# Creating a project

A project holds everything for one topic: the portal people record on, their conversations,
and the chats and reports you make from them. Make one for each question, event or group you
want to keep apart. Creating it takes four steps, and only the name is required.

Admins and members of a workspace can create projects. With the "External" or "Observer"
role you see "You can't create projects in this workspace." Ask a workspace admin to create
it for you.

## The four steps

Open your workspace and press "Create project". "Continue" and "Back" move between the steps.

| Step | What you fill in |
|---|---|
| "Name" | "Project name" and "Project context". Optional: the switch "Set up with the assistant after creating". |
| "Key terms" | The names and words transcription has to spell correctly. You can skip this and add them later. |
| "Access" | "Open to the workspace" (the default) or "Private". |
| "Review" | Check what you entered and press "Create project". |

A toast says "Project created" and you land on the project's "Overview" page.

### "Project name"

Name it after the topic, the event or the question you are exploring, for example "Climate
Listening". Participants do not see the name in the portal. It is printed on the host guide.

### "Project context"

Say what the project is about and what you want to learn. dembrane gives this text to the
language model when it writes summaries, answers your chat questions and replies to
participants, so it pays to be specific.

> [!TIP]
> Write the context as you would explain the project to a curious friend: the goal, the
> sessions, the questions you ask, the place names and the abbreviations people use.

### "Set up with the assistant after creating"

Off by default. Switch it on and you land in a chat instead of on "Overview". The chat opens
with "Help me set up this project." and dembrane helps you shape the project before you
collect conversations.

### "Key terms"

Add the people, places, organisations and jargon you expect to hear. Press Enter after each
term, or separate several with commas. Without key terms, a name the transcription model does
not know often comes out misspelt, and that mistake travels into summaries, chats and
reports.

### "Access"

With "Open to the workspace", everyone in the workspace can find and open the project. With
"Private", only workspace admins and the people you invite can open it. Private needs the
Innovator plan or higher: on a lower plan the option is greyed out. You can change this
later. See [tiers, billing and usage](./tiers-billing-and-usage.md).

## What a new project starts with

- The portal is open. People can record as soon as they have the link.
- "Ask for name?" is on, so participants enter a "Session name" before they record.
- No tutorial is selected. Participants see the privacy card and then start.
- The language follows your dashboard: Dutch when you use the dashboard in Dutch, English in
  every other case.

Change any of this in the [portal editor](./portal-editor.md). Check the language before you
share the link.

## Where the settings are afterwards

| Setting | Where |
|---|---|
| Name, "Project context", "Project goal", "Methodology", "Experimental" | "Manage" in the project sidebar, then "General" |
| Who can see the project | "Manage", then "Access" |
| Language, key terms, tags and everything participants see | "Portal editor" in the project sidebar |

Two shortcuts on "Overview" take you straight to the fields that matter most: "Set key terms"
and "Set project context".

"Project goal" is free text that guides reports, canvases and the assistant's suggestions.
Each time you save it, the earlier version is kept under "Revision history". "Experimental"
has one switch, "Living canvas and popcorn" (Beta). See [canvases](../../features/canvas.md).

## Rename, pin, clone, move, delete

- Rename: click the pencil next to the name on "Overview", or choose "Rename project" from
  the three-dot menu on the project list.
- Pin: a workspace has at most 3 pinned projects. Pins are shared, so everyone in the
  workspace sees the same ones at the top of the list.
- Clone: "Manage", "General", "Actions", "Clone project". The copy gets the settings and the
  tags. Reports, chats and conversations are not included. Use it for a series of sessions
  with the same setup.
- Move: "Move to another workspace" under "General". You have to be an admin of both
  workspaces. The project keeps its conversations and reports, and the members of the current
  workspace lose access. To move several, press "Select" on the project list, tick the
  projects and press "Move projects". A project in a workspace you run for an external client
  cannot be moved out of it.
- Delete: "Delete project" under "Actions", for workspace admins only. dembrane asks you to
  confirm twice.

> [!WARNING]
> The second confirmation says it plainly: "By deleting this project, you will delete all the
> data associated with it. This action cannot be undone."

## Related

- [Getting started](./getting-started.md): the whole path from sign-up to a first transcript.
- [Setting up the portal](./portal-editor.md): language, key terms and what participants see.
- [Collecting conversations](./collecting-conversations.md): sharing the portal and uploading audio.
- [Projects](../../features/projects.md): the feature reference.
- [Roles & permissions](../../features/roles-and-permissions.md): who can create, move and delete.
- [External client workspaces](../host-partner/external-client-workspaces.md): projects you run for a client.