Project Navigator

Project Navigator is ThinkForge's main project workspace. It combines project navigation, document browsing, activity recovery, and relationship views in one desktop surface. Automation authoring is a separate project-scoped tab.

Desktop Tab

The desktop hosts Project Navigator as the required pinned project-workspace tab. Requesting it again activates the existing tab instead of creating another one. It stays first in the main tab strip and cannot be closed or dragged. Switching projects replaces it with that project's pinned Project Navigator.

Other project tabs keep normal workspace behavior. Their open state, ordering, and last active selection are saved per project. The Tasks tab is one of those ordinary tabs and can be moved, closed, and reopened from the main command bar.

Layout

Project Navigator has four main areas:

  • Tabs — The first internal tab is the pinned, non-closeable Files tab. Additional tabs remember their own view and folder-tree state. Use the plus button to open an Overview working tab. Dragging over a tab activates it so it can receive a drop.
  • Folder tree — The left column provides Smart Clipboard, Workspaces, Pinned, Shortcuts, Recents, Tags, Folders, Tool Library, Automations, and Trash. Visible sections and their order can vary with settings and project data.
  • Center view — The main area switches between Files, Overview, Workspace, Insights, and Clusters.
  • Info panel — When enabled, the right column shows details and actions for the selected document or Overview section. Its toolbar action is Details.

Selecting a file or folder activates the pinned Files tab without changing another working tab's state. Selecting another destination from Files opens or activates a separate working tab.

Views

Files

Files is the default file browser. It supports list and grid layouts, Back history, folder and virtual-location breadcrumbs, subfolder navigation, tag-filtered results, multi-selection, drag-and-drop, and document context menus. At the project root, optional system-folder rows expose Smart Clipboard, Workspaces, Pinned, Shortcuts, Recents, and Tags in the center area as well as the folder tree. Smart Clipboard, Pinned, and Shortcuts accept direct drops; individual workspace and tag rows are explicit metadata destinations; Recents rejects drops. Accepted system actions do not move the source file.

Unity .meta sidecar files are treated as infrastructure metadata rather than project content. ThinkForge leaves them untouched on disk and in source control, but omits them from Content rows, folder-tree counts, system collections, file pickers, folder previews, and document search or tag results.

Overview

Overview is a project summary. Its cards cover workspaces, pinned items, shortcuts, recents, top-level project folders, and tags. Select a card to show its entries in the info panel.

Workspace

Workspace is the recovery and saved-context view. The Current view is built from tracked activity and can be filtered by time or date. Saved workspaces contain referenced files, up to three goals, and attached tools. A saved workspace can be activated so it contributes to active context.

ThinkForge can keep up to three saved workspaces active at once. The Workspace page explains the difference between the Current activity view, saved workspaces, and active workspaces.

Insights

Insights summarizes the project's explicit document-link graph: total documents, manual links, connected documents, orphans, link-intent distribution, hub documents, orphan documents, and recent links.

Clusters

Clusters is a force-directed map of indexed documents. Relationships combine semantic similarity, shared tags, manual links, and folder proximity. Group bubbles can be disabled or organized by tag, folder, or date. File type is a filter, not a grouping mode. Hover or focus the Clusters view selector and press F1 to search these User Docs for the SK Memory and relationship features behind the map.

The Search project files... box appears only when Files is active. Press Enter to run a hybrid search. Results are grouped by document, ranked by their best matching chunk, and displayed in Files, up to 20 documents. Press Escape or use the clear button to return to folder browsing.

The folder tree also has its own Search section. That search can combine keyword, semantic, and tag matching. Hover or focus its Smart toggle and press F1 to search these User Docs for local embeddings and semantic search. It is separate from the toolbar search.

Common Navigation

  • Select a folder to browse its immediate contents in the pinned Files tab.
  • Right-click a project folder and open Tools to run or manage its shared folder deployments.
  • At All Files, open a system folder to browse that collection in Files. Use the root-only System folders control to show or hide these virtual locations.
  • Use Back to return to the previously viewed physical folder, system folder, or tag result.
  • Select a tag to show matching indexed documents.
  • Select a workspace to open it in Workspace view.
  • Open Automations from the desktop command bar to build, run, or deploy a tool chain.
  • Select a document to update the info panel; open it from a row, card, context menu, or double-click action.
  • In a focused document, follow content links without leaving Project Navigator, or use Copy document link to reuse its stable target in another document. See Document Linking.
  • Use Float to open the folder navigator as a separate window.

Floating Navigator provides the project tree in a detached window, including while another application is in front. A narrower collapsible project sidebar also appears on selected ThinkForge pages. These surfaces share project navigation concepts, but Project Navigator is the full multi-view workspace.