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Overview

Adist supports managing multiple projects, allowing you to index and search different codebases without conflicts. Each project maintains its own index, summaries, and configuration.

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Creating Projects

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Initialize a New Project

Navigate to your project directory and run: 
cd /path/to/your/project
adist init my-project-name
This will:
  1. Create a unique project ID
  2. Store the project path
  3. Index all supported files
  4. Optionally generate summaries
  5. Set as the current project
The project name can be different from the directory name. Use descriptive names to easily identify projects.

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Initialization Process

🚀 Initializing project...
Name: my-awesome-api
Path: /Users/dev/projects/awesome-api

Would you like to enable LLM summarization? (y/N): y
⚠️ Summarization enabled - this will incur API costs

Indexing project files...
█████████████████████ 100% | ETA: 0s | 143/143 files

✓ Project initialized successfully!
Run adist get "<query>" to search for documents.
Run adist summary to view project summaries.

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Listing Projects

View all configured projects: 
adist list
Output: 
Projects:

→ my-awesome-api [indexed] [summaries]
  ID: 1709876543210
  Path: /Users/dev/projects/awesome-api

  frontend-app [indexed] [no-summaries]
  ID: 1709876123456  
  Path: /Users/dev/projects/frontend

  legacy-service [not-indexed] [no-summaries]
  ID: 1709875987654
  Path: /Users/dev/old-projects/legacy

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Status Indicators

  • → Green arrow: Currently selected project
  • [indexed]: Project has been indexed
  • [not-indexed]: Project needs indexing
  • [summaries]: LLM summaries available
  • [no-summaries]: No summaries generated
Use the --debug flag to see additional information like file counts:
adist list --debug

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Switching Projects

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Switch by Name

Switch to a specific project: 
adist switch my-project-name
Output: 
✓ Switched to project: my-project-name
Run adist get "<query>" to search for documents.

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Interactive Selection

Run switch without a name for interactive selection: 
adist switch
You’ll see an interactive list: 
? Select a project: (Use arrow keys)
❯ my-awesome-api
  frontend-app
  legacy-service
  data-pipeline
  mobile-app
Use arrow keys to navigate and press Enter to select.
The interactive list shows 10 projects at a time. Scroll to see more if you have many projects.

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Project Not Found

If you try to switch to a non-existent project: 
adist switch wrong-name

✘ Project "wrong-name" not found.

📚 Available Projects:
  my-awesome-api
  frontend-app
  legacy-service

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Project Configuration

Each project stores:

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Basic Information

{
  name: "my-project",
  path: "/absolute/path/to/project",
  indexed: true,
  lastIndexed: "2024-03-04T10:30:00.000Z",
  hasSummaries: true
}

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Associated Data

  • Indexes: block-indexes.{projectId}
  • Summaries: summaries.{projectId}
  • Legacy Indexes: indexes.{projectId} (if using legacy mode)

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Managing Project Indexes

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Check Index Status

Use list to see which projects are indexed: 
adist list

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Reindex Current Project

adist reindex
With summaries: 
adist reindex --summarize
With verbose output: 
adist reindex --summarize --verbose

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Reindex Specific Project

adist reindex my-project-name

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Reindex All Projects

adist reindex --all
Or with summaries: 
adist reindex --all --summarize
Output: 
🔄 Reindexing all projects
⚠️ Summarization enabled

Reindexing: my-awesome-api
█████████████████████ 100% | 143/143 files

Reindexing: frontend-app  
█████████████████████ 100% | 87/87 files

Reindexing: legacy-service
█████████████████████ 100% | 234/234 files

✓ Successfully reindexed 3 projects

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Removing Projects

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Remove by Project ID

adist remove-project-id <project-id>
This removes the project configuration but doesn’t delete files.
This operation cannot be undone. You’ll need to re-index if you want to use the project again.

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Remove by Project Name

adist remove-project <project-name>

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Remove Project Index

Remove just the index data without removing the project: 
adist remove-index <project-id>
Use this when you want to reindex from scratch.

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Configuration Storage

Projects are stored in the configuration directory: 
~/Library/Application Support/adist/config.json

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Configuration Structure

{
  "projects": {
    "1709876543210": {
      "name": "my-awesome-api",
      "path": "/Users/dev/projects/awesome-api",
      "indexed": true,
      "lastIndexed": "2024-03-04T10:30:00.000Z",
      "hasSummaries": true
    }
  },
  "currentProject": "1709876543210",
  "llmProvider": "anthropic",
  "anthropicModel": "claude-3-sonnet-20240229"
}

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Best Practices

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Project Naming

  • my-api ✅ Short and descriptive
  • frontend-v2 ✅ Includes version
  • client-portal ✅ Describes purpose
  • data-pipeline-prod ✅ Includes environment
  • project1 ❌ Not descriptive
  • test ❌ Too generic
  • asdf ❌ Meaningless
  • my project ❌ Contains spaces (will work but harder to type)

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Keep Indexes Updated

Reindex after major changes: 
# After merging a feature branch
git merge feature/new-auth
adist reindex

# After pulling updates
git pull origin main
adist reindex

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Organize by Environment

Consider separate projects for different environments: 
adist init my-app-development
adist init my-app-staging  
adist init my-app-production

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Use Summaries Strategically

1

Enable for production codebases

Summaries help understand large, stable projects:
adist init main-api --summarize
2

Skip for frequently changing code

Don’t use summaries for projects that change constantly:
adist init experimental-features
# Don't enable summaries
3

Regenerate periodically

Update summaries after major refactors:
adist reindex --summarize

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Common Workflows

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Starting Your Day

# See all projects
adist list

# Switch to the one you're working on
adist switch current-project

# Update index with latest changes
adist reindex

# Start exploring
adist chat

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Adding a New Project

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/org/new-project.git
cd new-project

# Initialize with Adist
adist init new-project

# Start searching
adist query "how does this work?"

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Switching Between Projects

# Working on frontend
adist switch frontend-app
adist query "what are the main components?"

# Switch to backend
adist switch backend-api  
adist query "how is authentication handled?"

# Back to frontend
adist switch frontend-app

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Troubleshooting

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Duplicate Project Names

✘ Project with name "my-app" already exists.
Please choose a different name or use "adist switch" to select it.
Solution: Use a different name or switch to the existing project.

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Path No Longer Exists

If a project directory was moved or deleted: 
adist switch old-project
# Project loads but searches fail

adist remove-project old-project
cd /new/path
adist init old-project

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No Current Project

✘ No project is currently selected.
Run "adist init" or "adist switch" first.
Solution: Initialize a new project or switch to an existing one.

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Viewing Project Paths

See all project paths: 
adist paths
Output: 
Project Paths:

my-awesome-api
  /Users/dev/projects/awesome-api

frontend-app
  /Users/dev/projects/frontend

legacy-service  
  /Users/dev/old-projects/legacy

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Next Steps

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