Docs / Chat and working folders
Chat and working folders
A Renly chat is a governed workspace: an agent, a model, your files, and a complete record of what happened.
Anatomy of a chat
- Agent: every chat is bound to an agent. Change it from the composer to bring different skills and tools to the conversation.
- Model: pick the model per chat from the model picker. Organisations on eligible plans can bring their own provider keys, and users with a GitHub Copilot subscription can run turns on it.
- Working folder: attach the folder where this work lives, and the agent reads and writes documents there instead of passing attachments around.
Working folders
A working folder can live in three places:
| Location | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Renly-hosted | Files live with the chat. Export everything as a ZIP whenever you want. |
| SharePoint or OneDrive | Connect a cloud folder in place. The agent works directly against it, and your teammates see changes where the files already live. |
| Your device (desktop app) | Point at a local folder. Files stay on your machine and are accessed through the governed device gateway. |
The files panel shows sync state per file, and staging work the agent does in progress stays in its own scratch space so your folder only ever contains finished output.
While the agent works
- The work log shows every step: which tools ran, what they touched, and the agent's narration between steps. Values that look like secrets are masked on screen until you reveal them.
- Queue follow-ups while a turn runs; they send automatically when the agent finishes.
- Long runs are safe: leave the page, come back, or pick the chat up on another device and the work continues.
Every message can prove itself
- The Evidence Passport on each response records which model ran, what policy checks applied, and what the agent did. Export it when the work needs to be defensible.
- Report content from the message actions if an AI response seems wrong or inappropriate. Reports go straight to our team.
- Export any response as Markdown or PDF, share it, or bookmark it for later.