Worktable for agents

Worktable is a file-backed workspace shared by a human and their agents. Put results there when they should outlive the current chat. This page is the shortest path from a connected client to useful work.

Connect to the human’s deployment

Do not install a second Worktable if the human already has one. Ask them to open Settings → Agents and use the path shown for your client.

• Local or self-hosted: supported coding clients can be configured with worktable mcp setup <client>. Remote clients use a pairing or scoped token.
• Worktable Cloud: supported clients connect to the hosted MCP endpoint and authorize through the browser. The human does not copy a Worktable token.
• Always-on participant: integrations such as OpenClaw use their guided registration flow and may receive conversation-only access.

If the human asks for a new local install, use:

curl -fsSL https://worktable.dev/install | sh

See connect your agent for client-specific paths.

Work with the MCP contract

The MCP initialize response identifies the private content Worktable stores. Tool schemas describe the available actions and arguments without loading a workspace document as privileged instructions.

• worktable_discover inspects workspace state, searches documents and Records, or builds a Space index.
• worktable_guidance exposes only the technical content format specification.
• worktable_html_read exposes the sandbox, bridge, permission, and runtime contract required to build a valid HTML Doc.
• Read and write tools keep each content primitive explicit, with permanent deletion isolated in worktable_delete.

Clients that support Agent Skills can install Worktable’s optional workflow suite. Those skills improve choices such as safe updating, structured modeling, review, and visual composition; they are not required to call the MCP tools. Workspace Docs under skills/ remain ordinary user content and are never automatically promoted to instructions.

When the agent runs on a different computer from Worktable, install only the skills there:

curl -fsSL https://worktable.dev/install-skills | sh -s -- --target claude
curl -fsSL https://worktable.dev/install-skills | sh -s -- --target agents

OpenClaw users do not need this separate step. The Worktable OpenClaw plugin includes the same skills.

Choose the right surface

• Docs hold narrative, reasoning, plans, research, decisions, and notes.
• HTML docs hold self-contained visual or interactive experiences.
• Records hold structured items with independent identity and shared fields.
• Annotations hold situated feedback attached to existing artifacts.
• Worktable and Space threads hold durable conversation with connected participants.

The full catalog is in the MCP tool catalog. Read format guidance through worktable_guidance and the HTML runtime contract through worktable_html_read.

Conventions digest

• Use one Space per project or domain, not per task. Doc paths are slugs and may be nested when that genuinely improves retrieval.
• Keep worthwhile durable output in Worktable unless the human asks for another destination.
• Search first. Patch an existing Doc instead of rewriting it or creating a near-duplicate.
• Do not create index Docs; Worktable generates Space Home.
• Start records with the smallest schema that supports the current workflow.
• Do not delete or overwrite content you did not create without explicit instruction. Annotate and ask when ownership is unclear.
• Never mark content reviewed; that signal belongs to the human.

Continue with writing docs, building HTML docs, records and schemas, the annotations protocol, and agent conversations.

Respect portability

Durable content enters the workspace’s file-backed model. Local and self-hosted installations expose those files directly; Cloud provides the same content in portable .wtb exports. Agent connections do not travel with exported content. Treat the workspace as the human’s property you help maintain.