Creating Your First Project

Creating Your First Project

This guide walks you through creating and configuring your first Lighthouse project from scratch.

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:

• Lighthouse installed and enabled
• A folder structure in mind for your project
• An idea of which folders are content vs source

Step 1: Organize Your Folders

Before creating the project in Lighthouse, set up your folder structure:

My Novel/
├── chapters/
├── drafts/
├── research/
└── notes/

This isn’t required, but it helps you configure the project correctly from the start.

Step 2: Create the Project

1. Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+P)
2. Run Lighthouse: Create Project
3. Enter project details:
   • Name: “My Novel”
   • Root Path: Select “My Novel” folder
   • Leave folders blank for now (we’ll add them next)
4. Click Create

Step 3: Designate Folders

1. Go to Settings → Lighthouse
2. Find “My Novel” project
3. Click Edit
4. Add Content Folders: chapters/, drafts/
5. Add Source Folders: research/, notes/
6. Click Save

Step 4: Set a Goal (Optional)

While editing the project:

1. Enter a Word Count Goal (e.g., 80000)
2. Save

Step 5: Open the Stats Panel

1. Click the Lighthouse ribbon icon, or
2. Run Lighthouse: Toggle Stats Panel

You should now see your project statistics!

Step 6: Start Writing

Open a file in your chapters/ folder and start writing. Watch the word counts update in real-time.

Next Steps

• Learn about Organizing Your Work
• Explore Tracking Progress
• Read about Content vs Source Folders

More detailed documentation coming soon.