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Workspaces

Workspaces are the central organizing concept in Nova Code. Each workspace maps a name to a directory on the server, and everything else — sessions, orchestrators, automations, files, Git, and rules — operates within that directory.

Creating a workspace

Section titled “Creating a workspace”

When creating a workspace, you:

  1. Pick a name for the project.
  2. Select a directory using the built-in directory browser (you can also create new folders while browsing).
  3. Optionally set a default agent type (Cursor, Claude, or Mistral Vibe) so new sessions pre-select it.
  4. Optionally set Git identity overrides (name and email) for commits made in this workspace.

In Docker deployments, workspace paths are relative to /data-root inside the container. See Installation for volume mount configuration.

Organization

Section titled “Organization”

Workspaces support several ways to stay organized:

  • Groups: Assign a group label to visually cluster related workspaces (e.g. “Work”, “Personal”, “Client projects”).
  • Colors: Set a color to identify workspaces at a glance.
  • Tags: Add freeform tags for filtering and searching.
  • Sort order: Drag to reorder workspaces in the list.
  • Archive: Hide workspaces from the default list without deleting them or their data. Toggle the archived view to see them again.

Workspace list

Section titled “Workspace list”

The Workspaces page (/workspaces) shows all your workspaces grouped by label, with controls for the archived toggle. When integrations or Git credentials haven’t been set up yet, helpful hints appear to guide you. Right-click a workspace card to open, edit, archive or unarchive, and delete (same actions as the row icon buttons).

Home dashboard

Section titled “Home dashboard”

The Home page (/) focuses on cross-workspace activity: session counts (busy and idle), a strip of recently active sessions, and an optional full session list. It’s designed for quickly jumping into active work.

Workspace detail

Section titled “Workspace detail”

Opening a workspace gives you access to:

  • Sessions — create and manage AI chat sessions
  • Orchestrators — multi-step task plans
  • Files — browse and edit project files
  • Git — status, diffs, commits, and pushes
  • Rules — workspace-specific rule files for agent prompts

Orchestrators

Section titled “Orchestrators”

Orchestrators let you break a larger goal into subtasks (steps), where each step runs in its own session. The workflow is:

  1. Describe your goal and let Nova Code decompose it into steps.
  2. Review and edit the generated plan.
  3. Run the plan — each step executes sequentially in its own session.
  4. Monitor progress and results.

Deleting an orchestrator also removes its associated step sessions.

Section titled “Related”