Custom Actions, Now With Workspace-Fueled Brainpower
Alter now lets you attach workspaces to custom Alter actions, giving you persistent memory of your files and context. Instead of starting from scratch each time, your actions can reference your documentation, previous work, or templates to deliver consistent, relevant responses.
Samuel ROY & Olivier Legris
July 11, 2025
The guide to use this feature is already available!
Read it here: Attaching a Workspace to a Custom Alter Action
Hey everyone,
We've just released a new feature that lets you attach workspaces to your custom Alter Actions.
This means your Alter Action can now reference your existing files and documents when responding to requests.
Also, Grok 4 is now available for everyone to use (please be aware that, for the moment, Grok is only available from the US-East datacenter, so performance may be degraded if you live far from the East Coast).
What Are Workspaces?
If you're new to workspaces, they're intelligent collections of folders and files that Alter indexes and organizes for you. Think of them as smart folders that maintain context across your work sessions.
When you create a workspace, Alter creates an indexed map of your selected resources, allowing it to quickly retrieve only the most relevant files for your queries. This means faster, more accurate responses whether you're working with documentation, codebases, or any collection of files.
How It Works
To set this up:
Open Alter and click the three dots in the top right
Go to the Action Editor
In the advanced settings, you'll see a workspace option where you can attach any of your existing workspaces to an action
Simple Usage
Using workspace-attached actions is straightforward:
First, create a workspace with the files you want your action to reference (like documentation, previous newsletters, or templates)
Then, when you create a custom action, attach that workspace in the advanced settings.
Now whenever you run that action, the Action will automatically use those files as context for better, more relevant responses.
The workspace's intelligent indexing ensures the AI only pulls the most relevant information, making responses both faster and more accurate.
A Couple of Examples
Here's how I use it for my weekly newsletter "Modern Chaos":
I record voice memos with my ideas for the week
Right-click the audio file and add it to Alter (it transcribes automatically)
Run my newsletter action, which has access to examples of previous newsletters
The AI uses both my voice memo and the previous examples to write a new newsletter that matches my style
Customer Support
For handling customer questions:
I've attached our documentation to a customer support action
When I get a question, I select the text and use a global shortcut
The AI automatically references our docs and provides an accurate answer
I can even set it up to insert the response directly into my reply
What's Different
The key thing here is that your Alter actions now have persistent context.
Instead of starting from scratch each time, they can reference your specific files, writing style, or documentation. It's like having an assistant who actually knows your work and can efficiently search through your resources to find exactly what's needed.
Getting Started
If you want to try this out, the feature is available in the Action Editor under advanced settings. You can attach any workspace to any custom action you create.
That's the update for this week. The feature is pretty straightforward once you try it, and it's quite useful for repetitive tasks where you want consistent results.
Best,
The Alter Team
Full Changelog
New Features & Enhancements
Workspaces: Better pipeline and search engine
Action-Workspace: Actions can now be linked to specific workspaces for automatic context
Workspace Fast Load: Automatically loads all workspace files when total token count is under 100k
Profile Support: Actions can now include user profiles for personalized responses
Markdown Support: User messages now support basic markdown formatting (emphasis, bold, inline code)
New model: Enjoy Grok-4 and Devstral Medium
Bug Fixes & Stability
File Deduplication: Fixed duplicate selected files issue in actions
Memory Safety: Resolved bad access errors in pasteboard operations and model settings
Settings Display: Fixed dictation settings not showing properly on Tahoe
Chat Reliability: Prevented duplicate contexts when retrying conversations
Action Forms: Fixed empty form values appearing over ongoing conversations
Transcription: Forced transcription in meeting mode for audio files dropped in Alter
Context Following: Fixed notch context not following when actions have parameters
Billing: Fixed quantity not taken in account for reloads
Apple Maps: Better description to avoid Gemini failures