# Understanding Projects in Rakenne > What a project is, how it differs from a skill and a session, and how to use the full workspace: files, chat, preview, export, and project management. Author: map[bio:Founder linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardocabral/ name:Ricardo Cabral] Published: 2026-02-24 Tags: projects URL: https://rakenne.app/learn/tutorials/understanding-projects/index.md Rakenne is built around three core concepts: **Projects**, **Skills**, and **Sessions**. Understanding how they relate to each other is the first step to using Rakenne effectively. ## Projects, Skills, and Sessions — what each one is **A Project** is your working environment. It contains a file workspace, a conversation with the agent, and any skills you have installed. Each project is isolated: files, conversations, and settings are scoped to it. Think of a project as a dedicated desk for one piece of work — a contract you're drafting, a regulatory submission, a risk file. **A Skill** is a reusable document-elaboration workflow. Skills are like specialized assistants the agent can call on. When you install a skill into a project, the agent learns when to use it and how. A skill named "FDA Submission Wizard", for instance, knows the structure and requirements of a 510(k) submission. Skills are independent of projects — the same skill can be installed in many projects. See [What Is a Rakenne Skill?](/learn/tutorials/what-is-a-skill/) for a deeper look at how skills work. **A Session** is one continuous conversation with the agent inside a project. A project can have many sessions over its lifetime. The session keeps track of what was said and what files the agent wrote or read. Starting a new session gives you a clean conversation while keeping all your files intact. See [Session Management and Context Hygiene](/learn/tutorials/session-management/) for more on this. The relationship is simple: **a project holds sessions and has skills installed; skills guide the agent during each session.** ## The Projects screen When you sign in, the first thing you see is the Projects screen. It lists all your active projects, sorted by last activity. ![Projects screen showing three project cards with names, last activity dates, and a "New project" button in the top right](/images/learn/project-list.png) From here you can: - **Search** by project name using the search box. - **Sort** by last activity (default) or creation date. - **Filter** between active and archived projects. - **Filter to Skill Creator only** — a checkbox that narrows the list to projects using the Skill Workshop template, useful if you author many skills. - **Star** a project from its actions menu to promote it to the top of the list. - **Create a new project** with the **New project** button. ## Creating a project Click **New project** (or **Create your first project** on an empty screen). A dialog appears: ![New project dialog with a project name field and three project type options: Blank project, Skill Workshop, and SOW & SLA Drafter](/images/learn/new-project-dialog.png) Give the project a name and choose a **project type**: - **Blank project** — an empty workspace. You add skills from the library as needed. Good for general document work. - **Skill Workshop** — a specialized workspace for *creating* skills. It comes pre-loaded with the skill-creator skill and a structured workflow. Use this when you want to build and publish reusable workflows for your team. See [Creating Skills with the Skill Workshop](/learn/tutorials/creating-skills-with-skill-workshop/) for the full guide. - **SOW & SLA Drafter** — a pre-configured workspace for drafting Statements of Work with Service Level Agreements. Click **Create**. Rakenne provisions a workspace and opens it. ## The workspace screen The workspace is where you do the actual work. It has three main areas side by side: the **left panel** (files and tools), the **chat area** (center), and the **preview panel** (right). ![Workspace with file tree on the left showing Output folder expanded with multiple documents, chat in the center with conversation history and tool call results, and a rendered Residential Lease Agreement in the preview panel on the right](/images/learn/workspace-full.png) Here is how each part of the workspace is organized: ### Header The header shows the project name and three controls: - **Sessions** — a dropdown to switch between sessions or start a new one. - **Connected / Disconnected** — the agent status. Green means the agent process is running and ready. - **Star** — toggle to favorite the project. Starred projects sort to the top of the Projects screen. - **⋮ (Project actions)** — the menu for project-level actions (covered below). ### Left panel — Files, Upload, Skills The left panel has three collapsible sections. Click the section header to expand or collapse it. The panel itself can be collapsed entirely with the **◀** button to give the chat more space. **Files** — the workspace file tree. The agent writes output documents here, and you can upload reference files. A shortcut is always shown at the top: - **Output** — the directory where the agent saves generated documents. Click it to expand and see all output files. **Upload files** — a section you expand when you want to add files to the workspace. You can use the upload button or drag files directly into the drop zone. Uploaded files become available to the agent — you can tell it to read, summarize, or use them in a document. **Skills** — shows the skills currently installed in the project. Each skill has a detail button (the circle-i icon) to see its description, tags, example prompts, and dependencies. A globe icon means the skill is publicly available in the library; a lock icon means it is private to your organization. The **Browse more skills** link takes you to the Skill Library where you can install additional skills. ![Upload panel expanded showing a drop zone and upload button, with the Skills section below showing the FDA Submission Wizard skill installed](/images/learn/upload-panel-open.png) ### Chat area — center The chat is where you talk to the agent. Type a message and press **Enter** or click the send button. You can attach files to a message using the paperclip button — attached files go directly into the message rather than into the workspace file tree. When the agent runs a tool — for example writing a file — the chat shows a tool call result inline: > **Tool Call:** *Write file* — Wrote document **draft-rent-contract.md** This tells you exactly what the agent did, without you needing to check the file tree. ### Preview panel — right Click any file in the file tree to open it in the preview panel. Documents are rendered by default; switch to **Source** to see the raw text. The preview toolbar has four actions: - **Download as…** — export the document in your chosen format. - **Edit in full-featured editor** — opens the file in a richer inline editor. - **Copy as rich text** — copies the rendered content to your clipboard, ready to paste into Word, Notion, or a browser. - **▶** — expand the preview to full width, hiding the chat. ## Navigating files The file tree in the left panel shows everything in your workspace. Folders are expandable — click a folder name to expand or collapse it. The **Output** folder is where the agent saves documents it writes. Use the **Search files** box at the top of the file tree to filter by name. Type part of a filename and the tree updates immediately. Click any file to open it in the preview panel. The selected file is highlighted in the tree. ## Uploading files 1. Expand the **Upload files** section in the left panel. 2. Click **Upload files** to open a file picker, or drag files directly onto the drop zone labeled "Drop files here to upload into workspace". You can select or drop **multiple files at once**. 3. The files appear in the file tree immediately after upload. Once uploaded, tell the agent where to find them: *"Read the file I just uploaded and summarize its key clauses"* or *"Use the template in `requirements.pdf` as a reference for the new document"*. The agent can read any file in the workspace. **File limits:** up to 120 MB per individual file. On full accounts, up to 100 files and 1 GB total per upload batch. ## Working with sessions Click **Sessions** in the header to open the session dropdown. ![Sessions dropdown showing "New session" at the top and a list of sessions with message counts, dates, and activity summaries](/images/learn/sessions-with-history.png) Each session in the list shows: - **Title** — the session name (auto-generated as "New session" unless renamed). - **Message count and date** — how many messages the session has, and when it was last active. - **Activity summary** — a short note of what the agent did, e.g. "Wrote: draft-rent-contract.md, …" The currently active session has a green dot next to it. Click any other session to switch to it — the chat history and context load for that session. Click **New session** at the top to start a fresh conversation while keeping all workspace files. ## Previewing and exporting documents Open a file from the file tree. The preview panel renders it on the right side of the screen. For text files you get a formatted view: headings, lists, tables, checkboxes, and code blocks all render correctly. To export, click **Download as…** in the preview toolbar: ![Download as menu open showing format options: Word (.docx), PDF (.pdf), HTML (.html), LaTeX (.tex), Original (.md)](/images/learn/document-download-menu.png) Available formats: - **Word (.docx)** — opens directly in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. - **PDF (.pdf)** — for sharing and printing. - **HTML (.html)** — a self-contained web page. - **LaTeX (.tex)** — for academic and technical publishing workflows. - **Original (.md)** — the raw text file, unchanged. You can also export the full conversation using **Export chat as HTML** in the project actions menu. ## Project actions menu Click the **⋮** button in the header to open the project actions menu. ![Project actions menu open showing: Project members, Export chat as HTML, Export workspace, Edit details, Archive, Delete](/images/learn/project-actions-menu.png) The menu has these options: - **Project members** — view who has access to this project and their role (owner, editor, or viewer). - **Export chat as HTML** — downloads the full conversation history as a formatted HTML file, useful for archiving or sharing with stakeholders who don't have Rakenne access. - **Export workspace** — downloads the entire workspace as a `.zip` file. This includes all files in the workspace (your uploads, output documents, the `AGENTS.md` instructions) but not the session conversation logs. Useful for backing up a project or moving files elsewhere. - **Edit details** — rename the project or update its description. - **Archive** — moves the project out of the active list. Archived projects are still accessible through the status filter on the Projects screen (switch "Active" to "Archived"). Archiving does not delete anything. - **Delete** — permanently deletes the project and all its files. This cannot be undone. A confirmation dialog appears before anything is removed. ## Archiving and deleting projects **Archive** when a project is complete but you want to keep the files and conversation for reference. Archived projects appear in the Projects screen when you set the status filter to "Archived". You can unarchive a project at any time from its actions menu. **Delete** when you no longer need the project and want to free up space. Deletion is permanent — the workspace files, conversation history, and all session data are removed. ## Starring projects Click the **Star** button (☆) in the project header to mark a project as a favorite. Starred projects sort to the top of the Projects screen regardless of activity date, making it easy to keep your active work front and center. Click it again to unstar. You can also star a project from the Projects screen using the **⋮** actions menu on any project card. ## What to do next - Read [Session Management and Context Hygiene](/learn/tutorials/session-management/) to understand how to keep your conversations focused and efficient. - Browse the Skill Library (top navigation → **Skill Library**) to find skills relevant to your domain and install them on your project. - If you need a workflow that doesn't exist yet, see [Creating Skills with the Skill Workshop](/learn/tutorials/creating-skills-with-skill-workshop/) to build one. --- Back to [Tutorials](https://rakenne.app/learn/tutorials/index.md)