Workspace Lifecycle
Understanding how a workspace behaves across its lifetime helps you avoid losing work and make the most of the platform's session management.
States
A workspace moves through these states:
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Initialising | Repository is being set up; not yet usable |
| Ready | Workspace is fully set up and can be opened |
| Active | A browser session is currently open; the agent is available |
| Idle | No browser session is open; the sandbox is powered off but files are preserved |
| Error | Initialisation failed; check the initialisation screen for details |
Opening a workspace
When you click a workspace card on the Dashboard:
- The platform powers on the workspace sandbox (if sandboxes are enabled)
- A connection is established between your browser and the agent session
- The chat interface appears, and you can start sending prompts
If the workspace was previously active, the chat history is restored and any pending questions from the agent are shown again.
Only one active session per user
You can only have one workspace active at a time. If you open a second workspace while one is already active, the first workspace is powered off automatically before the second one opens. Your files and git history in the first workspace are preserved — nothing is lost.
This applies per user account. Two different users can each have their own workspace open simultaneously.
What happens when you navigate away or close the tab
When your browser navigates away from the workspace or the tab is closed:
- The platform receives a signal that the session is ending
- The sandbox is powered off — the agent process stops
- All file changes are preserved — the repository inside the sandbox is not affected
- The git status (uncommitted changes, unpublished commits) is retained as-is
The sandbox powering off is not the same as losing work. Think of it like suspending a virtual machine — everything is saved, the machine just stops running.
Reconnecting
If you close the workspace accidentally during an agent run (e.g. browser refresh or network blip), you have a 5-minute window to reconnect and resume the session. During this window:
- The agent continues running inside the sandbox
- Reconnecting restores the live session, including any questions the agent is waiting to ask you
After 5 minutes with no browser connection, the session ends and the sandbox is powered off. Any work the agent completed before the disconnect is preserved in the repository.
Returning to a workspace
When you reopen a workspace that was previously powered off:
- The sandbox powers back on
- The git history and all file changes from your last session are exactly as you left them
- A new agent session starts fresh — previous conversation history is shown in the chat, but the agent does not retain context from previous sessions by default
This means you may want to briefly summarise the current state at the start of a new session for longer-running projects.
Deleting a workspace
Deleting a workspace from the Dashboard (workspace card menu → Delete) or from Workspace Settings:
- Removes the workspace record from the platform
- Powers off and destroys the sandbox and its contents
- Does not delete the GitHub repository — that must be removed separately in GitHub if needed
There is no recovery from workspace deletion. Make sure any important changes are committed and pushed before deleting.