Work and agents
Work turns the browser into a canvas. You describe an outcome in your own words, helpers browse live pages in plain sight, and what they find is laid out where you can read it, check it and keep it. Anything that posts, merges or changes something waits for your OK.
What Work is
Your work already happens in the browser, where your tabs, logins and history are. Work brings agents there instead of asking you to move somewhere else, and lets you watch them do it. Each request becomes a work: a canvas with your words, the helpers doing the reading, and the result.
Switch with Browse and Work at the top of the sidebar. In Work the sidebar folds into its rail, and the canvas takes the window.
Work needs three things:
- A model. Zephium AI, your own key, or a model on your computer. See Models and keys.
- A regular profile. Work is not available in private windows.
- AI switched on. It is on by default. You can turn Work, or AI as a whole, off in SettingsFeatures; the browser stays complete, and nothing you set up is deleted.
Start a work
A new work opens on What should we get done? Type into the bar, or start from a workflow. Workflows are grouped by what you do, for Developer, Designer, Marketing, Manager, Student, Office and Founder, and each one asks for just what it needs.
| Workflow | What you get |
|---|---|
| Plan my day | Your calendar, mail, Slack and tasks as one timed plan |
| Weekly status | Shipped, in progress and blocked, ready to post |
| Explain code | How a file, a function or a flow works, drawn as it runs |
| Review a change | Real problems, exact fixes, and the review comment drafted |
| Fix a failing test | Finds the cause, fixes it, and shows the tests passing |
| Competitor landscape | Who you are up against, and how each one pitches and prices |
| Campaign plan | Dated steps on the right channels, with the launch posts drafted |
| Learning path | Free university courses, books and lectures, week by week |
| Meeting prep | Who is coming, your history with them, and what to raise |
You do not need a workflow. Describe what you want: plan a trip, compare vendors, design a system, fix a bug. Press Return to begin, or add what matters first.
- Choose the model from the chip in the bar. Its effort control trades speed for depth, from Low to Max.
- Dictate with the microphone or ⌘⇧D (CtrlShiftD). Your words land in the bar for you to check before sending.
- Add context with the attach button: tabs, notes, files, links and folders. See The canvas.
How a run goes
A run reads from left to right across the canvas.
- It starts from what you have. Your words sit on the canvas with the things they drew on beside them: your memory, a skill it loaded, notes, history, open tabs, files. You see each one as it is used.
- Helpers work in parallel, in the open. For a trip, one helper looks for places to stay while another checks visas and a third compares flights. Each browses live pages you can watch in small windows, and each is named by what it is doing: searching, reading, using the page, checking, comparing, writing.
- Results gather on the right. As helpers finish, what they produced joins the answer. Sources are listed under it, including the pages that would not open.
Any source opens in a pane beside the canvas, without leaving Work. Press Esc to close the pane, or ⌘⇧Return (CtrlShiftEnter) to open it in Browse. Agents in this run lists who is doing what right now.
Steer, stop and help
- Stop ends the run at any time.
- Steer hands the agent something new at its next move. Type into Add to this… while it works.
- Answer when it asks. A question waits in the open with Waiting for your answer until you reply, and you can answer in your own words.
- Follow up with Message the agent… once it has finished.
When a page needs a person
Some pages need you: a sign-in, a check that wants to know you are a person, a permission only you can give, or a choice only you should make. Work stops on that page, says why, and opens it for you in a pane marked Help the agent. Do what the page needs, then choose I'm done, continue. If you would rather not, choose Skip this page and the agent goes on without it. If you need longer, choose Keep waiting. It waits up to 90 seconds more.
Results
Results stay on the canvas, not in a chat scroll. Depending on the request, they are an answer, a table, a chart, a comparison, a plan, a list, a diagram, code, a change to a file, a document, a draft, a page, a note or a whole folder or project.
- Ask about this starts a follow-up about one result, with that result as context.
- Make tasks turns each step of a plan into a task for you, linked back to the work. They appear in Tasks.
- Save as note keeps anything worth keeping as a note.
- Tables can be sorted and copied as CSV; comparisons can be set side by side; code and answers have a copy button.
Comparisons mark how well each claim is supported: Supported, Inferred, Unverified or Contradicted. Open any source to check.
The canvas
The canvas is yours as well as the agents'. Scroll to pan, pinch to zoom, press 0 to fit everything and 1 for actual size.
- Add to canvas brings in open tabs, notes, images and PDFs, links, and folders. Adding a tab keeps its identity; it does not share the page with a model.
- Note drops a coloured sticky note. Blocks adds a note, a checklist, a table or a calendar to fill in yourself.
- Select objects and choose Ask to use them as context. Work shows how many are selected, whether they are private, and how much will leave your device. Choose Arrange to tidy them into a grid, a row or a stack.
Your works
The name at the top left of the canvas opens your works. Search them, start a New work, rename one, or archive it with Archive Work and bring it back with Restore. A work that grows full asks you to start a new one.
What agents may do
Agents start with little and ask for more. The rule of thumb: reading is cheap, changing things waits for you.
| It wants to | What happens |
|---|---|
| Use your history, notes or open tabs | It asks once for this work, and says what it would see: titles and addresses for history and tabs, titles and short passages for notes. |
| Read a folder | You grant the folder, for this work. Its files are read, and nothing is changed without asking. A change appears as a proposal and is written only after you approve it. |
| Run a command | Commands that only look at a project may run without asking. Others show the command and why it needs permission, and wait. You can allow commands that change files in one folder for the rest of the work. |
| Work in a site as you | Per site you choose Always, Ask or Never. Banks, payments and health sites are never used without asking. |
| Send, post, merge, delete or save | It prepares a draft or a plan and waits for you to approve it exactly as written. |
| Look at a page as a picture | When the text is not enough, Work can send a picture of the page to your model. On sites where you are signed in, it asks first. |
| Use a connected tool | It asks once before using a tool on your computer or a server, and any call that changes something asks you first. |
Site access. In SettingsSite access you see every site where you answered Always or Never, and can change or forget any of them. Always means the agent works in your signed-in session without asking. Never means it reads only the site's public pages, in a private session. Sites not listed are asked about once per run.
Pictures of pages. SettingsWork has Let Work look at pages and the list of sites Work may look at. It also holds Work's website data, which is kept apart from your own browsing data and can be cleared there.
Skills, memory and connections
Skills
A skill is a short set of instructions the agent loads when a request fits. Zephium ships with 25, including trip planning, research, compare and choose, plan my day, fix a bug and weekly status. In SettingsSkills you can read them, Duplicate one to start your own, Customize one to replace it with your version, or make a New skill: a name, one line on when to use it, and the instructions. Yours live in your profile, and replace a built-in of the same name.
Memory
Work remembers what is worth keeping: that you prefer aisle seats, who Anna is, what a project is. SettingsMemory lists every memory with where it came from. Edit, add or forget any of them, or forget everything. It never keeps passwords, keys or card numbers. A run also shows what it remembered, with an Undo.
Connections
SettingsConnections is where Work reaches past the browser.
- On this computer: the GitHub CLI and Git, and Claude Code and Codex, which take on larger coding jobs for Work. Each shows whether it is installed and signed in.
- Servers: MCP servers give Work more tools, such as Linear, Notion, Sentry, Stripe and Figma. Choose Add… and either give an address or the command that starts one on your computer, and sign in. Tokens are kept in secure storage on your device, and a call that changes something asks you first.
Turning Work off
Open SettingsFeatures. Turning off Work removes the switch and the canvas; turning off AI also stops every model, the agents and dictation. Work that is running stops. Nothing is deleted, and your keys stay saved. Turn them back on and everything is where you left it.
Something wrong or missing on this page? Tell us on GitHub or in the Discord, or write to [email protected].