---
title: Give an Agent Access to a Real Folder on Your Machine
summary: Share a folder from Settings and an agent can read, and optionally write, files inside it directly, with system and credential directories always blocked.
date: 2026-09-09
---

# Give an Agent Access to a Real Folder on Your Machine

Share a folder from Settings and an agent can read, and optionally write, files inside it directly, with system and credential directories always blocked.

## What it does

Sharing a folder from **Settings → Folder Access** lets an agent read files inside it directly, and write to them too unless you mark the share read-only. Nothing outside a folder you've explicitly shared is reachable at all; see [Security](/en/docs/guides/security) for the isolation model that enforces that.

## Sharing a folder

Click **Share Folder**, enter the folder's path (or, in the desktop app, browse to it), and choose whether it's read-only. The share then moves through a few states:

- **Mounting**: the share was just created and is being verified.
- **Mounted**: ready to use.
- **Failed**: the mount didn't complete, most often because the path doesn't exist or its permissions changed. A **Retry** button re-attempts it without removing the share.
- **Removing**: a delete is in progress.

If a folder stays on Mounting or Removing for too long, it's flagged **Stuck**; see [A Shared Folder Is Stuck](/en/docs/troubleshooting/folder-share-stuck) for clearing it.

## What an agent can do with it

Once mounted, an agent can list what's in a shared folder, read files from it, and, unless you marked it read-only, write to it, using the same built-in file tools it uses for any other file operation. See [Built-In Tools](/en/docs/guides/built-in-tools) for the full list.

## Related

- [Security](/en/docs/guides/security): the isolation model that keeps a shared folder from exposing anything beyond itself
- [A Shared Folder Is Stuck](/en/docs/troubleshooting/folder-share-stuck): clearing a mount that didn't complete
- [Built-In Tools](/en/docs/guides/built-in-tools): the file tools an agent uses inside a shared folder