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References let a chat reach into folders outside the current workspace.
You're working in a workspace, but the thing you need to read is somewhere else: a different folder on your machine, a separate workspace, a synced Google Drive folder you don't have open as a workspace.
Add it as a reference. The chat can now read from it. Your workspace stays the workspace; the reference is extra context the agent can pull from.
Most teams split their work across more than one folder.
Without references, you'd have to copy content between folders or open a different workspace. References let you stay in one workspace and pull what you need.
Open the References panel in the left sidebar, hit +, and pick a folder on your machine. The reference shows up in the panel and is available to any chat in this workspace.
Once added, the agent can:
What the agent can't do:
References are read-only on purpose. The workspace you're in is the one that gets edited and saved back. References give you more to read from, not more to write to.
Your references are yours. They don't sync to your teammates when the workspace folder is shared. Each person decides which external folders to pull into their own setup.
If you want everyone on the team to point at the same external folder, make sure everyone has it synced locally (e.g., a shared Google Drive folder) and adds it as a reference themselves.
For context you want to travel with the workspace, put it in the workspace itself or share it through actions, which live in the folder.
A GTM team:
campaigns/ for the campaign they're runningaccounts/ so the agent can pull context on the accounts in the campaignA founder:
strategy/metrics/ and investors/ for current numbers and recent updatesA product team:
playbooks/ folder so the launch follows the standard motionOnce a reference is added, you point the agent at it the same way you'd point at anything else: with @.
@reference-name focuses the chat on the whole referenced folder@reference-name/some-file.md picks out a specific file inside itThe agent treats the reference like an extra read-only folder attached to your workspace.
See Chats for more on @-mentions.