File Access Outside Workspace

Learn how Continue’s Agent and Plan modes handle file access outside the IDE workspace, including permission requirements and supported path formats.

Overview

Continue’s Agent and Plan modes can read files and list directories both within and outside your IDE workspace. For security, accessing files outside the workspace requires explicit user permission.

How File Access Works

When you use tools like read_file, ls, view_subdirectory, or read_file_range, Continue:

1. Resolves the path - Normalizes the provided path (relative, absolute, tilde, or file:// URI)
2. Checks workspace boundaries - Determines if the path is within or outside your workspace
3. Applies access policy - Files within workspace are read automatically; files outside require permission

Supported Path Formats

Continue supports multiple path formats for flexible file access:

Relative Paths

Paths relative to your workspace root:

src/components/Button.tsx
../shared-utils/helpers.js

These are always resolved within the workspace and don’t require permission.

Absolute Paths

Full system paths:

/home/user/documents/notes.txt
C:\Users\username\Desktop\config.json

Tilde Paths

Home directory expansion:

~/Documents/project-notes.md
~/.ssh/config

The ~ expands to your home directory (e.g., /home/user or C:\Users\username).

File URIs

File protocol URIs:

file:///home/user/documents/notes.txt
file:///C:/Users/username/Desktop/config.json

These are automatically decoded and resolved to system paths.

Windows Network Paths

UNC paths for network shares:

\\server\share\folder\file.txt

Workspace Boundary Detection

Continue determines workspace boundaries by checking if a resolved path starts with any of your IDE’s workspace directories. This applies to:

• Single-folder workspaces
• Multi-root workspaces (e.g., VS Code multi-root)
• Monorepo setups with multiple workspace directories

Example Scenarios

Scenario 1: Reading within workspace

Workspace: /home/user/myproject
Request: read_file("src/main.ts")
Result: ✅ Allowed automatically (within workspace)

Scenario 2: Reading outside workspace

Workspace: /home/user/myproject
Request: read_file("~/Documents/external-notes.md")
Result: ⚠️ Requires user permission (outside workspace)

Scenario 3: Reading with absolute path

Workspace: /home/user/myproject
Request: read_file("/etc/hosts")
Result: ⚠️ Requires user permission (outside workspace)

Security and Permissions

Permission Policy

• Within workspace: Files are accessible without permission (policy: allowedWithoutPermission)
• Outside workspace: Files require explicit user permission (policy: allowedWithPermission)
• Disabled tools: Respects tool policy settings if explicitly disabled

User Experience

When Agent or Plan mode attempts to access a file outside the workspace:

1. The tool call is displayed with the full path
2. A permission prompt appears asking for confirmation
3. You can approve or deny the access
4. Future accesses may still require permission depending on your settings

Best Practices

Be cautious when granting permission to access files outside your workspace. Verify the path and ensure you trust the operation being performed.

• Review paths carefully - Check that file paths in permission prompts are expected
• Understand the context - Know why the agent is requesting external file access
• Limit scope - Consider moving frequently accessed external files into your workspace
• Use tool policies - Configure tool policies in your settings to control access patterns

Available Tools with External Access

The following tools support reading files outside the workspace:

Read-Only Tools (Plan & Agent Mode)

• read_file - Read complete file contents
• read_file_range - Read specific line ranges from a file
• ls - List files and directories
• view_subdirectory - View directory structure

Path Resolution

All these tools use the same path resolution logic:

1. Parse the input path (relative, absolute, tilde, URI)
2. Resolve to an absolute system path
3. Check workspace boundaries
4. Apply appropriate permission policy

Examples

Reading Configuration Files

# Agent prompt
"Read my SSH config file at ~/.ssh/config and summarize the hosts"

# Continue resolves ~/. ssh/config to /home/user/.ssh/config
# Prompts for permission since it's outside workspace
# Reads and provides summary

Listing External Directories

# Agent prompt
"List all markdown files in ~/Documents/notes"

# Continue resolves ~/Documents/notes
# Prompts for permission
# Lists .md files in that directory

Comparing Files Across Locations

# Agent prompt
"Compare src/config.json with /etc/app/default-config.json"

# src/config.json - within workspace, reads immediately
# /etc/app/default-config.json - outside workspace, prompts for permission

Troubleshooting

Permission Denied Errors

If you see permission denied errors:

1. Check file system permissions - Ensure your user account can read the file
2. Verify path resolution - Confirm the path resolves correctly for your OS
3. Review tool policies - Check if the tool is disabled in settings

Path Not Found

If paths aren’t resolving:

1. Use absolute paths - Try providing full system paths
2. Check tilde expansion - Verify ~ expands to the correct home directory
3. Escape special characters - Quote paths with spaces or special characters
4. Windows paths - Use forward slashes or properly escaped backslashes

Unexpected Permission Prompts

If you’re prompted for files you expect to be in the workspace:

1. Verify workspace configuration - Check your IDE’s workspace settings
2. Check symbolic links - Symlinks may resolve outside workspace boundaries
3. Review path normalization - Ensure paths are being resolved correctly

Related Documentation

How Agent Mode Works

Learn about tool handshakes and built-in tools

Plan Mode

Understand read-only tool restrictions in Plan mode

Model Context Protocol

Configure MCP servers for additional tools

Agent Customization

Configure tool policies and permissions