osFoundry / Platform
Cross-app data grants
Apps can share data with other apps — explicit scoped grants, audited, revocable.
What it is
Cross-app data grants are how apps inside osFoundry share data with each other without quietly reaching into everything. Instead of one app having blanket access to the whole workspace, the owner of the data issues an explicit grant: this app may access this data, for this purpose. The grant is scoped rather than global, it is recorded in an audit trail, and it can be revoked at any time without touching the apps themselves.
In practice this means data flows between apps by permission, not by default. When one app needs to read what another app holds — a knowledge base feeding a chat app, a data app feeding a dashboard, an agent app pulling from a code app — that connection is a named grant you can see and inspect. Because osFoundry is a local-first, bring-your-own-key desktop workspace, the data and the grants live on your device by default, not on a vendor's servers. Sharing is a decision you make between your own apps, and the audit record shows exactly which grants exist and when they were used.
This matters because the alternative — apps with implicit, all-or-nothing access — is how data leaks and surprises happen. Scoped grants keep the boundary explicit, the audit trail answers "who could see this," and revocability means a grant you no longer want is gone the moment you say so. It is the same principle that makes least-privilege access work, applied to the apps you run in one workspace rather than to accounts on the open internet.
Key capabilities
- Issue explicit, scoped grants so one app can access another app's data for a defined purpose, not the whole workspace
- Every grant is recorded in an audit trail, so you can see which apps have access to what and when it was used
- Revoke any grant at any time — access ends immediately, without modifying or redeploying the apps involved
- Least-privilege by default: apps start with no cross-app access until a grant is explicitly issued
- Local-first and BYOK — grants and the data they cover stay on your device, not on a third-party server
Use cases
- Builder wiring apps together: grant a dashboard app read access to a data app's tables without giving it access to anything else in the workspace
- Privacy-conscious team lead: review the audit trail to confirm exactly which apps can read a sensitive knowledge base, and revoke stale grants
- Agent developer: give an agent app a scoped grant to pull from a code or knowledge app, then pull the grant the moment the task is done
Frequently asked questions
What does a cross-app data grant actually control?
It controls whether one app can access another app's data, limited to the scope you define in the grant. Apps do not get workspace-wide access by default; they only see what a specific grant allows, and nothing beyond it.
Can I take access away after granting it?
Yes. Every grant is revocable. When you revoke it, the receiving app loses that access immediately — you do not have to change, rebuild, or redeploy either app for the revocation to take effect.
Where does the shared data live, and who can see it?
osFoundry is local-first and bring-your-own-key, so by default your data and your grants stay on your device rather than on a vendor's servers. The audit trail shows which grants exist and when they were exercised, so you always have a record of who could access what.