# Accessing the Native File system

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/accessing-the-native-file-system/3861>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 11, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/accessing-the-native-file-system/3861 "2020-09-11T00:20:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![mbostock](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mbostock/32/9_2.png) [@mbostock](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mbostock)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/accessing-the-native-file-system/3861/2 "2020-09-11T02:10:29Z")

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Unfortunately this looks like it won’t be possible based on the security design of this feature:

> 1. The API will deny requests for user decisions coming from 3rd-party frames.

You could petition the browser vendors to add support for this. Alternatively, it might be possible for Observable to pass-through access to native files in the future, like we’ve done for FileAttachment.

In the meantime here’s another way to read local files:

> **[Reading Local Files](https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/reading-local-files)**
>
> As an alternative to attaching a file to your notebook, you can read files from your local file system in Observable using a file input: The initial value of a file input is undefined, so any cell that references this file will wait for the reader to...

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_[View the full topic](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/accessing-the-native-file-system/3861)._