# Files

> An assistant's files stay between tasks. Send files, photos, screenshots, and voice notes, get files back as downloads, and see where repositories live.

Each assistant's workspace has a real folder of files. What the assistant creates there stays put: between one task and the next, and after the workspace goes to sleep and wakes again. You do not need to ask it to save anything.

## What persists

| Situation | Are the files still there? |
| --- | --- |
| The next task starts | Yes |
| The workspace goes idle and sleeps | Yes |
| The workspace wakes on your next request | Yes |
| You press Reset on the Computer page | No, Reset removes the workspace and its files |

Installed tools persist the same way. The first start sets up the assistant's tools, and later starts skip that step.

## Browse and preview

Open [the Computer page](https://stellarfirm.ai/app/computer), or press **Computer** in a chat to open its panel, and choose **Files**.

- A breadcrumb at the top starts at **Home**, the assistant's working folder, and shows where you are.
- Open a folder to list what is inside. Open a file to preview it.
- Previews are capped in size. A binary file shows only its size.
- Images such as screenshots from the browser preview as pictures when they are small enough.
- Nothing is cached. The view loads fresh each time you open it, and **Refresh** reloads it while you watch a task run.

You can only see inside the assistant's working folder. Paths that try to leave it, including with `..`, are refused.

> [!NOTE]
> The Files view on the Computer page is read-only. To change a file, ask the assistant in chat. On the web, the panel beside a chat can also upload, download, rename, and delete files, see [Computer view](/docs/workspaces/computer-view#files).

> [!SOON]
> A one-press Download button on the Computer page is Coming soon. Until then, ask the assistant to share the file with you in chat (see below), or to put the result in a pull request. On the web, the panel beside a chat already has **Download**.

## Send files to an assistant

Press the paperclip in the message box and pick what to add:

- **Upload files**: documents, spreadsheets, slides, pictures, recordings, or a zip. You can also drag files onto the box or paste them.
- **Take a photo**: a picture from your camera, for a receipt, a whiteboard, or a page.
- **Take a screenshot**: a screen or a window. In the desktop app you pick it from a list with previews.
- **Record a voice note**: talk for up to 30 minutes. The recording is kept and written down for your assistants.

The phone app has the same paperclip, with your photos and videos (screenshots are there too), the camera, and voice notes.

Each file goes to the assistant's workspace and is read there: the text of a document, the text in a photo or screenshot (the assistant looks at the picture too), a transcript of a recording. A zip is unpacked next to itself and every file inside is read, so you can send a whole folder at once. The assistant can then work on the unpacked files directly.

## Get files from your assistants

Ask for a file and the assistant makes it in its workspace and shares it with you. Its answer ends with the file, ready to download. Several files, or a whole folder, come as one zip.

- On the web the file downloads like any other.
- In the desktop app you choose where to save it.
- On your phone the share sheet opens, so you can keep it in your files or send it on.

Every file in a chat downloads the same way, including the ones you attached. Sharing a file only hands it to you, so it never waits for your Approve.

## Repositories live in the workspace

When you connect a source-control tool such as [GitHub](/docs/integrations/github), the Coder clones your repository into its own workspace, before its first task. It never clones onto your computer and never works in a folder on your machine.

That has a few practical effects:

- Your own copy of the repository is never touched while the Coder works.
- Each Coder has its own copy, so several Coders never trip over each other's files.
- Your login for the repository is passed to a single command at a time. It is never written into the repository settings or shown in the Files view.
- If the clone fails, the job stops as **Blocked** before any coding, with a plain sentence saying what to fix, such as the token not being able to read that repository.

What happens to the work afterwards depends on your house rules. The Coder can open a pull request for review, and merge when your house rules allow it. Pushing waits for your Approve. See [approvals](/docs/ceo/approvals) and [house rules](/docs/ceo/house-rules).

## Good habits

- Ask for a short summary of where things are: "Coder, list the files you changed and where they are."
- Keep large generated files out of the repository. Ask the Coder to save them in a separate folder instead.
- Keep what matters in your repository or a document you control. A workspace is the assistant's desk, not your archive.

```prompt title="Find out what changed"
Coder, list every file you created or changed in your workspace for [task], with one line on what each is for. Tell me where the folder is.
```

```prompt title="Get several files as one zip"
Coder, put the [files] for [task] in one zip called [name] and share it with me.
```

```prompt title="Save a report in the workspace"
Coder, write your findings on [topic] to a file called [report-name].md in your workspace, then tell me the path so I can open it in the Files view.
```

---

Source: https://stellarfirm.ai/docs/workspaces/files