Working folder vs artifacts
Open in product: preshos.com/agent-ops/working-folder
A session keeps two kinds of file state. The working folder is live scratch space: intermediate files, drafts-in-progress, tool outputs, and anything the agent needs along the way. The Workspace holds durable artifacts: the pages, files, and deliverables the session presents for human eyes. Knowing which is which keeps review on the artifact and experimentation in the folder.
On a Local run target, the folder is the project: Open folder… points the session at an existing project folder, New project… starts one. Chats that never pick a project still get a per-session folder under ~/PRESHos/YYYY-MM-DD/<chat> — the folder exists even when no project was named.
The split
Section titled “The split”| Working folder | Workspace artifacts |
|---|---|
| Live and disposable | Durable and reviewable |
| Agent’s scratch state | Member-facing outputs |
| Safe to overwrite and discard | Versioned by content hash, with the record behind them |
| Never the deliverable | The deliverable, or its draft |
Working rules
Section titled “Working rules”- Review artifacts, not folder contents. The preview pane shows what the agent stands behind; the folder shows how it got there.
- A file nobody was asked to review is not approved. Pulling a working-folder file into downstream work skips the review the artifact path would have given it.
- Promote deliberately: when scratch work becomes worth keeping, it becomes an artifact through the session — not by copying paths around it.
- Secrets never land in either. Credential values stay in the vault and arrive as grants; they are never written into folder files, artifacts, chat, or code.
Files tab: live or saved, chosen for you
Section titled “Files tab: live or saved, chosen for you”The Files tab carries no Saved/Live toggle. It picks the source itself: sessions on a local or running cloud host read live; everything else reads saved. Download all lives in the ⋯ menu. Treat the product UI as the source of truth for the exact source label shown.
Coding runs: branches and checkpoints behind the folder
Section titled “Coding runs: branches and checkpoints behind the folder”On coding runs the working folder sits on a per-session Git branch bound at run creation, with automatic turn-end checkpoints as the run proceeds. The folder is still scratch — the branch and checkpoints are restore points, not reviewables. Nothing leaves the sandbox except through the brokered push path and HITL-governed publish_branch / create_pull_request, which refuse protected and foreign repos. Full rule: Sandbox.
What next
Section titled “What next”- Artifact versions: how reviewable outputs iterate.
- Document tools: the foundational PDF, spreadsheet, and Word packages — drafts here, reviewables as artifacts.
- Sandbox: the isolated space both live inside.
- Approving agent actions: reviewing what the agent presents.