Your First Safe Session

Do not start in your Documents folder or your home folder. Make a practice folder instead, with a name like agent-practice, and put three or four throwaway files in it: a text file, a rough draft, a spreadsheet you do not mind losing.

Open your terminal inside that folder, start your agent, and begin with something read-only. Ask it to list the files and explain what each one is. Watch how it works: it will tell you what it is looking at and ask before it does anything that changes your files.

Then ask for one small change, such as tidying the wording of your draft or renaming a file. Read what it proposes before you approve. Most agents show a preview of the change. Get in the habit of actually reading it, even when it looks fine.

Finally, ask it to undo what it did, or check the result yourself. Knowing how to back out is more useful than knowing how to start. Before you ever point an agent at real work, copy the folder first. A backup takes ten seconds and turns most disasters into a shrug.

Takeaway: practice in a throwaway folder, start read-only, read every change before you approve it, and back up before real work.

Tools, prices and features in this area change quickly. Last reviewed September 2026.