Workbooks, sheets, and cells in GridOS

Learn how GridOS organizes your data into workbooks, named sheets, and individually addressable cells — and how persistence keeps your work safe.

Every GridOS project lives inside a workbook — a single container that holds one or more named sheets, your conversation history, and any charts or macros you have built up. Understanding the workbook model helps you navigate large datasets, keep related tables organized, and hand off projects to collaborators without losing context.

Workbooks

A workbook is the top-level object in GridOS. It has a name (editable at any time from the toolbar), and it serializes to a .gridos file that you can save, share, and reopen. Each workbook starts with one sheet named Sheet1, and you can add more at any time.

The workbook name is stored inside the .gridos file, so renaming it in the app keeps the filename and the in-app title in sync only if you re-save after renaming.

Sheets

Sheets are the individual tabs inside a workbook. Each sheet is an independent grid of cells with its own data, formulas, and charts.

Create a sheet

Click the + tab button at the bottom of the screen. GridOS names it automatically (Sheet2, Sheet3, …) or accepts a custom name.

Rename a sheet

Double-click the tab label and type a new name. Names must be non-empty and unique within the workbook.

Switch sheets

Click any tab to activate it. The active sheet is highlighted, and all AI chat commands operate on the active sheet by default.

Deleting a sheet removes all of its cells, formulas, and charts permanently. There is no undo beyond reopening a previously saved .gridos file.

Cells and A1 notation

Each sheet is a two-dimensional grid. Columns are labeled with letters (A, B, C … Z, AA, AB …) and rows with numbers (1, 2, 3 …). A cell address combines the column letter and the row number: A1 is the top-left cell, B3 is column B row 3, and C10 is column C row 10.

You will see A1 notation everywhere in GridOS — in the formula bar, in chat output, in chart data-range fields, and in the kernel’s JSON payloads.

What a cell stores

Every cell holds:

Field	Description
Value	The computed result — a number, string, boolean, or an error code such as #DIV/0!.
Formula	The raw formula string (e.g. =SUM(A1:A10)) if the cell was written with one, or null for plain values.
Datatype	Detected automatically: string, int, float, or boolean.
Locked	Whether the cell is read-only. See Cell locking.

When a cell contains a formula, GridOS stores both the formula and the computed value. If an upstream cell changes, all dependent formulas recalculate automatically.

Occupied region

The occupied region is the smallest bounding rectangle that contains every non-empty cell on the active sheet. GridOS exposes this to the AI so the agent knows where your data lives without scanning the entire infinite grid. You will see it reported in the status bar as a range like A1 → F24.

When the agent proposes a write that overlaps occupied cells, the kernel uses the occupied region to decide where to shift the incoming data. See Collision resolution for details.

Cell locking

You can mark any range of cells as locked (read-only). Locked cells display a padlock badge and cannot be overwritten — by you or by an agent. This is useful for protecting header rows, reference tables, or computed outputs you want to freeze.

Lock cells after the AI has populated them to prevent accidental overwrites during subsequent agent turns.

To lock a range, select the cells and choose Lock selection from the right-click context menu. To unlock, select the locked range and choose Unlock selection.

Workbook persistence

GridOS saves workbooks as .gridos files — a JSON document that records every sheet, cell value, formula, lock state, chart, and macro.

1. Manual save

   Open the File menu and click Save. Choose a filename and location. The file extension .gridos is added automatically.

2. Open a workbook

   Click File → Open and select a .gridos file. GridOS loads all sheets, restores the active sheet, and re-evaluates every formula.

3. Export / Import

   Use File → Export to download the current state as a .gridos file, and File → Import to load one. These are equivalent to save/open but use browser download/upload flows instead of the filesystem dialog.

GridOS does not currently auto-save. Save frequently if you are running long agent chains — especially before applying a large batch of cell writes.