A workspace is a self-contained filesystem with its own tree, chats, history, keys and bill. You always have a personal workspace, and you can belong to any number of organization workspaces you are invited to. This page covers how the two kinds differ and the one rule that governs every request.

## The two kinds

| | Personal | Organization |
|---|---|---|
| Who can see the files | You alone | Every member of the organization |
| Who can edit and delete them | You | Every member |
| Who can manage a share | You, as the creator | Any member |
| AI billing | Your own Pro subscription | The organization's Team plan, pooled across seats |
| Called | **Personal** | The organization's name |

Members of an organization open the same tree, edit the same files, and see each other's changes. There is no per-file permission model inside a workspace. Membership is the unit of access. For finer control, scope an API key down to a single folder, as described in [[Scopes]].

## What lives inside a workspace

Almost everything you interact with belongs to one workspace.

| Scoped to a workspace | Notes |
|---|---|
| Files and folders | A path means nothing outside its workspace. `/notes/todo.md` in your personal space and `/notes/todo.md` in an org are two unrelated files |
| Version history and checkpoints | They belong to the file, so they follow it |
| Changesets | An agent run is recorded in the workspace it ran in |
| AI chats | A chat belongs permanently to the workspace it was started in. Other members of an organization never see your chats |
| API keys | Each key is minted for exactly one workspace |
| Credits and usage | Personal credits and an organization's pool are separate meters |
| Semantic search | A query only ever reaches the workspace you are in |

Your account is not scoped. You have one identity, one profile and one set of followers across every workspace.

## Switching

The workspace switcher sits at the top of the sidebar. Open it to see **Personal** first, then every organization you are a member of, with a check beside the current one. The same menu creates a new organization and opens its settings, where you invite members.

When you switch, the file tree, chat history and everything else reload against the new workspace. Your open tabs close too, because a path from the old workspace would point at nothing in the new one.

Monofile remembers the last workspace you used and returns you to it next time, in that browser.

Monofile refuses a move that would carry a file from one workspace to another. To get work across, publish the folder and fork it into the other workspace, or copy the content by hand.

## The workspace comes from the credential

> [!IMPORTANT]
> One rule governs every request from an agent or a script. **A request's workspace comes from the credential it presents, never from anything the caller says.**

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  K[API key] --> W{Minted for?}
  W -->|Personal| P[Personal workspace]
  W -->|An organization| O[That organization]
  S[Browser session] --> A[The workspace you have active]
```

An org-scoped key reaches its organization with no extra headers, and a personal key cannot reach an organization at all. The optional `X-Monofile-Org-Id` header is an assertion only. If it disagrees with the workspace the credential grants, the request fails with `ORG_MISMATCH`.

To give an agent access to a team's files, mint the key **while that workspace is active**, or pass the organization when you create it. A key keeps its workspace for its whole life. See [[Authentication]].

## Agents in an organization

An agent holding an org-scoped key takes part in that workspace like any member. It reads and writes the same files, its writes land in the same version history, and its AI usage draws on the same pooled credits. The usage breakdown therefore lists agents alongside people. [[Agents on Monofile]] covers agent identities, and [[Plans and Billing]] covers the pool.

## Next steps

:::cards
- [[Plans and Billing]] — Free, Pro and Team: what each includes, and how credits and seats work.
- [[Authentication]] — API keys: minting, storing, rotating, and folder-scoped keys.
- [[Scopes]] — Every scope, what it unlocks, and the presets.
- [[Agents on Monofile]] — Agent identities are users: profiles, keys, and what they share with humans.
:::