Projects

Overview

A Project is a container for a group of related conversations. Instead of re-explaining the same background in every new chat, you set it up once inside a Project — standing instructions and reference files — and every chat you start inside that Project automatically has access to it.

Think of a Project as a workspace for one ongoing effort: a launch you're coordinating, a course you're studying for, a contract you keep getting asked about. Everything you'd otherwise repeat at the top of every chat lives in the Project instead.

Why use a Project instead of a regular chat

A regular chat is great for a single question or a short back-and-forth, but it starts from nothing every time — no memory of a document you uploaded last week, no memory of a preference you mentioned in a different conversation. If you find yourself re-uploading the same file, or re-typing "answer formally and cite your sources" at the top of every new chat about the same topic, that's the sign a Project would save you the repetition.

A Project also keeps related conversations visibly grouped, so you (or anyone helping you) can see at a glance which chats belong to the same ongoing effort instead of hunting through an undifferentiated list.

What a Project holds

• Instructions — standing guidance applied to every chat in the Project, on top of your own account-level custom instructions. For example: "Always answer in a formal tone" or "Treat the uploaded spec as the source of truth."
• Knowledge — files you upload once, which every chat in the Project can then reference when relevant. You don't need to re-attach the same document to each new conversation.
• Chats — every conversation you start inside the Project, listed together so you can pick up any of them later.

Creating a Project

1. Click the Projects icon in the sidebar, directly under New Chat.
2. Click New Project and give it a name.
3. You'll land on the Project's page, with three sections: Instructions, Knowledge, and Chats.

Adding instructions

1. Open your Project and find the Instructions box.
2. Type what you want every chat in this Project to keep in mind — style, tone, defaults, or what to prioritize.
3. Click Save.

These instructions apply alongside your account's own custom instructions (Settings → Personalization) — they don't replace them, they add to them for chats inside this specific Project.

Adding knowledge files

1. In the Knowledge section, click Upload.
2. Choose a document — PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and plain text/code files are all supported.
3. The file appears in the list marked Processing…, then Ready once Evelant has finished reading it. If something goes wrong, it's marked Failed with a short reason.
4. Once a file is Ready, every chat in the Project can draw on it — you don't need to attach it again.

Images aren't supported as knowledge files, since there's no text in them for a chat to search.

Starting and finding chats

• Click New chat inside a Project to start a conversation that's automatically tagged to it.
• Chats that belong to a Project appear in a dedicated Projects section of the sidebar — above your Pinned and regular Chats — with a small label showing which Project they're in, and also inside the Project's own Chats list.
• Opening a project-tagged chat and asking something works exactly like a normal conversation; the Project's instructions and knowledge are simply available in the background.

A worked example

Say you're preparing for a product launch and keep fielding questions about the launch checklist from different angles — status updates, copy review, last-minute risk questions.

1. Create a Project named "Q4 Launch."
2. Upload the launch checklist document (a PDF or spreadsheet export) to Knowledge.
3. In Instructions, write something like: "Always check the uploaded launch checklist before answering status questions, and flag anything not yet marked complete."
4. Start a new chat inside the Project and ask "what's blocking us right now?" — Evelant answers by reading the checklist you uploaded, not by guessing.
5. A few days later, start a second chat inside the same Project to review marketing copy. It still has the same instructions and checklist available, without you re-explaining any of it.
6. Both chats show up together under the Project's Chats list and in the sidebar's Projects section, so anything related to the launch is easy to find later.

Deleting a Project

Click Delete project on the Project's page. This removes the Project itself and its knowledge files — but the chats that were inside it are not deleted. They move back to your regular chat list, they just lose their Project tag.

Tips

• Keep instructions specific to the Project, not general preferences — general preferences belong in your account-level custom instructions instead, so they don't need repeating across every Project.
• Upload the source of truth, not a summary of it. If you want Evelant to answer strictly from a spec or contract, upload the actual document rather than your own notes about it, so answers can point back to specific wording.
• One Project per effort, not per topic. If you're coordinating a single launch, one Project with several chats inside it (planning, copy review, status updates) works better than a new Project for every conversation.
• Revisit and tighten instructions as a Project matures. Early on you might not know exactly what guidance is useful — it's fine to edit a Project's instructions later once you've seen a few answers and know what to correct.
• Name Projects so future-you recognizes them instantly — "Q4 Launch" is more useful six weeks from now than "Project 1."

Good candidates for a Project

• A document you'll be asked about repeatedly — a contract, a spec, a syllabus — where you want every answer grounded in that exact text.
• An ongoing piece of work with a consistent voice or rule set — a style guide for a publication, a set of brand guidelines, a research question you're exploring from multiple angles.
• A recurring workflow — status check-ins, weekly review questions, anything you ask about the same underlying material on a schedule.

A one-off question that will never come up again usually doesn't need a Project — a regular chat is simpler for that.

Troubleshooting

A knowledge file is stuck on "Processing…" Give it a moment — larger documents take longer to read through. If it's still processing after a few minutes, remove it and try uploading again.

A file shows "Failed." This usually means the document didn't contain readable text (for example, a scanned image saved as a PDF with no selectable text layer). Try a version of the document you can select and copy text from.

Evelant doesn't seem to be using my uploaded file. Make sure the file shows Ready, not Processing or Failed, and that you're asking inside a chat that's actually tagged to the Project (check the sidebar for the Project label on that chat).

Frequently asked questions

Can I move an existing chat into a Project? Not yet — chats are tagged to a Project from the moment you create them with "New chat" inside that Project.

Can I share a Project with someone else? Not currently — Projects are private to your own account. If you're using a Shared Room with your team, note that a Project's instructions and knowledge only apply for the person who owns the Project, not for other people in that shared conversation.

Is there a limit to how many files I can upload? There's no fixed count, but very large or numerous documents take longer to process and search — keep a Project's knowledge focused on what's actually relevant to it.

What happens to a Project's chats if I delete the Project? They stay in your account and remain fully readable — they just stop showing the Project's tag and no longer draw on its instructions or files.

Do a Project's instructions replace my account's custom instructions? No — they're added on top. Your account-level instructions still apply everywhere, including inside Projects; a Project's instructions are extra guidance specific to that Project.

Can I have more than one Project at a time? Yes — create as many as you need, one per ongoing effort. There's no need to consolidate unrelated work into a single Project.

Does uploading a file to a Project's Knowledge count against my regular file-attachment limits? Project knowledge files are managed separately from the files you attach directly to a single message — see the File & Image Attachments guide for how per-message attachments work.

Can I rename a Project after creating it? Yes — open the Project and update its name and description the same way you'd edit its instructions.

If I ask something unrelated to the Project's knowledge, will it still answer? Yes — a Project's knowledge is available for Evelant to draw on when relevant, not a restriction on what you can ask. Questions unrelated to the uploaded files are answered normally.

Related features

• Shared Rooms — for collaborating live with other people, a different kind of grouping than a personal Project.
• File & Image Attachments — for adding a file to a single message rather than a Project's shared knowledge base.
• Chat History — for how conversations outside of any Project are saved and organized.