Projects

Projects is Cola's workspace for programming tasks. It reads the repository you open, analyzes problems, edits files, runs commands and tests, and keeps digging based on what actually happened.

Unlike ordinary conversation, Projects gives each task a workspace: a working directory, an execution engine, a set of panes (files, editor, terminal, changes, diff, preview), and its own conversation thread.

Start a coding task

1. Click Projects in the app bar.
2. In the launcher, click Open folder and pick your project directory, or click New session.
3. Say what you need in plain language.

Find out why this project fails to start.

Add a mobile layout to this React page and run the related tests.

Review the changes on the current branch; prioritize anything that could regress production.

Projects roughly follows this arc: confirm the working directory and goal → read the relevant files, config, and project state → state what it intends to change → make the change → run whatever tests, type checks, lint, or build the risk warrants → report which files changed, what was verified, and what's left.

Quick and Deep

Every session has two views, switchable at any time:

Switching views affects newly submitted prompts only; existing messages just change presentation — work produced in Quick is fully inspectable in Deep.

Sessions and workspaces

A session is the unit of work, and each one remembers its own working directory, engine, pane layout, and conversation.

• Switch, rename, pin. Pinned sessions stay at the top in an order you drag.
• Fork. Branch off the current session, inheriting its context and visible chat history, then diverge.
• Delete. Irreversible, and it removes the chat history; you're warned if the editor has unsaved changes. There is no archive — deleting is deleting.
• While a session is running, you can't create or delete sessions or switch engines; stop the run first.
• An untouched blank draft behaves as if it doesn't exist until you start work, so empty sessions don't pile up.

The command palette (⌘K on macOS, Ctrl+K on Windows) searches commands, sessions, panes, themes, and font sizes; panes can be moved, zoomed, closed, and reset to the default layout. The font size setting applies to Projects only.

Choosing an execution engine

Each session picks its own engine:

External engines run on your own local setup — model, permissions, and authentication come from your Claude/Codex configuration, not from Cola's model picker, which is why the composer hides Cola's model control for those sessions.

To use Claude or Codex: install and sign in to the corresponding CLI on your machine, then pick it in the session's engine picker — no extra setup on Cola's side.

The engine picker labels each engine's state: ready, CLI missing, needs sign-in, unsupported, disabled, or error. When one isn't usable, hit Diagnose — Cola temporarily switches to its own engine and investigates with read-only checks, suggesting a fix without installing, uninstalling, or modifying global configuration before you approve.

Switching engines warns you first: chat history and workspace are preserved, but the two engines' model contexts are independent, so the new engine does not inherit the old one's conversation context. Each engine's own settings survive round trips.

If a session's stored model is no longer available (Cola engine), the composer asks you to pick an available one before continuing.

Related

• Cola Skill — how skills participate in code review, testing, and frontend work
• Tasks and permissions — directory authorization and confirmation of risky actions
• Troubleshooting — log locations and what to include in a report

Platforms: macOS and Windows desktop. Status: stable; external engines (Claude, Codex) depend on CLIs you install yourself.