HivemindOS manual

Apps Using HivemindOS

Coding agents and other apps on your computer can ask to use what HivemindOS can do: drive a browser, use your signed-in Chrome, search your brain, or control apps on your computer. Nothing is shared until you say yes, each app gets only what it asked for, and you can take it back at any time.

When an app asks

A card appears over HivemindOS: “Codex wants to use HivemindOS”, with each thing it asked for in plain words and, if the app gave one, what it says the request is for.

Allow keeps that access until you remove it.
Allow for a day ends it after 24 hours.
Deny refuses this request. The app can ask again later.
Decide later in Settings hides the card. The request waits in Settings → Apps using HivemindOS for 15 minutes.

Requests marked Sensitive reach things you are signed in to or files on your computer. Read them before allowing.

What an app can ask for

Request	What it allows
Use a browser	Open pages, read them, click and type in a separate browser HivemindOS runs. It is not signed in to anything.
Use your signed-in Chrome	Open one of your own Chrome profiles in a visible window, so the app can use sites you are already signed in to. Quit Chrome first if that profile is open.
Run code on web pages	Read and change anything on the page the app has open.
Upload files from this computer	Attach a file from your computer to the site the app has open.
Start a cloud browser	Run a browser online. It is charged for as long as it stays open.
Control apps on this computer	Start tasks that click and type in apps. Anything that buys, sends or deletes still stops and asks you first.
Search your brain	Search and read your shared memories and notes. Other agents’ private notes stay hidden.
Save to your brain	Save notes in the app’s own private space. Anything meant for everyone comes to you for review.

An app never gets your account, your wallets, your payments or your settings, and it can never approve anything on your behalf. Choices you made for your own agents, such as Browser Use full permissions, don’t carry over to outside apps.

See and remove access

Settings → Apps using HivemindOS lists every app that holds access, what it can do, until when, and when it last used it. Remove cuts it off on its next request.

Codex, Claude Code and other MCP apps

The HivemindOS tools you add to Codex, Claude Code, Gemini CLI and similar apps include browser_use. If one of those apps can’t sign in to HivemindOS on its own, the first tool that needs something asks for exactly that, and the tool finishes as soon as you allow it. The app remembers the answer, so you are asked once.

For developers: asking from your own app

Any program on the same computer can ask over HTTP. HivemindOS answers these requests only when it is reachable from this computer alone, and never from a web page.

See what you can ask for: GET /api/app-access/requests with the header x-hivemindos-app-request: 1.
Ask: POST /api/app-access/requests with the same header and a JSON body:
```
{ "appName": "My App", "capabilities": ["browser"], "reason": "Check my order status" }
```
The reply has a requestId and a pickup object with a one-time secret. Keep the secret private.
Wait for the answer: GET /api/app-access/requests/<requestId> with the headers x-hivemindos-app-request: 1 and x-hivemindos-app-request-secret: <secret>. Ask every few seconds. When you’re allowed, the reply contains your token, exactly once.
Use it: send x-hivemindos-app-token: <token> (or Authorization: Bearer <token>) with each request. GET /api/app-access/self says what your app holds.

A request for something your app wasn’t allowed gets a 403 naming the capability to ask for (needsAccess, capability). Ask again for it with your token attached, so the request stays under your app’s name. A 401 means the owner removed your access or it ran out, so ask again.

Capability ids: browser, browser-signed-in, browser-page-script, browser-file-upload, browser-cloud, computer, brain-read, brain-write.