# How it works

## A personal remote computer

You can think of fl0w as an agent that you can run in two places (see the [Overview](/docs/overview) for the product picture):

1. Your local computer — install and run via the [Quickstart](/docs/quickstart)
2. **Your personal remote computer** running in a sandbox

<Image src="/docs/side-by-side.png" width={2958} height={1828}
  alt="Fl0w running side by side locally and in the cloud"
  className="mt-4 h-auto w-full max-w-2xl rounded-lg border border-line/80" />

Your remote computer has its own filesystem, memory, and compute so you can work on files and projects as if 
you're working on your personal computer.

## Zero configs

One of the challenges of running agents remotely is that **your local agent is different than agents running remotely**.

Fl0w solves this by syncing MCP, skills, and tools on every run. Adding a new MCP server locally automatically syncs with your remote computer, and vice versa. Configure servers in [Adding MCP connectors](/docs/guides/mcp-connectors) or with [`fl0w mcp`](/docs/cli#mcp-servers) and [`fl0w sync`](/docs/cli#account-and-sync); re-run OAuth with [`fl0w reauth`](/docs/cli#account-and-sync) when needed.

```text
+--------------+              +--------------+
|    Local     |              |    Remote    |
|--------------|   fl0w sync  |--------------|
| ~/.fl0w/     | -----------> | ~/.fl0w/     |
|  +- auth.json|              |  +- auth.json|
|  +- mcp.json |              |  +- mcp.json |
|  +- skills/  | <----------- |  +- skills/  |
+--------------+              +--------------+
```

Whether you make changes remotely or locally, all of your skills and MCP servers are synced. Everything works with zero config. [Secrets](/docs/cli#secrets) and browser session state used with [Browser use](/docs/guides/browser-use) follow the same pattern so authenticated workflows behave the same in the cloud.