# What agents may do

> A connected agent can always read your library, and three switches, off by default, decide what it may change.

- Page: https://resurf.so/guides/agent-access
- Section: Agents
- Works on: Mac
- Last checked against the app: 2026-10-17
- Where: Settings → MCP → Access
- Default: Read only

## The switches

Reading is always allowed. An agent can read every capture, including note text, transcripts and captures in the Trash.

- **Add.** Create captures and comments. It also lets an agent edit or delete any comment, including yours, and removing a highlight's comment removes the highlight. A deleted comment can't be brought back.
- **Organize.** Change title, description, source, pin, tags, triage and Spaces.
- **Move to Trash.** Move a capture to the Trash, or restore one.

No agent can edit a note's text, delete a capture for good, or empty the Trash.

## Change access

1. Open **Settings → MCP**.
2. Under **Access**, turn **Add**, **Organize** or **Move to Trash** on or off.
3. After changing access, set the agent up again. Click the info button on its row.
4. Click **Update connection** for Claude Desktop, Cursor or VS Code. For Claude Code, OpenAI Codex or Gemini CLI, click **Copy setup command** and run it again in Terminal.

For Claude Code, run `claude mcp remove --scope user resurf` first. Adding Resurf a second time fails.

## The command line tool

The switches cover agents connected over MCP. The [command line tool](https://resurf.so/guides/command-line) doesn't follow them: anything that can run it, including an agent with Terminal access, can add, organize and comment whatever the switches say.

## Questions

### I turned on Add but the agent still can't save.

Set the agent up again, as in Change access. An agent set up while every switch was off stays read-only until you do.

### Can an agent delete something for good?

Not a capture. Move to Trash only moves captures to the Trash or restores them, and only you can empty it. With Add on, an agent can delete comments, and that is permanent.

### What happens if an agent tries something that's switched off?

Resurf refuses it and tells the agent which permission is off.

## More guides

- Previous: [Connect an agent](https://resurf.so/guides/connect-agents.md)
- Next: [Send captures to an agent](https://resurf.so/guides/send-to-agent.md)
- [Connect an agent](https://resurf.so/guides/connect-agents.md): Add Resurf to Claude, Cursor, Codex or another MCP client once, and it can search and read your captures.
- [Send captures to an agent](https://resurf.so/guides/send-to-agent.md): Open Claude, Codex, Cursor or another agent with a draft that carries your captures, then send it yourself.
- [Command line tool](https://resurf.so/guides/command-line.md): Search, read and add to your library from Terminal or a script with the resurf command.
- [Resurf links](https://resurf.so/guides/url-scheme.md): Open a capture or a screen, or save something, from any app with a resurf:// link.
- [Every guide](https://resurf.so/llms.txt)