddit, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Create an HTML report with your findings.
Web scraping to files
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
Content aggregation
Find the top posts from these 5 subreddits today and compile them into a daily digest document.
Codebase exploration
Codebase exploration
Search my project for all TODO comments, list them with file paths and line numbers, then create a summary markdown file.
Log analysis
Log analysis
Grep through the log files in this folder for errors from the last 24 hours and write a summary of what went wrong.
Security
Sandboxed access
The agent can only access the folder you select. No parent directories, no path traversal.
Revoke anytime
Select No folder to instantly disable file access
Local only
All file operations happen locally on your machine