diff --git a/swarms/structs/agent.py b/swarms/structs/agent.py
index a59e0d4e4..ea30150f8 100644
--- a/swarms/structs/agent.py
+++ b/swarms/structs/agent.py
@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ def __init__(
         frequency_penalty: float = 0.0,
         presence_penalty: float = 0.0,
         temperature: float = 0.1,
-        workspace_dir: str = "agent_workspace",
+        workspace_dir: str = None,
         timeout: Optional[int] = None,
         # short_memory: Optional[str] = None,
         created_at: float = time.time(),
@@ -426,7 +426,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.frequency_penalty = frequency_penalty
         self.presence_penalty = presence_penalty
         self.temperature = temperature
-        self.workspace_dir = workspace_dir
+        self.workspace_dir = workspace_dir or os.getenv("WORKSPACE_DIR", "./workspace")
         self.timeout = timeout
         self.created_at = created_at
         self.return_step_meta = return_step_meta
@@ -469,7 +469,10 @@ def __init__(
         self.executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(
             max_workers=executor_workers
         )
-
+        #check and create workspace dir
+        if not os.path.exists(self.workspace_dir):
+            os.makedirs(self.workspace_dir)
+            
         # Initialize the tool struct
         if (
             exists(tools)
diff --git a/swarms/telemetry/check_update.py b/swarms/telemetry/check_update.py
index 2b0b9a1cd..4eeea35d7 100644
--- a/swarms/telemetry/check_update.py
+++ b/swarms/telemetry/check_update.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import importlib.util
 import sys
-
+import os
 import pkg_resources
 import requests
 from packaging import version
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ def check_for_update() -> bool:
     """
     try:
         # Fetch the latest version from the PyPI API
+        auto_update = os.getenv("SWARMS_AUTOUPDATE_ON", "false").lower() == "true"
+        if not auto_update:
+            return
         response = requests.get("https://pypi.org/pypi/swarms/json")
         response.raise_for_status()  # Raises an HTTPError if the response status code is 4XX/5XX
         latest_version = response.json()["info"]["version"]