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Author a project visually

For the concept of the project model (the kapi.yaml recipe, the state dir, discovery), see Projects and Your first project; this recipe walks creating and shaping one in Kapi Desktop.

Goal: stand up a project (the content it governs, the voice and coordinates that govern it, and, if you translate, its languages) through the app, ending with the same committable kapi.yaml recipe you would get from kapi init.

Outdated recording

The interface has changed since this was recorded. The workflow it demonstrates still applies, but some screens and labels differ from the current release. The clip shows an earlier layout of the project home; the app now opens on the two-axis standing and the point map. It comes from the Kapi Desktop tour, so it covers creating and managing a project as part of a wider walkthrough rather than following the steps below end to end.

Steps​

  1. Create the project. Choose File > New Project (or New Project on the home screen): a name, a location and a source language. The app writes a kapi.yaml recipe and the sibling .kapi/ directory, the same layout kapi init produces. To explore a finished project first, open KapiMart under sample projects.
  2. Add content. In the Project view, add the patterns that match your source files (docs, UI strings, contracts) as named collections. The home shows each pattern beside the real files it matches and the format kapi detected for each.
  3. Bind governance. In Project Settings, choose the voice profile the project goes by (a file in the project, a profile from the local store, or a starter pack), set the default point on the declared axes (a brand, and any axis you add), and declare profiles for a product that ships on several channels. The Context hub then shows what resolved: the voice at each point, the terms and the content memory the committed .kapi/ files bind.
  4. Declare languages, if you translate. Add target languages in Project Settings. The home then shows per-language coverage, and Bring up to date runs the project's default flow to the ship gates, the same loop as kapi up. A project that translates nothing is complete without this step.
  5. Commit the recipe. The kapi.yaml recipe and the committed .kapi/ files are portable; commit them, and the project runs identically from the CLI and for teammates.

Why the desktop​

Visual authoring keeps the project's shape in view (which patterns match which files, what format each is, what governs each point) and validates as you go. The artifact is an ordinary kapi.yaml recipe: nothing is desktop-only, so the project is fully drivable from kapi on the command line and in CI.

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