Workspace
The Perch workspace on Desktop and CLI is a scoped folder with a real file browser, an editor with diffs, a live terminal, a canvas, and a browser session. Here is what each part does.
When you work in Perch on Desktop or the CLI, you are not working in a chat box that happens to accept file uploads. You are working inside a scoped workspace: a folder Perch can read and write, a file browser and editor, a real terminal, a canvas for long-form output, a browser session it can drive, and a trail of sources behind every claim.
This page covers what each part is. For the tools Perch uses inside the workspace, see the agent harness.
Folder scope is the boundary
Perch works from the folder you choose, and that choice is a permission boundary rather than a convenience. Filesystem access is validated per call against approved roots, so Perch cannot wander outside the folder you pointed it at. There is no whole-disk indexing.
Keep the relevant material together, and leave out what you do not want in scope. Changing the folder changes what Perch can see, read, and edit.
The file browser and editor
The desktop app gives you the workspace as a real interface, not just as something the model talks about:
- File browser. Navigate the folder tree Perch has access to.
- File viewer with syntax highlighting. Open any file and read it with proper language coloring, the same tokenizer the chat transcript uses for code blocks.
- Inline editing. Edit a file directly in the panel and save it, without leaving Perch or switching to another editor.
- Diff view. See what changed as a line by line diff, which is also how proposed changes from background agents are presented for review.
The terminal
The desktop app runs a real terminal pane, not a simulated one. Commands Perch runs appear there, and you can drive it yourself in the same session. Long-running commands can be handed off to the background, where Perch can check on them, wait for them, or stop them while continuing to work on something else.
The canvas
Long-form output lands in the canvas rather than being buried in chat scrollback: drafts, memos, audit notes, summaries, and source-backed revisions. It is the right home for work that is meant to leave Perch as a document.
The browser session
Perch can operate web tools you are already signed into, using the browser session you control rather than asking every app for its own OAuth grant. It drives the page from the accessibility tree and screenshots together, which is also how you can point it at a local dev server and have it look at what it just built.
See the agent browser for what it can do and how to take the wheel yourself.
The source trace
Claims point back to the material Perch read. In writing work, unsupported claims are marked before they reach a final draft. See citation verification.
What differs by surface
The workspace is not identical everywhere, and the differences are worth knowing before you pick a surface.
| Desktop | CLI | Perch AI Web | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folder access, read and write | Yes | Yes | No |
| File browser, editor, diff view | Yes | Terminal UI | No |
| Terminal | Yes | It is the terminal | No |
| Folder index and retrieval | Yes | No | No |
| Agent browser | Yes | No | No |
| Canvas | Yes | Yes | Limited |
The CLI is a full terminal UI rather than a stripped-down client, and it does the same file and command work as Desktop. What it does not carry is the folder index and the agent browser. Perch AI Web is the light front door: upload, ask, and get a cited answer, with no local folder.
