Projects

Projects are the top-level workspace in Trident. Each project is a shared container for you and the AI models you’re working with, grouping together conversations and the assets those conversations produce (documents and images) in one place.

The Projects Dashboard

The home screen shows all your projects in a grid. Each project card displays:

• The project name and description
• Document count and image count
• Icons for which AI providers have been used in the project

Creating a Project

Click the New Project button to open the create dialog. Fill in:

• Name (required): a short name for the project.
• Description (optional): a brief summary of what the project is about.
• Workspace Directory (optional): click Select Directory to choose a folder on disk. The native file picker will open so you can browse your filesystem.
• Initial Prompt (optional): a message that is automatically sent to both chat panels when you first open the project. Useful for setting context or instructions for the AI.

All project files are stored locally on your computer in ~/Trident/Projects/. Each project gets its own folder containing its documents and images. Trident does not sync this library to its own cloud service. See local storage and provider requests for what is sent to AI providers.

Workspace Directory is read-only

The AI is granted read-only access to the workspace directory and can list, search, and read files within it, but cannot create, modify, or delete anything inside.

How Files Are Organized

Inside a project folder, documents are split into per-model subdirectories. Every AI model you chat with gets its own documents folder, and can only discover the documents it created there. Your own documents live in a dedicated user folder. Images are kept in a single shared images folder regardless of which model generated them.

For a project named “Novel Ideas”, the layout looks like this:

• Directory~/Trident/

  • DirectoryProjects/

    • Directorynovel-ideas/

      • project.json
      • Directorydocuments/

        • Directoryuser/

          • outline.md
        • Directorydrafting-model/

          • chapter-one.md
          • character-notes.md
        • Directoryreviewing-model/

          • world-building.md
      • Directoryimages/

        • cover-concept.png
        • map-sketch.png

Each model writes into its own folder, named after the model for a direct connection and after the connection and model together for a cloud one.

Those folders describe where things live on disk, not who’s allowed to touch what. When you attach a document to a conversation, the model you’re chatting with can read and edit it regardless of which folder it came from, including documents another model originally wrote. The file stays in the folder of whichever model created it, and only the last_edited_by metadata changes to record the handoff. That’s the mechanism behind multi-model collaboration on a single document.

Deleting a Project

Right-click a project card or use the delete option to remove a project. Depending on your preferences, the project will either be moved to the system Trash or permanently deleted. You can change this behavior in Settings > Preferences.

Project Views

Once you open a project, the left sidebar provides navigation between the project’s views:

• Chat: the main dual-panel AI chat with document and image management.
• Docs: a dedicated document editing interface without the chat panels.
• Gallery: a full-screen image viewer and manager.