Chat projects

Last validated: Aug 22, 2026View as Markdown

Aperture chat projects let you organize conversations around a shared purpose. Each project carries instructions that Aperture injects into every conversation in the project, so you write your preferences once instead of repeating them in each chat. You can also restrict which tools are available within a project.

Projects are per-user. Other users on your tailnet have no knowledge of or access to your projects.

What you can do with projects

Group conversations by topic, client, workflow, or any category that makes sense to you.
Write reusable instructions that apply to every conversation in the project automatically.
Control tool access by restricting which tools conversations in the project can use.
Assign tailnet nodes to guide which machines conversations in the project use first.
Pin projects to the sidebar for quick access.

Create a project

You can create a project in two ways:

From the Projects page: Open the Projects page from the sidebar and select New project. Enter a name and select Create.
From the new chat composer: Open the project picker in the composer and type a name. If no existing project matches, select the Create project row that appears.

Project names can be up to 120 characters.

Write project instructions

Each project has an instructions field where you describe what the project is about and how you want answers written. Instructions appear in an always-open text area on the project page.

To write or edit instructions:

Open the Projects page of the chat interface, then select the project by name.
Type your instructions in the text area.
Select Save.

Changes take effect on the next message in any conversation that belongs to the project, including conversations that already exist.

How instructions reach the model

Aperture places your project instructions at the end of the system prompt, after all other context. This position gives the instructions a recency advantage: models tend to weight content near the end of the prompt more heavily, so your project-level preferences are less likely to be overridden by earlier system context.

Instructions are injected verbatim with no additional wrapping or formatting.

Manage conversations in a project

A conversation belongs to one project at a time. Adding a conversation to a project removes it from any previous project. Conversations in a project also appear in your main Chats list.

Add a conversation

You can add conversations to a project in several ways:

From the new chat composer: Open the project picker and select the project. The current conversation moves to that project.
From the conversation actions menu: Open the actions menu for a conversation and select the project.
From the project page: Select Add existing chat and choose conversations to add.
In bulk from recent chats: Select multiple conversations in your recent chats list, then add them to a project.

Remove a conversation

To remove a conversation from a project, open the conversation actions menu and deselect the project, or uncheck it in the project picker.

Removing a conversation from a project does not delete the conversation. It remains in your Chats list.

Start a new chat in a project

Select New chat on the project page. The new conversation belongs to the project from the first message, so project instructions apply from the start.

Customize tool access

By default, conversations in a project can use all available tools. You can restrict tool access to a specific set.

To customize which tools are available in a project:

Open the Projects page of the chat interface.
Select Customize in the tool policy section.
Uncheck the tools you want to disable for this project.

Individual conversations within the project can use fewer tools than the project enables, but they cannot enable tools the project disables.

To restore the default behavior (all tools available), select Reset.

Assign tailnet nodes

Assign tailnet nodes to guide which machines chat uses for tasks such as running commands or reading system state. Chat prefers assigned nodes but can use other nodes when your request calls for them. Assigning a node does not grant access. Your tailnet's SSH policy still controls access when a tool connects.

To list available nodes, you need access to the Tailscale SSH connector. The node list contains machines visible to your Aperture gateway.

Open the Projects page of the chat interface.
Select the project.
In the project's node section, select Add node.
Search by node name or tag.
Select a node to assign it to the project.

Changes save automatically. To remove an assignment, select the remove button next to the node.

If no nodes are available and none are assigned, the node section is hidden.

Pin a project

Select the pin button on the project title to pin it to the sidebar. Pinned projects appear in the Pinned section of the sidebar, above your recent chats. You can expand a pinned project to display its conversations. The project auto-expands when you open a conversation inside it.

Search for projects

You can find projects from two places:

Global search: Press CMD+K (or CTRL+K) to open the search dialog. Projects appear first (up to three results), followed by conversations. Search matches against project names.
Projects page: The search field on the Projects page filters your project list. This search shows only projects, with no result limit.

Delete a project

To delete a project:

Open the Projects page of the chat interface.
Open the project settings or actions menu and select Delete.
Choose whether to keep or delete the project's conversations:
- Keep conversations (default): The project is deleted, but its conversations remain in your Chats list.
- Delete conversations: Check the cascade option and type the project name to confirm. All conversations in the project are permanently deleted.

Limits

Limit	Value
Project name length	120 characters (display)
Instructions size	16 kilobytes
Projects per conversation	1
Assigned nodes per project	25

Chat for an overview of chat documentation.
Set up the chat UI for admin configuration of the chat interface.
Chat sandbox to run code in an isolated environment during a conversation.