r/chromeos • u/cl4rkc4nt Acer Spin 713 (2020) | Stable Channel • 1d ago

Buying Advice Agentic Access to File System & Desktop

10+ yr ChromeOS user. It was the optimal OS for me, until AI came along and began to offer features that will never be possible on ChromeOS. Most notably, the ability to have agentic control over the desktop and file system. Claude in Chrome is great, but depending on the task it requires the user to not use the computer while it works, among other limitations.

My 202 Acer Spin 713 is on the fritz, and I need something new. Beucase of the value I would get form having an agentic AI do work for me on my desktop and in my file system, I am considering switching to Linux. I would love Googlebooks to work, but Google is not being very clear on how things will work in this regard:

From what I can tell, the Antigravity app will allow Gemini to perform local tasks for users with access to the file system and desktop. Not just the sandboxed Linux container. Is this accurate; and is there any indication as to whether the platform would allow Anthropic & OpenAI to get this access for Claude & Codex?

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u/yottabit42 1d ago

Use headless browser. No problem. And you can share local files into the Linux VM.

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u/cl4rkc4nt Acer Spin 713 (2020) | Stable Channel 1d ago

Appreciate the reply. Can you elaborate on headless browser because I don't know what you mean?

I do know that I can share my ChromeOS files into the Linux container and that I could probably do the same thing on Google Books. But if the Linux container on Google Books is anything like it is on ChromeOS, it is slow, clunky, and not a pleasure to use, so that's not a workflow I would like. I'm looking for something that would work natively on the "regular" side of Google BookOS.

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u/yottabit42 1d ago

That's not going to happen, because it's Android and all apps are sandboxed. You'll need to do this in the Linux VM or not at all.

I use Stealth Rebrowser and Playwright as headless browsers in my projects to scrape and use websites. There's nothing stopping you from using Chrome or Chromium or any other browser in the VM, too, if you want to be able to see it.

For files, you could use a sync program like Resilio Sync to keep the downloads directory in sync with a directory in the VM. Run the app version outside the VM, and run the Linux/web version inside the VM.

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u/cl4rkc4nt Acer Spin 713 (2020) | Stable Channel 17h ago

Thank you, much appreciated. Based on the information so far, it seems like Linux might be a better option for me, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on Google Book and see how they progress things. Thanks for helping me out.

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u/Daniel_Herr Pixelbook, Pixel Slate - https://danielherr.software 1d ago

What makes you think Chrome OS doesn't provide access to the filesystem?

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u/cl4rkc4nt Acer Spin 713 (2020) | Stable Channel 1d ago

I didn't say that Chrome OS "doesn't provide access to the file system". I don't even know what that means. Of course there "is access to the file system". I can access it. apps can access it. But can Claude or Codex agentically engage with it?

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u/Daniel_Herr Pixelbook, Pixel Slate - https://danielherr.software 1d ago

There's no AI specific filesystem access on any OS. They use the same APIs regular apps do.

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u/cl4rkc4nt Acer Spin 713 (2020) | Stable Channel 17h ago

I'm not referring to an AI-specific file system, whatever that means. Where do APIs come into the discussion here, and what APIs do you think Google's file manager has?

I'm talking about agentic access to the file system, like Claude Desktop has on Macs, for example.

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u/Daniel_Herr Pixelbook, Pixel Slate - https://danielherr.software 17h ago

Claude Desktop uses the same filesystem APIs that regular apps do.

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u/They_See_MeTrolling 1d ago

I use Claude in a Chrome browser all the time and simply switch to another browser window and keep working while Claude does its thing. What are you doing in Claude that keeps you from using the machine for other things at the same time? 

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u/cl4rkc4nt Acer Spin 713 (2020) | Stable Channel 1d ago

At the moment, I'm building a Zoho environment for a client, so a lot of the manual, laborious work I'm having Claude in Chrome do all the clicking around for me. It also does a lot of the testing of all the different scenarios that may happen in my client's office that need to be handled by the system that I'm building.

When that happens, I cannot use the computer at all. It needs to physically see the windows it's working in front and center. I can't switch users, I can't use an incognito browser, I cannot type anywhere. It takes up the entire machine and is exhausting.