Files and changes
The files card explores a directory; the changes card shows the git status of that same directory.
They are two cards that go together: one to look at files, another to look at what changed in them.
Files
The files card is an explorer anchored to a root — usually the board’s
working directory. It always reads relative to that root, never the whole
filesystem. It has an icon per type, inline rename/create/delete and
Markdown preview.
Changes
The changes card shows the git status of the same directory: what was modified, what was staged and what is new. It is the place to check the tree before any commit.
Several cards write to the same files at the same time. No git command
that discards state — reset --hard, checkout of a
file, restore, stash, clean — is
allowed. The reason is measured: a destructive reset already erased
uncommitted work from three cards, and the blobs were not recoverable. If
you need a clean tree for a gate, use a worktree, not clean the tree.
Why this appears in the docs
Because an agent reads these cards too. The files card is how it finds the code; the changes card is how it checks what its own edit did before saying it is done.