Create a project

A Project is your app set up once in Soffi: its repositories, how it runs, its keys, and its Data Twin. You create one by picking the repositories, telling Soffi what it needs to know, and clicking Build my app. Soffi then sets the app up on its own and tells you when it's ready to review. Creating a Project takes an Admin or Owner.

Your first Project is made during organization setup. To add another, open Projects in the left rail and click New project. It opens the same flow, starting at Add your app's repos. There is no other way to create a Project, so every one arrives with its repositories attached and its setup started.

Pick the repositories

Check your primary repo and anything it depends on, such as a design system, an API, or a config repository. A Project can span several repositories. One of them is the Primary repo: the app Soffi runs and previews, usually your frontend or main web app.

You can expand a repository and pick a single folder or file inside it when Soffi only needs part of it, for example a doc that explains how the app starts.

Tell Soffi how it fits together

Each pick gets a short note, and Soffi uses these notes while it sets the app up:

• For the primary repo, "What should Soffi know about this app?" Say what it is and how you run it. Build my app stays disabled until the primary repo has a note.
• For a supporting repository, how it relates to the primary repo, such as "design system it imports components from".
• For a single folder or file, why Soffi needs it.

Below the picks there is room for anything else Soffi should know about running your application, and you can upload documents. If the Project should build from a branch other than your default branch, say so here, for example "build from the checkout-redesign branch in both repositories". That's how you set up a Project for a feature your team is building together on its own branch. Programs are refused as uploads. Everything you add is saved with the Project, tied to the commit Soffi read.

Choose whether to use a Data Twin

The Data Twin switch is on by default, and for most apps it should stay on: Soffi builds a Data Twin with realistic data from your repositories, so every screen renders on the first run without touching your real services. Set up your Data Twin covers when to turn it off.

Build my app

When you click Build my app, Soffi creates the Project, named after the main repository, copies the repositories in, and starts setting the app up in the Project's first Workspace. It writes the run configuration, works out the environment variables the app needs, builds the Data Twin if you asked for one, deploys the app, and checks that it actually works. This usually takes about an hour, and you can close the page and come back.

When it finishes, the Building screen says Your app is ready to review and you get an alert. Review your app opens the Workspace Soffi set the app up in. If Soffi hits something she can't resolve, the screen says Your app needs attention and offers the next step.

If the build fails partway, retrying picks up where it stopped rather than creating a second Project. Set up another app starts the flow again.

After it's built

The Project isn't open to your team yet. Check the app, then publish the Project so people can start Workspaces from it. To change the repositories or notes later, open the Project's Configure page and click Reconfigure.