> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getpostchi.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Projects

> A project is the root workspace in Postchi. Everything — your requests, environments, secrets, and scripts — lives inside one directory on disk.

A project is just a directory. Postchi reads and writes plain files, so you can open any folder as a project, commit it to version control, and work with it in your editor alongside your code.

<Info>
  `When you first launch postchi a temporary project is created, if you have made work in this project make sure to save it using the menu option or it will get lost.`
</Info>

## Project structure

The most basic project structure looks like this:

```text theme={null}
my-project/
├── requests/             # Request files, organized into subfolders
├── environments.cenv     # Environment variables (safe to commit)
└── secrets.cenv          # Secret variables (do not commit)
```

<Info>
  `secrets.cenv` is intentionally separate from `environments.cenv` so you can commit your environments file to version control without exposing credentials. See [Environments](/concepts/environments) for details.
</Info>

## Creating a project

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the project picker">
    Launch Postchi and click **New Project** from  the **File** menu.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose a location">
    Give your project a name and select an empty folder. Postchi creates the folder if it does not exist.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Start working">
    Postchi opens the project and creates the required directories, along with a blank `environments.cenv` and `secrets.cenv` files.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Opening an existing project

When opening a project Postchi will work with whatever files are already there and create any missing ones if needed.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the project picker">
    Click **Open Project** from  the **File** menu.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select the folder">
    Navigate to the directory and confirm. Postchi opens it as a project immediately.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Add `secrets.cenv` to `.gitignore` and commit everything else.
</Tip>