Projects

Projects serve as the primary organizational mechanism in Orion. Each project brings together your Chat Conversations and Analyses, along with all the context that supports them: Context pages, data sources, uploaded files, memories, and other project-specific details.

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Personal vs Shared Projects

When you create a new project in Orion, it is automatically private by default until you share it with other team members.

• Personal (Private) Projects: Any analyses, insights, or conversations within the project are only accessible by you (aside from admins).
• Shared Projects: Projects shared with 1 or more team members. Only those with access to the project can view the contents.

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Creating a Project

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Project Name

Give your project a descriptive name that reflects its purpose (e.g., “Marketing Strategy”, “Q4 Sales Analysis”, “Customer Churn Research”).

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Project Description

The project description helps you and your team quickly understand what the project is about. This short description (up to 500 characters) appears in the project list and is intended for human readers. To give Orion richer context for its analysis, use Context pages. The dialog also has a Memory Isolation switch.

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Import TOML

Tenant admins and group admins also see an Import TOML tab in the New Project dialog. It creates a new project from a .toml file produced by Export. See Import a Project for what the file must contain and what the import creates.

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Next Steps After Creating a Project

Once you have created a new project, it will appear in the left-hand navigation menu and on the main projects page. Orion opens the new project as soon as you create it. If it has no data yet, a Give this project some data card covers the chat. Click Get Started to open Project Settings on the Data Sources tab.

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Selecting a Data Source

The next modal displays a list of available data sources that have been connected by your Admin. Select one by enabling the toggle switch.

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Schema Explorer

Each data source on the Data Sources tab has a View Schema link. It saves any unsaved settings, then opens the Schema Explorer page for that source in this project. The Schema Explorer lists the source’s datasets and tables, or its Looker models and explores. Clear an entry’s checkbox to set it to Off and keep Orion from using it in this project’s chats. After a schema refresh, a banner at the top of the page lists the added, removed, and changed entries. Added entries follow the source’s Auto-enable new schema switch, described in Managing Data Sources, and each one can be switched on or off from the banner. Tenant admins, project owners, and admins of a group that has the project can change these settings. Other users see the page read-only.

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Accessing Project Settings

Analysts and admins can open the Project Settings modal two ways:

• Clicking Settings in the upper-right corner of the project’s home screen. It is not shown once a chat is open
• Clicking the three-dot menu on the project in the left-hand navigation menu and selecting Settings

Project Settings has these tabs: A catalog view referenced on the Views tab, or a Google Sheet attached on the Connectors tab, counts as data for the project. Neither needs a source on the Data Sources tab.

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Opening a Project

A project opens on a new chat. Until you send the first message, the project’s recent content sits below the chat input. All Content opens the project’s Content page, with its reports, dashboards, slide decks, and workflows. A project with no reports, dashboards, or slide decks yet offers Create Content instead. It starts a chat asking Orion to pick a first question from what it knows about you, the project, and its data. Orion then decides whether the answer becomes a report, a dashboard, or a slide deck. On a wide screen, a side panel sits to the right of the chat input. Quick Actions holds Create a Room, which starts a room, and View Metrics, which opens the project’s metrics. Below it, Your Recent Chats and Recent Workflows reopen recent work. A narrower window hides the panel.

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Memory Isolation

The Memory Isolation switch is on the Advanced Settings tab of Project Settings, and in the New Project dialog. When memory isolation is enabled, any memories formed by Orion within this project remain contained to the project itself. These memories will not be accessible in other chat conversations or analyses outside the project. Disabling memory isolation allows memories formed within this project to be accessible across other projects. This is useful when you want Orion to recall memories from one project in order to inform work in another.

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Extended Viewer Settings

Extended Viewer Settings on the Advanced Settings tab lets viewers run data analysis queries in the project’s chats. With it on, viewers can run analyses and publish the artifacts they create. They still cannot change project settings or content. The switch is off by default. Tenant admins, analysts, project owners, and admins of a group that has the project see the switch. Click Save Changes to apply it. See Viewer Query Access for what the switch means for uploaded documents.

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Warp Drive

Warp Drive limits a project to answers drawn from content your team has already approved. A question that needs more can be escalated, if the project’s access policy allows it. It has its own Warp Drive tab in Project Settings, and it becomes available once the project has a small foundation of approved content.

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Assumption Confirmations

When Ask before making assumptions is on, Orion stops and asks you to confirm an assumption before it uses one. It is on by default. Tenant Admins, project owners, tenant Analysts with edit access to the project, and the project’s Group Admins can change it:

1. Open Project Settings and select Advanced Settings
2. Turn Ask before making assumptions on or off
3. Click Save Changes

Turning it off stops only the assumption check. Orion still asks when a request is unclear, asks which output format you want, and asks you to approve a dashboard plan. To get fewer clarifying questions overall, give Orion the answers in Context. See Reducing Clarifying Questions.

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Enabling Context Pages

Context is the recommended way to provide your project with structured, organized context. By enabling Context pages for your project, Orion gains access to your organization’s centralized documentation. From the Project Settings modal, click on the Context tab to enable pages for this project.

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How to Enable Pages

1. Browse the folder tree on the Context tab
2. Check each page or folder Orion should use in this project

Each change applies as soon as a box is checked or cleared. Admins and analysts also see a Metrics Catalog folder at the top of the list. Checking a catalog metric there places it in the project. See Metrics Catalog. By default, Orion has no access to any Context pages until you explicitly enable them.

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Best Practices for Context in Projects

• Keep it focused - Enable 8-10 pages maximum per project to keep Orion focused on relevant context
• Enable strategically - Only enable pages that are directly relevant to this project’s analysis
• Stay organized - Use your Context pages folder structure to find related pages

When you enable Context pages, Orion will:

• Include them throughout its analysis workflow
• Cite them with inline references in your reports, dashboards, and other deliverables
• Reference them throughout your chat conversations
• Use them to inform analytical decisions and methodology

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Uploading Files to a Project

In addition to Context pages, you can upload files to provide Orion with detailed reference materials and long-form documentation. From the Project Settings modal, click on the File Uploads tab.

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Viewer Query Access

Viewers need Extended Viewer Settings to search documents uploaded to the project. The same switch controls their warehouse queries. The restriction follows your role in this project. A tenant Viewer with Group Analyst or Group Admin access to the project can query through that higher role. Viewers can still read content they already have access to when the switch is off.

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When to Use File Uploads

Project file uploads are ideal for long-form, unstructured documents, especially:

• Dense PDFs - Research reports, whitepapers, or detailed analyses
• Documents with images and charts - Anything with visual content or complex formatting
• Transcripts and notes - Meeting recordings, interview transcripts, or detailed notes
• Complex layouts - Documents that are difficult to structure into Context pages

File uploads are primarily used within chat conversations for specific reference and research, rather than being integrated throughout your analysis workflow like Context pages.

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Supported File Types

Orion currently supports the following file formats for project document uploads:

• Markdown (.md, .markdown)
• PDF (.pdf)
• Word Documents (.docx)
• Plain Text (.txt)

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Common Examples of Project Files:

• Research reports and whitepapers
• PDF analyses and detailed documentation
• Meeting transcripts and interview recordings
• Competitor analysis documents with images
• Industry reports and market research

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Comparing Context Pages and File Uploads

Both provide context to Orion, but serve different purposes:

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Cloning Projects

Within shared projects, you have the ability to clone projects. This is useful when you want to reuse the same project settings, data sources, and file uploads from an existing project. For example, if you’re using a project for customer-facing analytics reporting and want to use the same project configuration for a new use case, you can simply clone everything from the original project.

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Sharing Projects

Users gain access to a project in any of these ways:

• Members: add users from the project’s home screen or its three-dot menu, described below
• Groups: give a group access, and every member of the group gets the project
• Add User: a tenant Admin or Group Admin can pick projects in the Project access step when inviting a user. See Inviting New Users

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Sharing with individuals

To add users to a project directly, click Members in the upper-right corner of the project’s home screen. The same Members item is on the project’s three-dot menu, in the left-hand navigation menu or on the Projects page. Shared projects enable collaboration and allow you to work together with your team members on analyses.

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Sharing with a Group

If your tenant uses Groups, you can give access to a project by sharing it with a group. Everyone in the group can access the project, with permissions matching their role in the group, so there is no need to invite members individually. If a group has been given access to the project, Project Settings lists it on the Details tab. Administrators see every group with access; everyone else sees only the groups they belong to. Direct invites and group access work side by side. Removing someone from a group doesn’t cancel any direct invite they have on the project, and removing a direct invite doesn’t remove them from the group.

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Deleting a Project

Open the project’s three-dot menu in the left-hand navigation menu or on the Projects page, click Delete, then confirm with Delete Project. Content created in the project is no longer accessible, and deletion cannot be undone. Tenant admins, project owners, and admins of a group that has the project can delete it.

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Project Permissions

Orion supports three tenant roles with varying levels of access. If your tenant uses Groups, users also have a group role that may further shape what they can do within a specific project. See Groups → Roles at a Glance for a full breakdown.