# Projects and the orchestrator

> Why work is split into projects, how to create and switch them, what projects and the orchestrator share, and how the agent finds the right project by itself.

Source: https://eggent.ai/docs/projects/

One workspace, many lines of work. To keep them apart each one gets a **project**, and the **orchestrator** sits above them all.

## Orchestrator {#orchestrator}

With no project selected in the sidebar, the orchestrator answers. It is the main conversation:

- for tasks that do not belong to any project;
- for questions like "where did I put…";
- for tasks that touch several projects at once.

The orchestrator's context holds what should be known everywhere: who you are, what you do, how you like your answers. The **Business AI system** card writes there.

## Projects {#projects}

A project is a folder of files plus the agent's own settings: context, memory, skills, MCP servers and, optionally, a model. When a project is selected, the agent works in its folder and sees only what belongs to it.

Good projects are ongoing lines of work: "Website", "Telegram channel content", "Contracts", "Sales analytics", "Studies". A bad project is a one-off question: a chat with the orchestrator is enough for that.

## Create a project {#create}

Four ways:

1. **From the sidebar**: the **+** beside the **Project** heading opens a short form: name, description, instructions for the agent. The new project opens with an empty chat, ready to write in. No agent turn is spent on it.
2. **Ask in chat**: "create a project called Contracts for our supply contracts". The agent creates it, can write its instructions right away and switch into it.
3. **Launch a quick-start card.** Most cards create a project for their work and name it after the card.
4. **In settings**: **Settings → Projects**, the same form.

## Switching between projects {#switch}

- **By hand**: pick a project in the sidebar. A new chat starts in it.
- **By the agent**: the orchestrator knows the project list and, when a message clearly belongs to one of them, switches there and continues. The conversation is not cut off: the chat stays the same and only the working folder changes.

To help the orchestrator decide what belongs where, its context has a **Projects in this workspace** table: the project, its id and what it is for. A new project adds its own row. You can edit the table in **Settings → Context** (orchestrator).

## Asking a project from another chat {#ask}

Start a message with `@` and a project's name, then say what you want done:

> @Shop how many orders came back last week?

The project does the work with **its own** files, skills, connected services, instructions and model, in a chat of its own, and the answer comes back to the chat you wrote in. You stay where you are: the active project does not change, and the agent in your chat says the answer comes from the project.

- **In the browser**, typing `@` at the start of the box lists your other projects; **Tab** or **Enter** picks one. A message that starts with a project's name is marked, so you can see it was understood.
- **In Telegram and through the [external API](https://eggent.ai/docs/external-api.md)** the same message works as typed.
- The work is kept in a **chat of the project's own**, titled *From "…"* and marked with an arrow in the project's chat list. The card in your chat has an **Open in …** link to it, with everything the project did. Writing `@Shop` again from the same conversation **continues** that chat, history included.
- Names are matched the way you write them: capitals, a hyphen instead of a space and ё instead of е do not matter, so `@my-shop` is "My Shop". If two projects fit equally well, the agent asks which you meant.
- **Only you start it.** The agent never asks a project on its own, and a project cannot ask another project.

Good to know:

- Two projects work at the same time at most; the rest wait their turn. One piece of work is stopped after ten minutes. **Stop** in your chat stops the project too.
- A project is a desk, not a locked room: it keeps instructions and files apart but its commands can still reach other places in the workspace.
- If the project uses a connected service ([MCP](https://eggent.ai/docs/mcp.md)) that asks for approval the first time, approve it once in the project's own chat: a visit has nobody to ask, and an unapproved service is simply not there.
- It is not offered in a [light chat](https://eggent.ai/docs/chats.md#modes) or in a shared public chat, and a message whose name matches no project is an ordinary message.

## Project settings {#settings}

Every settings tab where it makes sense (models, context, memory, skills, MCP, schedules) has a switcher in the top right: **orchestrator** or a specific project. Pick a project and the tab shows its settings.

| What | Where it lives | More |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Instructions | the project's `context.md` | [Context](https://eggent.ai/docs/context.md) |
| Memory | the project's `memory.md` | [Memory](https://eggent.ai/docs/memory.md) |
| Skills | the project's `skills/` folder | [Skills](https://eggent.ai/docs/skills.md) |
| External services | the project's `.mcp.json` | [MCP](https://eggent.ai/docs/mcp.md) |
| Model | the project's `model.json` | [Models](https://eggent.ai/docs/models.md#project-model) |

## Delete a project {#delete}

Hover over the project in the sidebar, open its menu and choose **Delete Project**. The project folder with all its files and its settings are deleted. This cannot be undone — if you need the files, download them first or turn on [sync with your computer](https://eggent.ai/docs/file-sync.md).

## Tips {#tips}

- One project, one job. If a project's context grows instructions "for case A" and "for case B", that is two projects.
- Keep source material in the project: samples, price lists, examples of good texts. The agent will lean on them.
- Just tell the orchestrator: "do this in the Website project". It will switch by itself.