Locking folders from the AI
Short answer: Right-click any folder and choose Lock from AI to put it off-limits. The app blocks every AI file operation against it, including reads, writes, deletes, and even local search results. The AI can’t undo the lock itself, no matter what a prompt tries to talk it into.
How do I lock a folder?
Right-click any folder in the Files panel and choose Lock from AI; an already-locked folder shows Unlock from AI instead. Locked folders render in red with a 🔒 badge next to the name, so the state is visible at a glance in the tree. You can lock or unlock any folder in your own tree; the workspace root and Build Perch’s own managed folders aren’t offered, since those are already off-limits by design.
What does the lock actually block?
The lock is stored with the workspace itself, and it blocks every AI file, document, and media operation against the folder: reads, writes, moves, deletes, and directory listings, in chat, in agents, and in workflows alike. It also covers local search: files in a locked folder never appear in local search results, including files that were searchable before you locked the folder.
Can the AI unlock a folder itself?
No. The AI cannot change locks. Nothing in a chat message, a tool call, or a prompt buried in a fetched web page can add or remove a lock. The only way to change a lock is the right-click menu.
How is this different from Build Perch’s other protected folders?
Locking is a feature you control, folder by folder. Separately, Build Perch keeps a handful of internal folders inside BuildPerch/ closed to the AI automatically (the chat-history store, the undo-snapshot store, the local search index, cached artifacts, and agent run state), so a bad prompt can’t corrupt the app’s own bookkeeping. Those aren’t something you toggle; they’re always closed, they’re hidden from the file tree, and they don’t carry the red/🔒 styling since you never see them.
Good to know
- A lock works even if the folder doesn’t exist yet, or is deleted and recreated later: it’s keyed to the folder’s path, not its current contents.
- Renaming the workspace’s folder carries the lock list (and every lock in it) along automatically.