Employee FAQ
Share this page with your employees, or copy it into your internal wiki. It answers the questions people actually ask, in the order they ask them.
What is this thing on my laptop?
The Merge Workforce desktop client. Your company uses it to set up the AI tools you are approved to use, keep them working, and understand which AI tools are in use across the company.
How does it know who I am? Do I need to do anything?
Usually nothing. It recognizes you the same way your other work software does, through your company log-in, or from your company’s device records. Your AI access and your approved tools are already set up when you first use it.
If it cannot work out who you are, you will see a one-time prompt in the menu bar asking you to sign in with your work account. That is a fallback, not the normal path, and it happens once.
Who decided which AI tools I have access to?
Your company did, through the groups you belong to. Your access follows your team’s configuration, so nothing was connected on your behalf that your IT or security team did not approve for your group.
If you need access to something you do not have, ask your IT team, or use the request option in the menu bar panel if your company enabled it.
Could someone else use my AI access, or make their usage look like mine?
No. Your identity comes from your company log-in or your company’s device records, verified on Merge’s side. There is no file or setting on the laptop that anyone, including someone with administrator rights, can edit to appear as you. Usage is also attributed on the server, not on the laptop, so it cannot be relabeled from the machine.
What does it do for me?
It sets up your AI stack so you do not have to. The AI models your company pays for, the tools your AI agent can reach, and the configuration that connects them all get installed and kept current automatically. Without it you would be following a setup guide, copying keys into config files, and redoing it every time something changed.
Can it read my prompts?
No. It does not read the contents of your AI conversations, and it is not built to. It sees that a connection was made from an application to a destination, which is the same thing your company firewall sees. It never decrypts your traffic, so the contents are not available to it.
Can it see my screen or what I type?
No. It has no screen recording, no screenshots, and no keystroke logging.
Can it read my files?
It reads a specific, short list of configuration files: the settings files that AI tools like Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code use to know which models and tools to connect to. That is how it can set them up for you and notice when something has broken. It does not read your documents, your code, or anything else on disk.
Does it track my browsing?
It does not collect your browsing history. If the shadow AI logging feature is on, it records that connections were made to AI services, which service, from which application, and roughly how much data moved, summarized in five-minute blocks. Nothing about non-AI sites, and nothing about page contents.
Will my manager see how much I use AI?
Usage is reported at the company and team level by default. Individual detail exists and specific administrators can see it, and every time someone looks at individual data it is recorded. Ask your IT or security team what your company’s policy is, since that part is their choice, not the client’s.
Can I see what it collected about me?
If your company enabled the panel, click the Merge icon in your menu bar or system tray. It shows you the AI tools found on your machine, your own usage, and which models and tools you have access to. You see the same data your administrators see about you.
If there is no icon, your company chose to run the client without a visible presence. Ask your IT team for your data.
Why did it change my Claude Code or Cursor settings?
Because it is keeping you pointed at the AI setup your company provides, which is what gives you access to the paid models and the approved tools. It writes its changes inside a clearly marked block in the file so your own settings around it are left alone.
If you need a setting it keeps overwriting, that is a policy question for your IT team rather than something to fight in the file. It will keep restoring the configuration, and after a few rounds it stops and tells your administrators instead.
Something stopped working after it installed. What do I do?
Contact your IT team and tell them the client’s version, which you can find in the menu bar panel or by asking them to check the fleet view. Common causes are a network tool on your machine and the client both filtering the same traffic, which your IT team can resolve.
Can I uninstall it?
No, and attempting to will be reported to your IT team. It is managed software, deployed the same way as your other required corporate software. If you have a genuine reason to need it removed, that is a conversation with IT.
Does it slow my machine down?
It is built to a tight budget: under 2% CPU on average, and under 150 MB of memory in total across all its parts. If you are seeing something worse than that, tell your IT team, because it is a bug rather than expected behavior.