Projects

A project holds one engagement: its RFP, the conversation with its agent, every document the pipeline produces, the delivery board and the connected repository. This page covers creating one, finding your way around it, and its settings, access and deletion.

Create a project

Press New project on Projects (or in the sidebar). The wizard, Start a new project, has three steps: Project details, Review & create, and Repository. You need the Projects › create permission.

Project details

Project type decides how the repository is handled, and cannot be changed after creation:

Details — these appear on every document the pipeline generates:

RFP document (optional) — see "The RFP is optional" below. Agent — pick one of the reasoning agents shared with your organization; you can leave it and bind one later in Settings, but no step runs until you do.

Validation

Continue checks the form and, if anything is missing, lists it in the footer — "Still needed: project name." — and marks the rows that need attention. When everything is in place the footer reads "Everything required is filled in." The project name is required, and so is the project key when your organization uses Alara Plan.

Review & create

A summary of Project name, Client, Type and RFP document, with Edit to go back. Press Create project. If creation fails, the reason appears above the footer; nothing is created.

Creating a project never touches Alara Plan, even when your organization is connected to it. A project is linked to Plan afterwards, from its board or its settings — see "Linking to Alara Plan" below.

Repository

Once the project exists the wizard cannot go back — the details are fixed. This step connects GitHub or Azure DevOps. For a new system you may press Skip for now and connect later from the Repository tab. See Repository integration.

The RFP is optional

You can start with an RFP you already have, or with nothing but an idea.

The wizard's file picker also lists .doc, but older .doc files cannot be read: save the document as .docx or PDF first. A scanned, image-only PDF is refused too — it contains no text the agent could read. Use a text-based PDF or a Word file.

An uploaded RFP counts as approved by whoever uploaded it, so /scope unlocks at once. Without one, the project starts at the RFP step: you describe the idea in the chat and press Generate RFP, and the drafted RFP goes through review like any other document. See Talk to the agent.

While the RFP is not yet approved — no RFP, or a drafted one awaiting review — the composer shows Upload RFP (or Replace RFP when a draft is under review). Uploading is refused while a step is running. Replacing an RFP re-opens review for anything built on the old one.

Inside a project

The left-hand menu switches between the project's tabs. The address bar keeps the tab (?tab=), so a link opens the same view.

The phase badge

Next to the project name, a badge shows where the project stands: the furthest phase whose step is approved — discovery until the scope is approved, then requirements (SRS), design (SDS), test-planning (STS) and proposal. While a step runs it reads Running. Brownfield projects also carry a brownfield badge.

Project settings

Settings has up to four cards.

General — the details the project was created with: Project name, Project type, Created (date and creator), and Project ID with a copy button. Use the project ID when referring to the project from the API. These values are read-only.

Alara Plan — for a linked project, its Plan key, Open in Alara Plan, and Plan's name if someone renamed it there (the name here stays as it is). An unlinked project can be linked here, the same way as from its board (below).

Linking to Alara Plan

In an organization connected to Alara Plan, an unlinked project's board shows This project isn't linked to Alara Plan. Press Link to Alara Plan there (or use Settings › Alara Plan on the project). The dialog offers two choices.

New Plan project (the default) creates the project in Plan. Choose:

• the Project key, which prefixes every ticket in Plan (AP-001) and can't be changed later. It is filled in from Plan's suggestion for the project name; you can type your own — letters only, 2 to 10 — and the field says whether it is available or taken, with free keys to pick from;
• the Board type, which sets the project's columns in Plan and can't be changed later either: Scrum (the default) — To Do, In Progress, Blocked, Application Integration, Ready for Deployment, QA, Done; or Kanban — To Do, In Progress, Review, Done.

Existing Plan project links to a project your team already made in Plan. Pick it from the list, which you can search by name or key; it shows each project's board type and how many epics and tickets it has. A project Code can't use is greyed out with the reason, and none of these can be fixed by renaming because Plan never changes a key:

The project keeps its own key, columns and tickets. Linking brings everything it already has onto this project's board — existing tickets show as Created in Plan — and then adds this project's own tickets beside them. Nothing in Plan is merged or deleted: if the two overlap, close or merge the duplicates in Plan. Its tickets keep Plan's numbering, which for a project made in Plan is usually unpadded (ACME-7).

Either way, Link to Alara Plan publishes the board there, each ticket keeping its column. From then on people move tickets in Plan. Linking needs Projects › update.

A project linked to an existing Plan project shows Made in Plan in its settings. Deleting it here leaves that Plan project in Plan, with all its tickets; Code never archives it. (A project Code created in Plan is archived there when it is deleted here.)

Agent — the Alara agent every step runs on: bind, change, check or remove it. See Set up the project agent.

Danger zone — deleting the project.

Team access

The Members tab lists the teams attached to the project — each marked Whole team or Selected — and the people in each, with the project's creator badged Creator. Access is decided by the teams attached to the project; the tab shows them but has no controls to change them. New projects no longer attach teams at creation. A project with no teams attached can be opened only by its creator and organization admins.

What each person may do in a project they can open is their organization role. See Members and permissions.

Delete a project

In Settings › Danger zone, press Delete project, type the project's name exactly to confirm, and press Delete this project.

Deleting removes the project, its generated documents, artifacts, board and run history, and its working directory. The connected repository is not touched. Deletion is permanent — there is no archive or restore. A project linked to Alara Plan is archived in Plan, not deleted there.