Workspaces (sandbox)

Gluon has a private workspace where it can run commands, write files and work with data, such as cleaning a spreadsheet, converting files or building an app. Your workspace is shared by all your chats, so files persist from one chat to the next.

Two runtimes

Runtime	What it is	Cost
Just Bash	A simulated shell for files and text tools such as grep, jq, sed and awk	Free to run
Linux	A real Linux computer with Python, Node, packages, git and internet access	Charged while it runs

Gluon starts light work in Just Bash and uses Linux only for what Just Bash can’t do, such as Python, installing packages or downloading from the internet. Just Bash has no networking, real programs, git, Python or Node.

• Linux starts on first use and stops after five idle minutes, or up to an hour while a long background job runs. It’s charged for the time it runs.
• Linux is available only in private chats. Groups have a Just Bash workspace of their own.
• On Linux, only /workspace is kept between runs; files outside it and installed system packages are lost when the computer stops. Install project dependencies inside /workspace.

Three kinds of storage

Your files live in three places, and nothing syncs between them:

Where	Holds	Kept
Drive	Your files and chat attachments	Until deleted, then 30 days in the trash
Inbox	Your mail, shown read-only at /mail	As long as your inbox keeps it; deleted mail up to 30 days in Deleted emails
Just Bash workspace, inside your drive	What Gluon makes and works on, under /workspace	Until it’s deleted or the workspace is reset
Linux workspace	Gluon’s work on the Linux computer, under /workspace	Temporary: up to a day after the computer stops

• Drive to Just Bash. Just Bash sees your drive as the folders /files and /chats, your inbox as /mail, your artifacts’ source as /artifacts and your expense ledgers as /expenses, when the Files, Mail, Artifacts and Expenses permissions allow. Gluon reads them there, or copies one into /workspace to work on it. It can’t change them; see what Gluon can read and change.
• Just Bash to Drive. To keep a result, move it into Files from the Workspace section of Drive, or use Save to Files on the side panel’s Sandbox tab, which lists changed files with Open. Gluon can also email results or show them.
• Between Just Bash and Linux, Gluon copies a file or folder once, when it needs to. Later edits to one copy don’t reach the other.
• Linux files are temporary. A day after the Linux computer last stopped, its files are deleted, and the next run starts empty; Gluon is told when that happens. Ask Gluon to copy anything worth keeping into Just Bash or your Drive.

Images Gluon generates are also saved in your Just Bash workspace, under /workspace/images.

Group drives from your private chat

Each of your groups has its own drive, with its own Just Bash workspace. In your private chat, Gluon can work in any group you’re in as well as your own:

• Reading and searching a group’s drive just runs, following the group’s permissions. Gluon can also search your drive and every group’s at once, and then read from the one that matched.
• Changing a group’s drive, by running a command, writing or editing a file, or copying your files into it, asks you first. The approval card names the group and shows the exact command or text. Change this under Change group drives in the Sandbox permissions.
• When such a change is done, the group sees one line, such as “Asha’s assistant added report.md and edited notes.md in the group’s drive”, naming up to five files.
• When Gluon copies files from your drive into a group, it copies exactly the files you approved. If any of them change before the copy runs, nothing is copied and Gluon asks again. Linux files go to your Just Bash workspace first.
• Leaving a group removes Gluon’s access to its drive at once. A group chat only ever reaches that group’s drive.

Limits

Limit	Just Bash	Linux
Workspace size	Shares its drive’s storage	256 MiB
Largest file	16 MiB in a command	20 MiB to move in or out
Files and folders	200,000 in the whole drive	20,000
One command	5 seconds of work	Runs on in the background after 30 seconds

Linux runs on half a CPU with 4 GiB of memory. A long command in one chat delays workspace use in your other chats until it finishes.

Resetting

Ask Gluon to reset a workspace to delete every file in it, in every chat; it asks for approval first. Each runtime resets separately, and resetting Just Bash clears only /workspace, never your files or mail. Deleting a chat keeps your workspace files.

Workspace files count toward storage: Just Bash as part of your drive, and Linux while its files are kept.