# Projects (/docs/guides/users/projects)



A project is where work items live. Each project has its own statuses, its own members, and
its own numbering, so two teams can run very different workflows side by side.

## Creating a project [#creating-a-project]

From the Projects page, choose **New project**. You'll pick:

* **Name** — anything up to 120 characters.
* **Key prefix** — a short uppercase code like `OPS` or `WEB` (a letter followed by up to
  nine letters or digits). Every item in the project gets a number from this prefix:
  the first item is `OPS-1`, the next `OPS-2`, and so on. Numbers are never reused.
* **Description, icon, color, and lead** — all optional, all changeable later. The lead is
  simply the person who fronts the project; it doesn't grant extra permissions by itself.

Creating a project also seeds a sensible default set of statuses (which you can rename,
recolor, and reorder later — see [Work items](/docs/guides/users/work-items)) and makes you a
member automatically.

## Project members and roles [#project-members-and-roles]

People are added to a project with one of three roles:

| Role   | What it means                                                                                     |
| ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Admin  | Full control of this project: settings, statuses, members, and the ability to delete the project. |
| Member | Can create and edit work items, comment, and log time.                                            |
| Viewer | Can see everything in the project but can't change it.                                            |

Two notes that save confusion later:

* Organization **Owners and Admins** can act in every project regardless of project role.
* Being mentioned in a comment quietly grants someone read access to that item, even if they
  aren't a project member yet — see
  [Inbox and notifications](/docs/guides/users/inbox-and-notifications).

The full picture of who can do what is in
[Permissions and roles](/docs/guides/users/permissions-and-roles).

## Project settings [#project-settings]

Each project has a settings page (open the project, then **Settings**) where admins can
rename the project, change the description, icon, color, and lead, manage members, and
manage the project's statuses — adding, renaming, recoloring, reordering, or removing them.

## Archive versus delete [#archive-versus-delete]

These do very different things, so it's worth being precise:

* **Archive** hides the project without touching its data. Items, history, and time entries
  are all kept, and an admin can unarchive at any time. This is the right choice for a
  finished or paused project.
* **Delete** permanently removes the project and everything in it — members, statuses,
  work items, their labels and activity history. It is restricted to project admins and it
  is **irreversible**. There is no undo and no trash for a deleted project.

If you're unsure, archive. You can always delete later; you can never un-delete.

## The trash (for items, not projects) [#the-trash-for-items-not-projects]

Deleted *work items* are different: they go to the project's trash at
**Projects → your project → Trash**, where they can be restored. Time logged against a
trashed item stops counting in every total until the item is restored. Details in
[Work items](/docs/guides/users/work-items).