Desktop app and local files

The Ask Lucy desktop app lets Lucy work with files and tools on your computer. It is off until your organisation turns it on, and then it stays under your control.

Use cases and example usage

Local access is for work whose files live on your computer, not in a cloud service.

Job	Say this	What happens
Review a folder of documents	“Go through the contracts in my Q3 folder and list every renewal date in a table.”	Lucy reads the files in the folder you shared and builds the table.
Find a file	“Find the 2025 audit report. I think it is somewhere in Projects.”	Lucy searches the shared folders and shows you the match.
Tidy up	“Rename these 40 scans to date and supplier and move them into a folder per month.”	With read/write access, Lucy proposes the changes and asks you before it changes anything.
Prepare a deliverable on disk	“Save the finished summary as a Word file in my Reports folder.”	The file is written to the folder you shared.
Run a local script	“Run the export script in this folder and tell me if it fails.”	Only if commands are enabled, and Lucy asks on your computer first.

Why this matters

Much regulated work is still in shared drives, exported reports and local folders. Local access lets Lucy help there without uploading everything first, and without giving it any more reach than the folder you chose.

Good practice

• Share a specific project folder, not your whole home folder.
• Start with read. Move to read_write for tidy-up and file creation tasks only when you need them.
• Leave commands on ask so you see each one before it runs.

What an admin chooses

Setting	Options	What it controls
Local files	off · read · read_write	Whether people may share folders. read: list, search, read and attach. read_write: also change them, asking you each time.
Local commands	off · ask · allow	Whether Lucy may run commands on the computer. ask: every command asks the person. allow: the person may also allow a whole conversation or keep standing rules.
Local MCP servers	off · on	Whether the desktop app may offer the person’s own local MCP servers to Lucy.
Confirmation	never · changes · always	When the device asks before acting in a shared folder.
Audit detail	metadata · detailed	What the audit log records of local actions.

What you choose

You decide which folders to share, and you can stop at any time. The desktop app asks you on your computer, not in the browser, before acting where it matters. Tools that only read are allow by default; tools that write, move or delete are ask.

Why these defaults

Everything starts off. Local access is powerful, so it is a deliberate decision per organisation. Audit detail defaults to metadata (device, folder, tool, decision, outcome) so the log is useful without recording file paths. Switch to detailed when your compliance team needs paths and commands, and the desktop app then tells people that it is recording them.

Local tools are never available to unattended agents.