Workspaces, Rules and Approvals

The workspace sets where the AI works and what rules it follows there. Approvals set which of its steps wait for you. Together they are the boundary around everything the AI does.

The workspace

The workspace is a folder on your computer. The AI reads, searches, creates and edits files there, and saves what it produces there. Each chat remembers its workspace. See Choose a Workspace.

A workspace folder can carry more than files:

In the folder	What it does
AGENTS.md at the top of the folder	Rules the AI follows in every chat in this workspace
.agents/skills/	Skills for everyone who opens the folder
.agents/agents/	AI coworkers for everyone who opens the folder

Because these travel with the folder, a shared project folder gives the whole team the same rules, skills and AI coworkers.

Rules for a workspace

Put an AGENTS.md file at the top of the workspace folder and write the rules in plain words, for example where drafts go, which files are authoritative, or what must never be sent outside. Cowork adds it to the AI's instructions for chats in that workspace.

• Only the AGENTS.md at the top of the workspace is read. Files with the same name in subfolders are not.
• A chat in another workspace does not see these rules.
• Change the file whenever you like; the next message you send uses the new version.

When the AI asks you

Not every step needs a person. Cowork decides step by step:

Kind of step	What happens
Reading a page, opening or searching files, looking something up	Runs on its own
Clicks, typing and filling in forms on web pages	No approval card. The AI is told to stop and ask you before anything it cannot undo, such as submitting, paying, deleting or sending a message, when your request and the page do not already settle it
A script the AI runs inside a web page	No approval card. The chat shows afterwards what ran: the tab, the purpose the AI gave and the script itself
Calling a website function that writes data (see API Doc)	An approval card, every time
Running a skill's script on your computer	An approval card, every time

When it asks, a card marked Waiting on you appears in the chat. Nothing happens until you answer. See Tool Steps, Approvals and Decisions.

To be asked more often, say so in the request or in the workspace rules, for example "ask me before you submit or send anything" or "do not change any data, only report". See Give Clear Instructions.

What your institution sets

If your account belongs to an institution, some things come from it rather than from you:

• Institution skills: published by your institution and updated automatically. You can read them but not change them; to adapt one, copy it into your own skills.
• Sign-in and region: your institution and region decide which account and data you work with. See Sign In and Regions.

Next steps

• What Skills Are Where skills come from and how the AI picks one
• Terms and Interface Names The words these docs use, and what the app calls them