Computer Control
Let Nebula agents work on your own machine — your files, your tools, your network. Choose how long access lasts and how far across the disk it reaches.
Computer Control turns your machine into somewhere agents can actually do work: read and write your files, run commands, and reach things only your computer can reach. You choose how long it stays on and how far it reaches, and you can take it back at any time.
What it unlocks
Without Computer Control, Nebula still does plenty — it just does it all in the cloud. Turning it on adds the things that only make sense on your machine.
Agents work on real files on your disk — reorganize a directory, batch-rename exports, read a spreadsheet you'd rather not upload anywhere, or write results straight back where your other software expects them.
Anything installed locally is fair game — your dev environment, your CLI tools, a build or test suite, software you've configured over years and don't want to recreate in the cloud.
Internal sites, a staging server behind the VPN, a database only reachable from your machine. If your computer can reach it, an agent working there can too.
Quick Send can attach a picture of what you're looking at, so you can ask about the thing in front of you instead of describing it.
Once it's on, you route work to your machine by asking — "use my local Mac for this", or "run the test suite in my project folder".
Opening the controls
The desktop header carries a Computer Control pill with a coloured dot, so the current state is always visible. Click it to open the panel.
| Dot | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Grey | Off — agents can't touch this machine |
| Green | On while Nebula is open |
| Blue | On even when Nebula is closed |
The panel opens with a plain-language banner confirming where you stand — "Computer control is on in this workspace", and underneath, that agents in this workspace can run commands and read files on this computer. When it's off, it says so just as plainly.
How long it stays on
Three choices, as a single row of buttons.
| Off | While Nebula is open | Even when closed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents can use this machine | No | Yes | Yes |
| Keeps working after you quit | No | No | Yes |
| Best when | You'd rather keep everything in the cloud | Day-to-day work you want to supervise | Overnight jobs and scheduled work that touch your machine |
This choice applies to the workspace you're in. The panel tells you how many workspaces this computer is enabled in, so you can see at a glance whether you've switched it on somewhere else too.
With Off, Nebula still works — chat, cloud devices, and connected apps all carry on. You just don't get anything in the list above.
How far it reaches
Separate from how long, there's how much — and this one is worth reading carefully.
The default. Agents can reach anywhere your user account can, and the working folder is simply where commands start from — not a fence.
Confines agents to the working folder and what's inside it. Click Limit to working folder to switch, then click again to confirm.
Because Whole system is the default, choosing a working folder does not by itself keep agents inside it. If you want that boundary, set it explicitly with Limit to working folder — and turn on the safety gate if you'd rather approve writes and deletes as they come.
Going the other way — from a confined folder back out to the whole machine — also takes two clicks, so access never widens by accident.
The working folder
Working folder is where an agent's commands run from, shown in full so there's no guessing which directory you're pointed at. Change… picks a different one.
Point it at a project folder or a dedicated working directory rather than your home folder. Agents pick up the change straight away.
Checking on it
The panel doubles as a status readout when something isn't behaving.
| Row | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Daemon | Whether the background helper is running, and which app is looking after it — the desktop app or the CLI |
| Enabled in | How many workspaces this computer currently serves |
| Access | Whole system, or working folder only |
| Working folder | The directory commands run from |
| Device ID | This machine's identifier, handy when asking support about a specific computer |
View logs tails the helper's log right in the panel, and Open logs folder reveals the files on disk — the first thing to reach for if an agent says it can't reach your machine.
Which workspaces it serves
Access is granted per workspace, not once and for all. The desktop app's Settings → Workspaces lists the workspaces you're in with a toggle for each — so your machine can serve your own workspace while staying invisible to a client's.
When it's actually running
The header pill's dot is the quickest read — grey, green, or blue.
On While Nebula is open, quitting stops agents reaching your machine, and Nebula warns you first since a scheduled job that expects this computer will start failing. On Even when closed, the helper keeps running without you.
Rebooting doesn't bring the helper back on its own — open the app again and it picks up where it left off.
The desktop app isn't the only way. The Nebula command-line tool can run the same helper with nebula-ai local-device enable, which suits a headless machine or a server. Whichever one starts it owns it — the Daemon row names the owner, and the other surface shows it as managed elsewhere rather than fighting over it.
Permissions your computer asks for
Fewer than you might expect. Nebula asks the operating system for something only when you first use the feature that needs it.
| Feature | What your system asks for |
|---|---|
| Voice calls | Microphone access, the first time you speak on a call |
| Screen aware, and sharing your screen on a call | Screen recording access, the first time you use it |
| Agent file and command access | Nothing from the OS — scope is the Access setting above |
Related
Nebula Desktop
Install the Nebula desktop app on macOS, Windows, or Linux to keep agents visible while you work, send from anywhere, and give Nebula access to your computer.
The Capsule
Keep an eye on every running agent from a corner of your screen. The Nebula Capsule shows live work, unread results, and calls across all your workspaces.