Projects

Projects

Projects are the foundation of Lighthouse. A project represents a distinct writing endeavor with its own configuration, goals, and tracking.

What is a Project?

A Lighthouse project is:

• A single root folder in your vault, plus everything nested inside it
• A configuration — goals, deadline, citation settings, and more
• A goal (optional) to track your progress
• A context that persists across Obsidian sessions

Projects are not physical folders in the sense of requiring a special structure — a project is just metadata pointing at a folder you already have. Your actual files and folders remain untouched.

Why Use Projects?

Isolation

Each project is independent. You can:

• Track separate word counts for different manuscripts
• Switch focus without mixing up progress
• Remove completed projects without losing your files

Flexibility

Projects adapt to your workflow:

• No required folder structure below the root
• The root folder can be anywhere in your vault
• Move and reorganize files freely — Lighthouse follows renames
• Mix multiple projects in one vault

Focus

The active project provides context:

• Word counts reflect only project files
• The Library shows only this project’s Groups and Sheets
• The Inspector’s stats, heatmap, and streak are scoped to it

Project Anatomy

Every project has:

Property	Description	Required
Name	Human-readable identifier	Yes
Root folder	Base folder in your vault	Yes
Extras	A single subfolder (auto-created) excluded from word counts	Automatic
Word count goal	Target word count	No
Deadline & daily goal	Used for pacing and the writing heatmap	No
Bibliography & citation style	Used when exporting with citations	No

Root Folder

The root folder is your project’s home. Everything inside it — at any depth — belongs to the project and counts toward its word total, except the Extras group.

Example:

Root: Projects/My Novel/
├── Chapters/       (counts toward your goal)
├── Notes/          (counts toward your goal — it's just another group)
└── Extras/         (excluded — research, character sheets, outlines)

Groups & Extras

See Groups & Extras for how the root folder’s subfolders become Groups in the Library, and why every project has a built-in Extras group.

Creating Projects

From the Command Palette

1. Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+P)
2. Run Lighthouse: Create new project
3. Fill in the modal:
   • Project name
   • Root folder — choose or create a folder
   • Citations, goals, deadline — configure now or later
4. Click Create project

From the Library

Once you’re in the Writing Workspace, open the active project’s ”⋯” menu in the Library header and choose Edit project… to change settings, or use Lighthouse: Create new project from the Command Palette to start a new one.

From Settings

1. Go to Settings → Lighthouse
2. Click Create project
3. Configure your project

Managing Projects

Switching Projects

The active project is the project you’re currently working on. To switch:

• Run Lighthouse: Switch project from the Command Palette and fuzzy-search by name, or
• Go to Settings → Lighthouse and pick a project from the Active project dropdown

Your active project persists across sessions — Lighthouse remembers where you left off, including the last group you had selected in the Library.

Editing Projects

To change project settings:

• Open the project’s ”⋯” menu in the Library header and choose Edit project…, or
• Go to Settings → Lighthouse, select the project, and click Edit

You can modify the name, root folder, goals, deadline, daily goal, bibliography, and citation style.

Deleting Projects

To remove a project:

• Open the project’s ”⋯” menu in the Library header and choose Delete project, or
• Go to Settings → Lighthouse and click Delete next to the project

Either way you’ll be asked to confirm. Important: only the project configuration is removed. Your actual files and folders are not deleted.

Multiple Projects

You can run multiple projects simultaneously in the same vault:

Use Cases

Separate Manuscripts

- Project 1: "Novel - First Draft"
- Project 2: "Short Stories Collection"
- Project 3: "Blog Posts 2024"

Phases of Work

- Project 1: "Thesis - Research Phase"
- Project 2: "Thesis - Writing Phase"
- Project 3: "Thesis - Revision Phase"

Different Types

- Project 1: "Fiction Writing"
- Project 2: "Technical Documentation"
- Project 3: "Personal Journal"

Best Practices

1. One active project at a time: Focus on what you’re currently writing
2. Clear naming: Use descriptive names that indicate content
3. Separate root folders: Avoid overlapping project roots when possible
4. Delete when done: Remove completed project configs to reduce clutter — your files are safe either way

Project Data Storage

Project configurations are stored in Obsidian’s plugin data:

YourVault/.obsidian/plugins/lighthouse/data.json

This file contains:

• All project configurations
• Active project ID
• Plugin settings

Backup Recommendation: Include .obsidian/plugins/ in your vault backups to preserve project configurations.

FAQ

Q: Can files belong to multiple projects? A: Technically yes, if you set up overlapping root folders. However, this isn’t recommended as it can lead to confusing word counts.

Q: What happens if I move or rename a folder inside the project? A: Lighthouse listens for vault rename events and updates group goals, icons, and the Library automatically. Moving the root folder itself requires updating the project’s root in Edit project….

Q: Can I export/import project configs? A: Not yet, but this is planned for a future release.

Q: Do projects sync across devices? A: If you sync .obsidian/plugins/lighthouse/data.json (via Obsidian Sync, iCloud, Git, etc.), your project configs will sync.

Next Steps

• Understand Groups & Extras
• Learn about Word Counting
• Explore the Library