The workspace

The panel beside the chat that shows your session’s machine: its app, files, terminal, database and services.

The workspace is the panel to the right of the chat. It shows your session’s machine: the app the agent is running, the files it wrote, a terminal, the database and the services you’ve switched on. Each of those is a tab in one strip across the top, and new tabs appear only when there’s something to put in them. To look at your app, go straight to Preview your app. To find a file, see Files and uploads.

The chat sits on the left and the workspace on the right, with the Preview in front.

What each tab shows

Most tabs arrive by themselves when the agent starts using something. The rest you open from the + menu.

Tab	What it shows	How it appears	Viewers see it?
Plan	The plan the agent proposed in plan mode	By itself when the agent proposes a plan	Yes
Preview	Your running app	By itself when something in the machine listens on a port. It comes to the front once there’s a page to show.	Yes, without Select and Draw
Shell	A terminal on the machine	+ → Shell. The agent never opens it for you.	No
Agent	The flow of the AI agent you’re building, and the tools each step uses	By itself when the agent publishes an AI agent	Yes
Evals	That AI agent’s test cases, runs and results	By itself when the agent publishes its evals	Yes
Database	The session’s PostgreSQL, and your published apps’ production databases	By itself when the agent starts the database, or + → Database	No
Auth	Your app’s sign-in settings and its users	By itself when the agent adds sign-in, or + → Sign-in	No
Routines	Work that runs on a timetable	By itself once a routine is saved in the session	No
Publish	The session’s published apps and their versions	+ → Publish, or by itself when a publish starts	No
Production Logs, Production Metrics	A live app’s log and its traffic	+ once an app is live, or by itself when the agent reads them	No
Secrets	This session’s tools key and secrets	+ → Secrets, or by itself when the agent saves a secret for the session	No
GitHub	Branches, changes, commits and pull requests	The GitHub button at the right of the strip, or + → GitHub	No
File tabs	One file each, in the viewer that fits it	Click a file in the files panel or a file link in the chat. Some files you asked for open themselves.	Yes, read-only

Every file in the workspace is the agent’s, so every file tab is read-only. To change a file, ask the agent, or point at the part you mean.

People you share the session with get the tabs marked Yes, and never the + menu.

Why is there no workspace yet?

Alpha switches nothing on until the work needs it, so a new session has no workspace panel and the chat takes its place. The + button, GitHub, Share and the files button sit in the chat header instead. A pulsing dot on + means a service is starting.

A new session: the chat and the files panel, with + in the header and no workspace yet.

The panel slides in the first time there’s something to show: usually the Preview, once the agent starts your app.

Turn on a service

The agent switches services on when the work calls for them, such as the database when your app needs one. Each new tab folds into the strip and comes to the front. The Shell is the exception: only you can open it.

To switch one on yourself, click + at the end of the tab strip (tooltip “Open a tab, or turn on a service”). The menu lists any tabs you closed first, then the services that aren’t on yet.

With Shell, Database and Secrets already open as tabs, the + menu offers only the services that aren't.

Menu item	What happens
Shell, Publish, Secrets, GitHub	The tab opens at once.
Database	PostgreSQL starts inside the machine. Until it’s ready, the tab shows dimmed, and hovering it shows “Starting PostgreSQL in this session’s machine…”.
Sign-in	Alpha registers your app for sign-in. Until it’s done, an Auth tab shows dimmed, and hovering it shows “Registering the app for sign-in…”.
Production Logs, Production Metrics	The tab opens on your live app. Offered only once an app from this session is live.

A service the machine has to start shows as a dimmed tab until it's ready.

If a service can’t start, Alpha shows the error and the starting tab goes away. The Preview is in the menu only after you close it: to get one, ask the agent to run your app.

If you don’t see Publish in the + menu or the workspace header, publishing isn’t turned on for your Alpha.

Close a tab or switch a service off

The × on most tabs only hides the tab, and the service keeps running. Only the Shell’s × ends something. The tooltip on each × says what it does, such as “Close the Database tab (the database keeps running)”.

Tab	What × does	Afterwards
Preview	Hides the tab	The app keeps running. The tab comes back the next time you load the page.
Database	Hides the tab	The agent and your app still use the database.
Auth	Hides the tab	Your app’s users can still sign in.
Plan, Agent, Evals, GitHub	Hides the tab	Nothing changes.
Shell	Switches the Shell off	The terminal, its scrollback and anything running in it end. Typing exit does the same. The next Shell starts fresh.
Publish	Removes the tab	Your apps stay live, and the tab comes back with the next publish. While a publish runs, the tab stays: “publishing is in progress — the tab stays until it is done”.
Secrets	Removes the tab	Your secrets are kept and still reach the session.
Production Logs, Production Metrics	Removes the tab	Your live app is unaffected. The tab comes back when the agent reads them again.
Routines	Has no ×

To bring back a hidden tab, pick it from the top of the + menu. A new plan brings Plan back by itself, and the agent publishing its AI agent or evals again brings back Agent or Evals.

Close a file tab with its × or by middle-clicking it. If you close every tab, the workspace folds away, and Show workspace in the chat header brings your closed tabs back.

Arrange the workspace

To	Do this
Resize the chat and the workspace	Drag the divider between them. Double-click it to return to the default split.
Give the workspace the whole window	Press ⌘⇧B, or drag the divider past the chat’s narrowest width. Press the shortcut again, or click Show chat · ⌘⇧B, to bring the chat back.
Give the chat the whole window	Drag the divider all the way to the right. Click Show workspace in the chat header to bring it back.
Show or hide the files	Click the folder button at the top right (“Show files”). The files panel opens along the right edge.
Reach tabs that don’t fit	Scroll the strip with the mouse wheel, or click the arrow on the side with hidden tabs.

Use Ctrl instead of ⌘ on Windows and Linux. Every shortcut is listed in Keyboard shortcuts.

Alpha remembers each session’s tabs in this browser: the open files, the tab in front and the tabs you closed. Switch sessions or reload and they return as you left them, except a closed Preview, which comes back on reload. What a tab shows inside, such as the Preview’s port, isn’t kept. Another browser or device opens the session on its Preview, or on its first tab when it has no Preview.

What do the tabs show while the machine wakes?

A session’s machine sleeps once you’ve been away for about 30 minutes and nothing is running. When you open the session again, tabs that read from the machine show grey placeholder bars for a few seconds, then fill in by themselves, with nothing to retry. Plan, Auth, Routines and Secrets don’t read from the machine and show at once. See Sleep, wake and reset for what keeps a machine awake, and Limits for the idle time.

Next steps

Preview your app

Switch device sizes, read the app’s console and open it in its own tab.

Point at and draw on your app

Pick an element or mark up the page, and send it with your next message.

Files and uploads

Search the machine’s files, download a folder and attach your own.

Your session's database

Browse tables, edit rows and run SQL without leaving the session.