Connectors: what it may reach
A task can only use what you have connected. That sentence is both the feature and the safety model.
Connectors are how Cowork reaches things that are not files on your disk: a calendar, a mail account, a document store, an internal service. You authorise each one, and from then on a task can use it without asking you again for access.
Where the credentials live
Not in the sandbox. From the architecture documentation: connector authorisation tokens never enter the sandbox, and connector calls are made on the server side. The task can ask for the result of an action, not for the key that performs it.
That distinction is what makes lesson 16 possible to reason about. Something hostile inside a document cannot steal a token that was never in the room.
Connect narrowly
| Instead of | Connect |
|---|---|
| Your whole drive | The one folder the job uses |
| Your mail account, for a reporting job | Nothing. The job does not need mail |
| Every app you own, once, in a hurry | The app you need, the day you need it |
Access granted for one task stays granted for the next one. That is convenient and it is also how a task ends up able to reach something nobody thought about, so it is worth reviewing occasionally rather than never.
Local folders are a connector too
The folders you connect in the desktop app are the same kind of decision. Lesson 3 said a cloud session can only reach folders you connected there. Connecting your home directory once, to save time, quietly removes that boundary for every future task.
- List every connector you have authorised. Disconnect the ones you cannot name a current use for.
- Check which local folders are connected on your desktop app, and narrow them.
Every expert started right here.