Concepts
Project And Context Basics
What a Cortex Project is, how it differs from the Welcome screen, and how local folders become AI context.
Concepts
What a Cortex Project is, how it differs from the Welcome screen, and how local folders become AI context.
This guide explains Project, Welcome, and context in Cortex Workspace Desktop: how folders become the AI’s working set, and why chats do not carry across projects.
In Cortex, a Project is a local folder on your computer that you open as the workspace.
Open one from the welcome screen with Open Project / Open Folder.
Welcome is the starting screen before a folder is open. From there you pick which local folder becomes the project.
An open project shows the three-panel workspace: Files (left), Working Area (middle), AI Chat (right).
To return to welcome: click the Cortex logo in the top-left.
Privacy default: Cortex reads the local folder on your machine. See the getting-started guides for the current privacy and SOC 2 messaging.
If files are present but unused, see Agent ignores my files.