Your First Project

This walks you through creating a project, adding files, and creating your first checkpoint - the core loop you'll use every day.

Create the project

1. From your Personal studio (or any studio you have project-creation rights in), click New Project at the top-left of the projects page.
2. Enter a name for the project.
3. Pick a working folder - this is the actual folder on your disk where files will live. Clustta creates and manages it for you.
4. Click Create.

Working folder

The working folder is just a regular folder. Your DCC tools (Blender, Photoshop, Maya, etc.) read and write files here as if Clustta didn't exist. Clustta watches the folder and tracks changes in the background.

Import an existing project

If you already have a .clst project archive, use Import Projects on the projects page instead of creating an empty project:

1. Open the projects page and choose Import Projects.
2. Select one or more .clst files. You can add more files or remove a selection before importing.
3. Click Import.
4. When the import finishes, reveal an imported archive in your file manager or close the dialog to refresh the project list.

Import copies the selected archives into Clustta's configured project data location. Keep the original archive until you have opened and checked the imported project. See Storage & Versioning for backup and remote-project considerations.

Open the project

Double-click the project in the list to open it. You'll see the Clustta browser - empty, since you haven't added anything yet.

The browser is your project's home base. From here you'll create collections, add assets, view checkpoints, manage assignments, and switch between views (List, Grid, Kanban, Workflow).

Add your first asset

There are two ways to get files into Clustta:

Method 1 - Drop files into the working folder

The fastest way for files that already exist:

1. Right-click an empty area in the browser → Show in Explorer (or click the show-in-explorer icon in the details pane).
2. Copy or save your file(s) into the working folder.
3. Switch back to Clustta. New files appear marked as Untracked (an "Add Checkpoint" badge will show on them).
4. Click the badge - Clustta will track the file and create its first checkpoint.

Method 2 - Create from an Asset Template

If your studio has set up asset templates, you can create a fresh asset from a known starting point:

1. Click New Asset on the action bar.
2. Pick the template (e.g. "Blender Scene", "Photoshop Document").
3. Give it a name, optionally set a type and tags.
4. Click Create.

Clustta creates the file from the template and registers it. Double-click to open it in the appropriate application.

Edit and create a checkpoint

Open the file you just added in your DCC tool. Make some changes. Save.

Back in Clustta, the asset will now show as Modified - Clustta has detected your save.

To preserve this version:

1. Click the Modified indicator on the asset (or use Ctrl+Shift+C).
2. A checkpoint dialog appears.
3. Add a comment describing what changed ("blocking pass", "color tweak", "fixed UVs").
4. Optionally set the status (Todo, WIP, WFA, Retake, Done).
5. Optionally attach or capture a preview image.
6. Optionally assign a checkpoint tag or record a source checkpoint.
7. Click Create.

That's it. Your work is now versioned. You can checkpoint as often as you like - Clustta only stores the chunks that actually changed, so even tiny changes to huge files cost almost nothing.

Browse history

Select an asset and look at the details pane on the right. You'll see the full checkpoint history - comments, authors, dates, previews. From here you can:

• Open any historical checkpoint
• Revert the working file to a previous checkpoint
• Delete old checkpoints (sent to trash, recoverable)

Organize with collections

As your project grows, create collections to group related assets:

1. Click New Collection on the action bar (or Ctrl+K).
2. Name it ("Characters", "Shots", "Textures") and optionally set a type.
3. (Optional) Toggle Shared if every collaborator on the project should see it without explicit assignment.

Drag assets into collections, or right-click → Move. Collections can be nested as deeply as you want.

What's next

• Add more team members → Studios & collaboration
• Learn about checkpoints, assignments, and dependencies
• See all keyboard shortcuts → Keymap