> Talking to a bot, running a computer, and reading a shared file are three separate capabilities in Chatticus, not one bundle -- and every bot reads and writes the same filing cabinet.

Canonical: https://chattic.us/features/shared-files/

# A bot doesn’t need a computer to read a file.

Talking to a bot, running a computer, and reading a shared file are three separate capabilities in Chatticus — they don’t all boot together as one bundle. All three read and write the same filing cabinet: a file one bot saves is already there for the next one to read, computer or not.

## How it works

*Talk and think, nothing running*

### A bot can respond with no computer at all.

Reasoning and plenty of tools don't need a browser or a desktop underneath them — a bot can act on those the moment it's addressed.

*Reading needs nothing running*

### A file read serves straight from storage.

No host has to be up at all — reading a shared file doesn't wait on a computer to start, let alone on the browser stack inside it. Writing needs a host's disk loaded, but still never waits on the browser.

*The full computer, only when the work needs it*

### A real browser starts only for work that needs one.

A site with no API, a form only a browser can fill — that's what actually pulls in the full computer, the slowest capability to come up. Most work never needs it.

*How the files travel*

## One workspace, every bot, every host

**Visible to every bot.** Files in the shared workspace are visible to every bot in the organization, and reading one is its own capability gate — separate from waiting on the full browser stack.

**Files travel with the computer.** The same durable snapshot mechanism that reliably starts one shared computer across concurrent turns carries the files with it, host to host.

**One filing cabinet.** A single, organization-wide filing cabinet on EFS — one source of truth every bot and every computer reads and writes directly, rather than each host hydrating its own copy from a snapshot.

[Read the design memo](/wiki/computer-manifold)