Areas and projects

Areas are the top level of the planner. Each project belongs to exactly one area, and a project's tasks belong to its area too.

Areas

An area has a name, a color, an optional icon and a key. The key is three letters made from the name's letters A to Z: usually the first letter and the next two consonants, such as WRK for Work and HLT for Health. A name of three letters or fewer keeps them (DEV for Dev), and a name without enough consonants uses its first three letters (HOM for Home). If the key is already taken, a number replaces its last letter, such as WR2.

The key starts the key of every task in the area (WRK-1, WRK-2, …). Renaming the area gives it the key of its new name, such as JOB when Work becomes Job, and a name that still makes the same key keeps it. Tasks already in the area keep their keys (WRK-12 stays WRK-12); new tasks get the new key (JOB-1).

Create an area

• In the sidebar, hover Areas & projects and select + (New area), type the name and press Enter.
• On the Projects page, select New area.

A new area gets the first palette color that no other area uses.

The area menu

Right-click an area in the sidebar or on the Projects page, or use its … button:

An area's icon or picture replaces its dot in the sidebar, on the Projects page, in the header of the area page, and where a task's area is shown or picked: the task details, quick add, and the lists of areas in menus. An area has one or the other: picking an icon replaces the picture, and the other way round.

An area's workspace can be the same folder as an existing project in Codex or Claude. Its sessions then use that folder instead of creating one per task. The setting also appears under Settings → Projects → Area workspaces, and stays on this computer. A task's own folder takes priority, followed by its project's folder, then its area's workspace.

When the workspace is in a git repository, PacedMind notes which one, as it does for a project's folder: github.com/owner/name, shown next to Workspace for … as a link to it. Your other computers see it: when an area has no workspace on a computer yet, its workspace field there offers that computer's copy of the repository (Found here: and the folder, with Use). See On this computer.

A picture is made small on your computer before it's saved, as a square of 64 pixels at most with the whole picture fitted in, so a square one, such as a company's app icon, shows best. It's saved with the area, so it shows on your other computers and in the web app too. Anything but a picture is refused with Pick a picture: PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or SVG.

Deleting an area also deletes its projects. Their tasks, and the area's own tasks, are kept and move to the Inbox; the confirmation says how many. Activities in the area stay in the calendar without an area.

The area page

Selecting an area in the sidebar opens its task list: every task in the area, including its projects' tasks, grouped by status. The header shows the key and the number of open tasks, and New task adds a task to the area. A panel on the right shows the area's details:

• Workspace (desktop app): the area's folder on this computer. Click it to choose one in the system's folder dialog; it's saved at once. PacedMind's folder per task means it has none: each task gets an empty folder PacedMind makes.
• Computers: each one's name and state, and the area's projects that use it. + creates a task for one of its agents, with the computer, the agent and where it runs already chosen. Manage opens Settings → Computers.
• Projects: the area's projects, each with whether it's on this computer (desktop app): its folder's name, Found here · Use, or Not here. New task adds a task to the area.

Area details reopens the panel after closing it; selecting a task shows that task's details instead.

To-dos

Not everything belongs in a project. Logging your hours, replying to an email or booking a room are small things of an area, sometimes about one of its projects without being part of it. They go in the area's To-dos: the first row under each area in the sidebar, with the number of open ones.

To-dos lists the area's tasks that aren't in a project, grouped by status, and New task (or C on the page) adds one there. They show in Today, Upcoming and the calendar like any task, and count nowhere in a project's progress or roadmap.

A to-do can still be about a project: set About in its details (or add it from the project page's Related group). The project's page then lists it under Related, and the task's row shows the project with a link mark. A to-do can also Repeat; see Task details.

Projects

A project groups the tasks of one piece of work and adds dates and agent settings:

A project's progress is the share of its tasks that are done, not counting canceled ones. It shows as a ring in the sidebar and as a bar on the Projects page.

Create a project

• In the sidebar, select + beside the area the project belongs to. The name field opens beneath that area's heading, including when the group was collapsed. An empty area also offers New project below its heading.
• From an area's menu, select New project.
• On the Projects page, select New project and pick the area, or use the + on an area's row.
• In Settings → Projects, fill in New project: a name, the area and an optional folder, then select Add project. Projects added there get Claude Code as their default agent, and Settings stays open.
• In Settings → Projects, Import from Claude and Codex makes projects, with their folders and default agents, from the folders you work in with Claude Code and Codex. PacedMind offers this the first time it opens. See Import projects.

In the sidebar and on the Projects page, type the name and press Enter; PacedMind then opens the new project's task list.

The project menu

Right-click a project in the sidebar or on the Projects page, or use its … button:

Deleting a project keeps its tasks: they stay in the area without a project. The project's folder and default agent settings are removed.

Order and select several

The sidebar's Areas & projects section groups projects beneath their area, with an indented list and a separator between areas. The arrow beside an area collapses or expands its projects; selecting the area's name opens all its tasks.

Drag an area heading up or down to move the whole group. Its … menu also offers Move up and Move down when there is a group in that direction. Drag projects to reorder them or move them into another area. Drop on an area heading, including an empty or collapsed area, to put them at the end; drop beside a project to choose their position. The destination area highlights and a line marks the position. The projects' tasks move with them and keep their keys. Move to area in the menu offers the same move without dragging.

The order is saved with your data, so the Projects page, quick add and the other lists of areas and projects use it too.

To work on several at once, select them in the sidebar:

A selection holds areas or projects, not both. Dragging a selected row moves the visible selected rows, in their order, to where they're dropped; projects selected across areas can move together into the destination area. Right-clicking a selected row, or its … button, opens the menu for the selection:

Projects on several computers

When your data is on more than one computer (see Accounts and Cloud), a project is the same project on each of them. Its folder is each computer's own: on each, the folder where that computer's copy of the work is, usually a clone of the same git repository.

Each computer notes which git repository a project's folder holds, as the address of its remote without the user or any password in it, such as github.com/owner/name, and with the folder's place inside the repository when that isn't its root. When another computer brings its projects over, a folder of the same repository joins that project instead of becoming a second one; a folder that isn't a repository joins a project of the same name. See Import projects. A project that ran its sessions only on the computer it was brought over on runs them on both once another computer's folder joins it: where you start them.

On macOS, PacedMind doesn't read the repository of a folder in Desktop, Documents or Downloads, in iCloud Drive or another cloud drive: macOS would first ask whether it may. Such a folder joins a project by its name.

pacedmind.md

Signed in to PacedMind Cloud, linking a folder to a project, or making it an area's workspace, writes a small pacedmind.md into it. Its header names the project or the area by its id, the same on all your computers; its text tells agents where the folder's tasks are. Keep it in the repository: every clone then carries it, and another computer recognises its copy of the folder by it, even without a repository or a matching name. A folder that is both a project's and its area's workspace names both in one file, and text of your own in the file stays as it is. Settings → Projects offers Add pacedmind.md for folders linked before it existed.

Linking on another computer

A computer looks for its copies of your projects and areas workspaces among the folders you work in with Claude Code and Codex, and next to and inside the folders of your projects and areas there: first by pacedmind.md, then by repository, then by name. What it finds shows as Found here · Use on the project page and in Settings, and in Import projects, which lists the Area workspaces found too.

When it's sure (a pacedmind.md or a repository, one folder for it), a card offers them at the bottom right: Found on this computer, with each project or area and its folder. Link gives each its folder here in one go, Review opens the import to pick, and Not now keeps the card from coming back for those folders. Nothing is linked without you: a folder decides where agents work.

Merge projects

Two projects for the same work, such as the ones two computers made before they knew of each other, become one with Merge into…, from the project menu or from the menu of several selected projects. The confirmation says how many tasks move.

• The tasks move to the project that's kept, after its own tasks and into its area, and keep their keys. Their sessions and reports stay with them.
• Where the kept project has no default agent, Codex environment or repository, it takes the merged project's. A project that started after the merged one starts after the kept one.
• On this computer, the kept project gets the merged project's folder when it has none. Your other computers do the same by themselves within a minute, for a folder of the same repository.
• Projects that ran their sessions on different computers merge into one that runs them where you start them.
• The merged projects are deleted, and PacedMind opens the kept one.

The project page

Selecting a project opens its task list, grouped by status. The header shows the area, the target date and, once agents reported it, what they used on the project's tasks (agents: 1.2M tokens; see What it used), and has a Roadmap button that opens the project's roadmap. In the desktop app, a folder button says whether the project is on this computer: its folder's name (click to choose another), Found here · Use, Area's workspace, or Not on this computer (click to choose its folder). When PacedMind knows the project's repository, or else its area's, a link such as github.com/owner/name opens it. An area's page has the same link for its workspace's repository. In a narrow list, such as with a task's details open, these buttons show their icons only. New task adds a task to the project.

Below the project's own tasks, Related lists its area's to-dos that are about it (their About is the project). They don't count in the project's progress. The group starts folded when all of them are done, and its + adds a to-do about the project.

Project folders

A project's folder is where Claude Code or Codex works when PacedMind starts a session for one of its tasks. It must be:

• an absolute path, such as C:\code\my-app on Windows or /Users/anna/code/my-app on macOS;
• an existing folder, not a file;
• free of the characters " % ! ^ & | < > ` $, and on macOS of \, which can't be passed to a terminal safely.

In Settings → Projects, the Roadmap panel and the project's header, you choose the folder in the system's folder dialog, and it's checked as soon as it's saved. A folder that breaks these rules later, say because it was moved, shows its problem when a session starts, as Can't use the folder … with the reason and Change it in Settings. Agents setting a folder over MCP get the same check right away.

A task can have a folder of its own, such as a second checkout of the repository, chosen with Folder in its details. Its sessions then work there instead of in the project's folder. That folder is checked as soon as it's set.

Tasks without their own folder, in a project without a folder or outside projects, get an empty folder per task that PacedMind makes in its data folder (PacedMind's folder). See Start, resume and close sessions.

On this computer

A project or area is the account's, but its folder is each computer's own. When one has no folder on this computer, PacedMind looks for a copy of it among the folders you work in with Claude Code and Codex here and your projects' folders: first by its repository (which a computer with its folder noted, such as github.com/owner/name, or a folder inside it), else by its name. What it finds shows as Found here: with Use in the folder fields, Found here · Use in an area's details and a project's header; hover over it for the folder and why it matched. Nothing is set until you select Use. For a project, that makes the folder its folder here, and a project that only ran on another computer then runs on both, as an import does.

The folders come from Claude Code's and Codex's own records on this computer, read again in the background about once a minute, so a folder you haven't worked in with either yet isn't found: choose it with the folder dialog.

Projects in sequence

Starts after makes one project wait for another. On the Roadmap, an arrow leads from the end of the first project's bar to the start of the second, and the first project's task order ends with the project that comes next. Like a dependency between tasks, it only orders the work: nothing starts by itself. See Roadmap.

Hide a project

Choose Hide project in a project's menu to put it aside. Its tasks and sessions disappear from everyday views, search, counts, project pickers and automatic planning. Open floating notes for its tasks close, and session notifications are muted. A session already running can still finish and save its report.

To bring it back, open Settings → Hidden areas and projects and select Restore project. Tasks keep their statuses, dates, subtasks, dependencies and history. Overdue tasks may appear again after restoring. Independent area to-dos that only refer to the project remain visible.

With a Cloud account, visibility follows the project on your computers and in the browser. Without an account, it is saved on this computer.

Hide an area

Select Hide area in an area's … menu in the sidebar to put the whole section aside. The area, its projects, to-dos, calendar activities and task sessions disappear from everyday views and planning. Floating notes close and session notifications are muted. Running agents can still finish and report.

Open Settings → Hidden areas and projects and select Restore area to bring it back. Projects you had hidden individually remain hidden; restore them separately on the same settings page. Hiding an area preserves its contents and history, and follows your Cloud account across devices.