← Blog
A folder behind transparent glass.
Conceptual illustration, not a screenshot.

How to let an AI agent read another project without changing it

Give an agent reference material without treating a comparison folder as its workspace.

Published

An agent may need to compare an old implementation with a new one. Copying both into its writable workspace can make it unclear which version is authoritative. Give it a specific reference folder and make the intended output location explicit.

Separate reference from work

In the APX projects guide, a project can register a read-only folder for its agents. The agent can read and copy material from it, but APX refuses writes it can see there. This is a protection enforced by APX, not an operating-system sandbox: the guide notes that a script constructing a path at runtime may not be caught.

Try a bounded comparison

  1. Choose a folder that contains only material the agent is allowed to read.
  2. Ask for a report in the writable project, naming the reference as read-only.
  3. Inspect the report and source links; check that the reference folder was not changed.
  4. Remove access when the reference is no longer needed.

Read-only does not mean confidential from the agent or its model provider. Do not add a folder with sensitive records unless the agent and connected services are authorized to process them. Check the permission mode and the actual destination before any edit.

Sources

  1. APX documentation ↗
← All articles