Projects

Projects group related chats, apps, threads and artifacts in one place. Bolter groups your work once, then nothing moves unless you ask: you or Omni can make, rename, pin, archive and refresh them.

A project gathers everything that belongs to one piece of work: the chats where it happens, the apps built for it, the threads and artifacts it produced. Instead of hunting through your sidebar for the three chats and the deck that make up a launch, you open the launch's project and it is all there.

Opening a project

Your projects sit in the left sidebar. Clicking one opens a panel beside the sidebar holding everything in that project: what needs you first, then everything else in one list.

The panel is headed by the project itself: its icon, its name, and a line saying how many chats, people and agents are in it.

The rows at the top are the ones waiting on you: a question somebody asked and you have not answered yet, or an agent that is blocked on you. Clicking one opens that chat. If a row is not something you are going to act on, put your pointer over it and a tick appears just outside the panel, level with the row. Clicking the tick takes the row off the list without answering anything. Anything new in that chat brings it back, so the tick means "not this", not "never this chat".

The row does not disappear straight away. Its place is held for a few seconds by a line saying "Dismissed" with an Undo beside it, so a tick you did not mean to click is one click to take back. Undo puts the row back exactly where it was. After a few seconds the line goes and the row is off the list.

That one list holds the project's chats, apps, files and deliverables together, most recently updated first. So the doc an agent finished this morning is the top row, whatever kind of thing it is, and you do not have to remember which kind it was to find it again.

At the top of the panel, directly under the project's name, are two ways to narrow what is below: a box that filters by name, and a dropdown that shows one kind of thing at a time (chats, apps, files or artifacts) with "All" as the default. They stay at the top edge while the rest of the panel scrolls, so the filter box is in the same place however much the project holds. Both are there only when the project has enough in it for them to do something.

The panel is the index. Clicking any row in it opens that thing in the main part of the window, and the panel stays where it is so you can go straight to the next one. A chat opens as a chat, an app opens as a running app, a file opens in the file viewer. The main part of the window shows only the thing you opened, with nothing above it but that thing's own name.

Opening a project also takes you straight to its most important thing rather than leaving you on a list: its app if it has one, otherwise something it produced, otherwise its most recent conversation.

A project's home page

A project can have a home page: your own arrangement of its work, side by side, which is what opens when you open the project.

The idea is that the things you use together should be on screen together. A tracker on the left and the chat about it on the right. A document you are writing beside the conversation you are writing it from. Nothing is hidden behind a click.

To make one, open the project. Above the filter box in its panel there is a "Create project home" button. Clicking it opens an empty home page, ready for you to fill: nothing is arranged for you, because the arrangement is the point. The button appears once the project has something to arrange: at least one chat, and at least one app, file or deliverable.

To open it later, click the small house beside the panel's filter box, or click the project's own name at the top of the panel. Opening the project from the sidebar lands on the home page too, ahead of anything Bolter would have picked for you.

Arranging it

Every rectangle on a home page is called a pane, and each one holds one thing.

A new home page is one empty pane saying "Drag something here". To fill it, pull a row out of the project panel and drop it anywhere on that pane.

To add more, drop another row on a pane you have already filled. Where you drop decides what happens: the pane is cut into four wedges along its diagonals, so dropping anywhere in the top quarter gives the new thing the top half, the left quarter gives it the left half, and so on. Drop in the box in the middle and it replaces what that pane was showing instead. The half you are about to take lights up while you drag, with a label saying which of the two you are about to do, so you never have to aim for an edge.

Something already on the home page will not drag. Its row shows a not-allowed cursor and says "Already on the home page", because a second copy of the same thing is almost never what was meant. To show it somewhere else, change what that other pane holds by clicking its title.

To change what a pane holds, click its title. That opens a list of everything in the project, with the same kind of thing first, so a chat pane opens on the project's other chats. This is also how you arrange a home page without dragging.

To resize, drag the line between two panes. You can also put the keyboard focus on that line and use the arrow keys.

To take a pane out, click the small cross in its top right. The panes left behind share out the space. The last pane has no cross, because removing it would not leave a home page at all.

A home page holds up to eight panes, and the same thing cannot be in two of them at once.

What a chat pane can do

A chat in a pane is a real chat. Messages arrive live, you can write and send, attach files, edit, and open a thread. When the pane is wide enough a thread opens beside the messages; when it is narrow the thread fills the pane until you close it, exactly as it does in a narrow window.

The one thing a pane does not carry is the chat's own side panels, so its header has an "open this chat" button that takes you to the full conversation whenever you need them.

Removing a home page

Take out its panes one at a time. Removing the last one removes the home page itself, and the "Create project home" button comes straight back in the panel, so making another is one click. The project, and everything in it, is untouched: a home page is only an arrangement.

Home pages are a desktop feature. On a phone or tablet a project opens on its list as before, and your arrangement is waiting when you are back at a big screen.

Projects are personal

Projects are your own view of your work. They are not shared: nobody else in your workspace sees your projects, and putting a chat in a project changes nothing about who can access that chat. The same chat can sit in one person's "Launch" project and a teammate's "Q3" project at the same time.

They organize themselves once, then they are yours

You do not have to file anything to begin with. Bolter groups your related work into projects for you the first time you use them. Anything not in a project is still reachable from Everything, so nothing is ever lost by not being filed.

The first grouping takes a moment. When projects are new to you, the sidebar shows a spinner reading "Building your projects..." while Bolter works out what belongs together, and your projects appear in its place when it is done. A very quiet account may not have enough going on to group yet, in which case the spinner gives way to an empty band, with "New project" waiting under it whenever your pointer is over the sidebar, and your work stays in Everything until you make a project yourself.

After that first grouping, nothing rearranges your projects on its own. Bolter will not quietly refile your chats hours later or while you are away. New chats stay in Everything until you file them, or until you ask for the grouping to be worked out again.

Asking for the grouping again

If your projects have drifted from the work you are actually doing, you can have Bolter group everything again from scratch.

Move your pointer over the sidebar. Under "New project" a "Refresh projects" row appears. Clicking it opens a box beside the sidebar explaining what will change, and the grouping only happens when you confirm it there.

What a refresh keeps:

• Projects you made yourself, with the names and icons you gave them.
• Any chat, app, file or deliverable you filed into a project by hand, or pinned, or took out of one.
• Archived projects, and projects you deleted (those are never proposed again).
• The order your projects sit in.

What a refresh changes:

• Anything Bolter filed for you can move to a different project.
• A project Bolter created for you can disappear, if the new grouping no longer suggests it and you have not put anything in it yourself.

While the refresh runs, "Building your projects..." appears under your projects with the same spinner the first grouping uses. Your projects stay on screen and stay clickable the whole time, so you are never left waiting at an empty sidebar. The Refresh row itself steps aside until the grouping is done, and your list updates in place the moment it is.

Making, renaming, archiving and deleting projects

Automatic filing is a starting point, not a rule.

To make one, move your pointer over the sidebar. A "New project" row appears under your projects; click it and a box opens beside the sidebar for the name. The project appears in the list, and its panel opens straight away so you can add chats to it.

Every project name is your own, so two of your projects cannot share one. If you try, Bolter says which project already has that name rather than making a second one you could not tell apart.

To rename, archive or delete one, open the project and move your pointer over its name. Three small buttons appear beside the line counting what the project holds: a pencil, an archive box and a bin.

The pencil turns the name into a box you can type in. Renaming makes the project yours: a refresh will never rename it, restyle it or remove it, however the grouping comes out. It can still move the chats it had filed there for you, and anything you filed in yourself stays put.

The archive box puts the project away. Archiving says the work is finished: the project leaves your sidebar and keeps everything in it, and you can bring it back whenever you like. Nothing is lost and nothing is confirmed, because it is undone in one click.

The bin deletes the project, after asking you to confirm. Deleting says the grouping was wrong in the first place. It removes only the grouping. The chats, apps and files that were in it stay exactly where they are and are still reachable everywhere else. The project itself cannot be brought back, and Bolter will not propose that project again.

On a phone or tablet there is no sidebar, so those three sit in the project's own header and are always visible.

To find an archived project, open Settings and go to Archived. Archived projects are listed there above your archived chats, with a Restore beside each one and a count of what each is still holding. Restoring puts the project back on your sidebar with everything it had. While a project is archived Bolter will not propose its name again, so restoring brings back the project you archived rather than a fresh one.

To change a project's icon or color, click its icon at the top of the panel. A small picker opens with five colors and a set of icons to choose from, plus an option to go back to the project's initials. Each choice takes effect as you make it.

The quickest way to file a chat is to drag it. Open your chat list, pick up the chat's row, and drop it on the project you want it in. The project lights up as you pass over it. If the chat is already in that project the row shows a "Chat already in project" note and the drop does nothing, so you can never file the same chat twice. The "+" button in a project panel's own filter row does the same job from a searchable list when you would rather not drag, and that list holds your apps as well as your chats.

Your conversations with Omni are never in a project, and cannot be put in one. They have their own place: the Omni button on the left, which opens the current conversation and the history of every other one. So they are not in the list the "+" button offers, and automatic filing leaves them alone.

The same chat can live in more than one project, so dropping it somewhere new does not take it out of where it already is.

Right-clicking any row in the project panel offers "Remove from project", which takes that one thing out of the project and leaves it untouched everywhere else. It works on chats, apps, files and deliverables alike, so a file you would rather not see in a project can go without taking the chat that made it with it. A note appears afterwards with Undo in it, so a removal you did not mean is one click back.

The same menu offers "Move to project", which lists your other projects and takes the row out of this one as it puts it in the one you pick. Use it when something is filed in the wrong place. Dragging a chat onto a project ADDS it without taking it out of anywhere, which is the difference between the two.

It also offers "Pin to top", which floats that row above the rest of the project's list however old it is, and "Unpin" to put it back in order. Pin the thing you are living in this week and it stays the first row you see.

On a chat row the same menu offers "Archive", which is the same archive the chat's own row in the sidebar offers: the chat leaves your chat list, leaves the project panel too, and is listed in Settings under Archived. It has not left the project. Archiving says you are done reading a chat, not that it was filed wrong, so unarchiving puts it back in the panel with everything it had. A note appears with Undo in it, and Settings under Archived is the way back later. Archiving is yours alone: someone else you share the project with still sees the chat in their panel.

Your project's files and deliverables stay whatever you do with the chat that made them, and a chat that still needs an answer from you keeps its place at the top of the panel under "Needs you".

The same menu offers "Rename" on an app, a file or a deliverable. Your agents name everything they make, and the project panel is where you read those names next to each other, so it is usually where you notice one that reads wrong. Pick Rename and the row's name becomes a box: type the new one and press Enter, or press Escape to leave it as it was. One rename changes the name everywhere the thing is named, so the chat it came from, the panel and Files all agree. Chat rows have no Rename here because a chat is renamed from its own title, which the row already opens.

Everything on that menu needs a right-click, so it is a desktop action. On a phone or tablet, ask Omni to take something out of a project instead.

Changes you make by hand are sticky. Once you place an item or rename a project, Bolter respects that choice and never files over it.

Asking Omni

Your built-in assistant (Omni) can do all of this for you in conversation. Ask it to "make a project for the website redesign and put those chats in it", "move the pricing chat into Launch", "rename Q3 to Q3 Planning", "archive the onboarding project", or "bring back the project I archived last month".

Omni can delete a project too, and it treats that as the serious act it is: if what you asked for could mean either archiving or deleting, it will ask which you meant before doing anything. Placements Omni makes on your behalf are sticky in the same way as your own.