Local device

Connect your own computer as a Nebula device. Install the desktop app and your agents can work with your files, your software, and your network.

A local device is your own computer, made available to Nebula agents through the desktop app. Use it when work has to happen on your machine — sensitive files, locally installed software, your own dev environment, a network only you can reach.

When to pick local

	Virtual device	Local device
Where files live	Nebula's cloud	Your hard drive
Available	24/7	When your machine is on and the app is running
Sees your locally installed apps	No	Yes
Can reach your private network	No	Yes
Best for	Always-on automations, shared team work	Personal files, local development, private networks

Setting up a local device

Download the desktop app

Get the Nebula desktop app from nebula.gg/download. Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Open the app and sign in by pairing — it shows a short code and confirms it in your browser. See Nebula Desktop for the full install and sign-in flow.

Turn on Computer Control

Choose how much access to grant, and pick the folder agents work in. This is what actually makes your machine usable by agents — see Computer Control for the choices and what each one unlocks.

Pick which workspaces it serves

Access is granted per workspace. In the desktop app's Settings → Workspaces, switch on the workspaces this computer should be available to.

Stay online to use it

The local device is available whenever the app is running and you're signed in. Quit the app or put the machine to sleep and it goes offline — and a restart doesn't bring it back on its own, so open the app again after rebooting.

Local devices show up on the Devices page with a status dot — green when reachable, grey when the desktop app isn't running. The desktop app also carries a Computer Control row at the bottom of its sidebar, telling you whether access is off, on while Nebula is open, or always on.

Prefer the command line, or setting up a machine with no desktop session? The Nebula CLI runs the same helper with nebula-ai local-device enable. Whichever one you start it with owns it — the other shows it as managed elsewhere.

What agents can do on your local device

Work with local files

Read and write files anywhere you grant access. Useful for documents, repos, and media you don't want in the cloud.

Use installed apps

Drive native apps you already have — IDEs, design tools, anything scriptable.

Reach private networks

Hit internal services, intranet dashboards, and APIs only reachable from your machine.

Run code in your environment

Use the versions and dependencies you already have set up locally — no fresh container.

Privacy & permissions

Local devices only see what you explicitly grant, but it's worth knowing what the default actually is. Access starts at Whole system — agents can reach anywhere your user account can, and the working folder is only where their commands start, not a fence around them. To confine them, open Computer Control and choose Limit to working folder. You can also switch access off entirely there at any time.

Your operating system gets involved only for the features that genuinely need it: the microphone the first time you speak on a call, and screen recording the first time you share your screen or use Screen aware. Nebula doesn't ask for accessibility access at all.

When you go offline, the device stops accepting work. Files and credentials stay on your machine; Nebula's cloud never has a copy.