# Connected folders (/connected-folders)


Attaching files works for a handful of documents. When the work is over a
directory — a folder of reports, a data drop, a project you keep adding to —
connect the folder instead.

## Connecting one

From the composer, open the **Tools** menu and choose **Attach folder**. Or
open the **Folders** panel from the activity chip in the chat header and press
**Connect folder**.

Either way, your operating system's own folder picker opens. Tidebreak gets
access to what you pick and nothing else — the app cannot browse your
filesystem to find candidates, and it cannot widen the selection afterward.

Connected folders appear as chips above the message box and in the Folders
panel, grouped into **Connected**, **Unavailable** (approved, but not
reachable right now), and folders already approved elsewhere that you can
attach to this chat.

## What the agent can do with one

Access is per capability, not all-or-nothing. A folder's badge shows which of
these you approved:

- **List folders** — see the directory tree.
- **Read files** — read text files below the root.
- **Write files** — create files there.
- **Run commands** — execute in that directory.

Large or binary files (PDFs, Office documents) are not read directly. The
agent imports them into the conversation as sources, and reads them from
there.

The agent never sees where the folder lives on disk. It works with an opaque
identifier for the root and paths relative to it, and it cannot construct
access to a folder you did not pick — asking for one produces a request you
have to answer.

## Writing back into a folder

Creating a new file in a folder you granted write access to proceeds under
Auto and Allow all. **Replacing a file that already exists always asks**, in
every mode, with a card headed **Replace an existing file?**

That is the one place permission mode does not have the last word. Overwriting
your data is not recoverable through the app.

## Disconnecting and revoking

Two different actions:

- **Disconnect** detaches the folder from this chat. The approval survives, so
  you can reattach it without picking it again.
- **Forget** withdraws the approval entirely, for every chat.

Both are in the Folders panel; **Disconnect** is also on the folder chip in
the composer. **Settings → Permissions** lists every folder approval and lets
you revoke there too.