Everything Turnstone can do

Turnstone is an AI workspace that helps you complete everyday work across your files, conversations, browser, and connected apps.

Overview

What Turnstone is

Turnstone is an AI workspace that helps you complete everyday work across your files, conversations, browser, and connected apps. Instead of moving information between separate tools or repeatedly uploading documents to a chatbot, you can give Turnstone access to a folder on your computer and work with everything inside it directly.

You can ask questions, research topics, find information across your files, create and edit documents, organize folders, and take actions in other apps — all through a conversation with Turnstone. You decide what Turnstone can access and how much freedom it has to act.

Bring your own subscription or API key. Turnstone supports BYOS (Bring Your Own Subscription) with ChatGPT and Claude, as well as BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) for OpenAI, Anthropic, and open-source models through OpenRouter. You choose the AI provider that powers your workspace.

Example Use Case

AI Models & Providers

Turnstone is not tied to a single AI provider. You can use an existing ChatGPT or Claude subscription, connect an OpenAI or Anthropic API key, or access supported open-source models through OpenRouter.

You decide how much control you want over which model runs each chat. A Simple / Advanced toggle in Models settings switches between an easy quality picker and precise, manual model selection.

• Simple
• Advanced

Local Files & Folders

Turnstone works directly with the files and folders on your computer. It does not just read or discuss them — it can create new files, edit existing ones, rename and move items, reorganize folders, and delete files when your selected permissions allow it.

Choose a folder as your workspace and Turnstone can work with everything inside it. Any changes Turnstone makes are applied to the actual files on your computer, so you do not need to upload documents individually, copy responses out of a chatbot, or make the changes yourself.

The file explorer drawer keeps your selected folder visible beside the conversation. You can browse its folders, open files directly, or drag a file from the drawer into the chat when you want Turnstone to focus on it.

Turnstone also stays aware of the file you currently have open, so the chat already knows which file you're looking at — you can ask about “this document” without naming it.

You can ask Turnstone to:

• “Update the dates in this rental agreement.”
• “Create a project brief from these meeting notes and save it in this folder.”
• “Rename and organize these receipts by year and category.”
• “Find every document that mentions this client and create a summary.”
• “Convert these notes into a polished Markdown document.”

Safety & Permissions

Working with local files requires trust. Turnstone gives you clear permission modes so you can decide whether it may only inspect your work, ask before making changes, or act independently.

Read Only

Turnstone can read and analyze information, but it cannot change anything on your computer. Even if a request accidentally asks it to edit, move, or delete something, those actions remain blocked.

Ask First

Turnstone can read the selected folder and prepare changes, but asks for your approval before it performs protected actions.

Always Allow

Turnstone can work independently inside the folder you selected — creating and changing files without stopping to ask. It still cannot reach beyond that folder: the workspace acts as a sandbox, so the rest of your computer stays off-limits.

Full Access

Full Access removes the sandbox entirely — Turnstone can read and act across your whole computer, no matter which folder is selected. This is powerful but genuinely risky: an agent with Full Access can reach and change files anywhere.

Read Only, Ask First, and Always Allow keep Turnstone confined to the selected folder, meaning you can give Turnstone useful access to a project without exposing the rest of your computer.

View & Edit Files

Turnstone is not limited to discussing your files in a chat. It includes built-in ways to open, inspect, and work with common document and media formats.

You can read and write Markdown documents, inspect PDFs, view images, work with CSV data, and handle common office documents. The available editing experience depends on the file type.

Editor Mode (Beta)

Editor Mode turns Turnstone into an AI-first document workspace. It adds a dedicated editing experience where you and Turnstone can work on a file together, moving between conversation and direct editing without leaving the app.

Connected Apps

Turnstone connects to the apps where your work already lives — Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, Notion, and Linear — to search for information and bring it into the conversation.

Connected apps aren't limited to search. Where supported, Turnstone can also take action — for example, preparing an editable Gmail card.

You can connect multiple accounts for the same app — like personal and work Gmail — and choose which one Turnstone uses for each action.

Browser Automation

Turnstone can work with your browser to complete tasks on websites. It can inspect a page, navigate through a workflow, and interact with the same browser session you are using.

Chats & Side Chats

Chats keep the messages, files, and context for a task together so you can return to it later. Side Chats are for quick questions that come up while you are working on something important, allowing you to explore another question without interrupting the main task.

Memory

Memory helps Turnstone build useful context about you across different conversations. It remembers information such as your preferences and responsibilities.

Automations

Automations let Turnstone perform recurring work on a schedule. This is useful for tasks that matter but are easy to forget.

Skills

Skills are reusable instructions that teach Turnstone how to handle particular kinds of work.