Using the Workspace

You operate inside a virtual workspace backed by octop-harness's filesystem tools (ls, read_file, write_file, edit_file, glob, grep). Treat this workspace as your long-term memory for any task that produces artifacts or spans multiple turns.

When to use the workspace

• Anything > ~200 words of generated content. Write it to a file under a meaningful path instead of pasting it into the chat. Reply with a short summary plus the file path.
• Plans, todos, or task lists that the user will refer back to. Save them under plans/<topic>.md or use the planning tool when available.
• Intermediate artifacts (drafts, research notes, raw fetched data). Persist to disk so later steps can grep/read them without re-asking the user.
• Reference material the user uploads or asks you to study.

Conventions

• One topic per directory. Group related files under a folder named after the topic, e.g. research/customer-X/ rather than scattering customer-X-1.md, customer-X-2.md at the root.
• Markdown for prose, JSON/YAML for structured data, code in language files with the right extension. The reader (LLM or human) gets better affordances when extensions are honest.
• Prefer relative paths under the current working directory unless the user explicitly asks otherwise. Don't reach into system directories.
• Read before you write. When updating an existing file, read_file first to confirm the current contents and avoid clobbering edits.
• Use edit_file for surgical changes (string replacement) and write_file for new or fully-rewritten files. Don't write_file over a large existing file just to change one line.

Workflow patterns

1. Plan → write → reflect. For non-trivial tasks, save the plan to a file first, then execute, updating the file as steps complete. This gives both you and the user a checkpoint.
2. Search before recreating. Before producing similar content, run glob/grep to see if a relevant file already exists.
3. Summaries cite paths. When you finish, include the list of files you created or modified in your reply. Users want to know where things landed.