Show files the agent touched outside the workspace (e.g. /tmp) in the Files tab, especially for No project threads

[josephv123]

What I'm trying to do

Agents often read or write files outside the thread's workspace: a report or script in /tmp, a scratch copy in $TMPDIR, a config in ~/.config, or a file in a sibling repo. I want to see those files in the Files tab next to the workspace files, without hunting for a chat link or knowing the path ahead of time.

This matters most for No project (Scratch) threads. Their workspace is an empty per-thread folder under the data dir, so the Files tab is usually close to empty, while the real output of the thread sits in /tmp or elsewhere on disk.

What happens today

• The Files tab lists only the workspace root. projects.listEntries / searchEntries are scoped to cwd (apps/server/src/workspace/WorkspaceEntries.ts), and FileBrowserPanel.tsx builds the tree from those.
• The server already reads absolute host paths, read-only, "so clients can show files an agent left outside the workspace" (apps/server/src/workspace/WorkspaceFileSystem.ts). FilePreviewPanel.tsx already handles these as isHostFile (read-only, no tree reveal). The only way to reach them is clicking a path the agent happened to print in chat.
• Scratch folders are deliberately non-git (ManagedProjectFolders.ts), so checkpoints and turn diffs do not apply there. The only record of touched paths is the unstructured tool-call activity data that the work log parses (packages/client-runtime/src/work-log/presentation.ts).

What I'd like

A "Outside workspace" (or "Touched elsewhere") section in the Files tab. It would list files the thread's agent read, wrote, or edited whose paths resolve outside the workspace root.

• Source: paths from the thread's tool activity (Write/Edit/Read, apply_patch, file_change items, etc.), resolved to absolute paths, deduped, and filtered to those outside cwd. Ideally the server stores these per thread so they survive reloads and don't rely on client-side guessing.
• Grouping: group by common parent rather than showing a flat list, e.g. /tmp/…, ~/…, /var/folders/…/T/… (shown as $TMPDIR). Collapse long prefixes.
• Opening: reuse the existing host-file preview, read-only, the same as clicking an absolute chat link today. Writes stay confined to the workspace.
• Missing files: temp files disappear. If a path no longer exists, show it dimmed or struck through with "deleted" instead of a failing preview.

Telling temp files apart from regular files

Some options. They aren't mutually exclusive:

1. Separate section. Workspace files stay in the normal tree, and outside files go in their own collapsible section below it with a header like "Outside workspace · 4". This is the simplest and clearest option.
2. Badges and icons per location kind. A small tag on each row: tmp for system temp dirs (/tmp, /private/tmp, $TMPDIR, /var/folders), home for ~, ext for other absolute paths. Temp rows are muted or italic to signal they may not last.
3. Access kind. A small marker for read vs. written/edited (e.g. R / M / A, like the changed-files tree), so it's obvious which ones the agent produced.
4. Breadcrumb or header in the preview. When an outside file is open, show its full absolute path and a "Read-only · outside workspace" chip, so it's never confused with a workspace file.

My preference is (1) + (2) + (4), with read-only previews.

Nice-to-haves

• "Copy into workspace" / "Save to project" on an outside file. Useful in Scratch threads when you want to keep something the agent wrote to /tmp before it's cleaned up.
• "Reveal in Finder / file manager" and "Copy path".
• A setting to hide the section, or to show only written files and skip reads.

Open questions

• Should reads be included, or only writes/edits? Reads can be noisy (agents read lots of system/config files). Maybe show writes by default and put reads behind a toggle.
• Should the list be per-thread (my assumption) or aggregated per project?
• For remote environments, the paths are on the remote host. The existing host-read path should already cover that, but it's worth confirming.

Related

• Navigate to paths outside the project from the Files panel (../, ~/, absolute) #14489: navigate to paths outside the project from the Files panel by typing them (manual; this request is about surfacing agent-touched files automatically).
• [Bug]: A chat link to a folder outside the workspace opens a failing file preview #15215: a chat link to a folder outside the workspace opens a failing preview.
• Allow browser preview for absolute file links outside project root #7027: browser preview for absolute file links outside the project root.