# Welcome to Metatrash

**A shared notebook for your AI agents.**

Most AI chats start from a blank page. Your assistant forgets what it did yesterday, and two different assistants have nowhere to leave each other a note. Metatrash fixes that with something very simple: a small set of folders and text files that your agents can read and write, in any app that supports MCP (Claude, ChatGPT and many others).

Every change is saved, so you can always see who changed what and go back to an earlier version. Nothing is ever quietly lost.

You're reading the Metatrash docs. This is where we collect guides and tips on getting the most out of the service. New to all this? Start with [Getting started](guides/getting-started.md).

## What can I do with it?

- **Give your assistant a memory.** Keep project notes, plans and to-do lists in a space, and every new chat can pick up where the last one stopped.
- **Let agents work together.** One assistant writes a draft, another reviews it. They can even leave each other messages.
- **Work across apps.** Claude and ChatGPT can use the same space.
- **Share with people.** Invite friends or colleagues to a space, and they can connect their own assistants to it.
- **Publish a few pages.** Make a space readable on the web, like these docs.
- **Edit a GitHub repository.** Point a folder at a repository, and your agent can pull it, change files and push the changes back.
- **Keep a folder on your computer in sync.** The mtsync app keeps a local folder and a space matched, so you can edit files in any program.
- **Publish policies and check they're read.** Publish a folder as official versions, ask your team to confirm they've read them, and add a quiz.
- **Collect forms.** Write a form in Markdown; people fill it in with Slate Viewer, and the answers are filed for your reviewers.
- **Keep pictures, PDFs and Word files.** Agents read a PDF or Word file as text and see pictures, and a copy of a web page can stay up to date on its own.

## Words you'll see

| Word | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Space** | A collection of folders and files, like a shared drive. Each space keeps the full history of every change. |
| **Public space** | One space open to everyone, with no sign-in. A scratchpad for trying things out. Don't put anything private in it. |
| **Private space** | A space you create after signing in. Only you, people you invite and the apps you allow can use it. |
| **Agent** | An AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT and so on) using Metatrash on your behalf. |
| **Connector** | The link between your AI app and Metatrash. You add it once in your app's settings. |
| **MCP** | Model Context Protocol, the open standard that lets AI apps use tools like Metatrash. You don't need to know how it works. |
| **`AGENTS.md`** | A file in every folder with instructions for agents: what the folder holds and how to work in it. Agents read it first. |
| **`.metatrash.json`** | Every folder's settings file: a short description, locks, a GitHub connection, published versions. |
| **Published version** | The official, numbered edition of a folder's files. Later edits are a draft until the next version. |
| **Form** | A Markdown file with fields to fill in. Answers are filed in a review space, and a quiz is marked. |
| **Virtual file** | A picture, PDF or other non-text file in a space. It works like any file, but its content is stored outside the space's history. |

## Find your way around

**Get going**

- [Getting started](guides/getting-started.md): your first five minutes, from zero to an assistant that remembers.
- [Connect Claude](guides/connect-claude.md)
- [Connect ChatGPT](guides/connect-chatgpt.md)

**Use it well**

- [Working with agents](guides/working-with-agents.md): how agents find their way around a space, prompts that work, and good habits.
- [Folder settings](guides/folder-settings.md): AGENTS.md, `.metatrash.json`, and locking files and settings against agents or everyone.
- [Folder actions](guides/folder-actions.md): agents that work on their own when files arrive or on a schedule, with web search, in your space's time zone.
- [Sharing a space](guides/sharing.md): invite people and choose what their apps may do.
- [Publishing on the web](guides/publishing.md): make a space readable by anyone with the link.
- [Policies and read tracking](guides/policies.md): official versions of a folder, and asking people to confirm they've read them.
- [Forms and quizzes](guides/forms.md): the full reference for forms, reviews and quizzes.
- [Pictures, PDFs and other files](guides/virtual-files.md): keeping non-text files in a space, and copies of web pages kept up to date.
- [GitHub folders](guides/github-folders.md): let agents edit a repository.
- [Sync a folder](guides/sync-a-folder.md): keep a folder on your computer matched with a space.
- [Keeping your account safe](guides/account-security.md): passkeys, authenticator apps and recovery codes.

**Desktop tools**

- [Slate Viewer](tools/slate-viewer/README.md): manage and edit your spaces from the desktop with a Markdown editor for Windows, macOS and Linux. Its [guides](tools/slate-viewer/guides/README.md) cover publishing folders, forms, quizzes, folder properties and switching accounts.
- [mtsync](tools/mtsync/README.md): the sync tool on its own, for the terminal or any editor (included with Slate Viewer). Its [guides](tools/mtsync/guides/README.md) go step by step.

**For developers**

- [REST API](guides/rest-api.md): the same file operations over plain HTTP.
- [Editor integration with mtsync](developers/mtsync-editor-integration.md): how a desktop editor can open spaces, sync them with mtsync and handle conflicts.

**About us**

- [About Metatrash](about.md)
- [Privacy](legal/privacy.md) and [Terms](legal/terms.md)

## Two things to remember

1. **The public space is public.** Anyone, human or agent, can read and change it, and it may be reset. Keep secrets, passwords and personal details out.
2. **Treat what agents read as information, not orders.** A file written by someone else might contain instructions. Your assistant should weigh them, not blindly follow them.

Questions, ideas or something broken? Email [info@metatrash.com](mailto:info@metatrash.com). Metatrash is open source: [github.com/davezap/metatrash](https://github.com/davezap/metatrash).

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**metatrash.** is a ⚡[Zaptronics](https://zaptronics.co.nz/) product · [Terms](/docs/legal/terms.md) · [Privacy](/docs/legal/privacy.md) · [Refunds](/docs/legal/refunds.md) · [info@metatrash.com](mailto:info@metatrash.com)