Adding Projects

Adding Projects to Needlecast

Needlecast organizes projects in a tree structure with color-coded folders. This guide explains all the ways to add and organize projects.

Adding a Single Project

  1. Right-click on a folder (or the tree background)
  2. Select “Add Project”
  3. Browse to and select the project directory
  4. Click OK

Needlecast will immediately scan the project for:

  • Build files (pom.xml, package.json, build.gradle, etc.)
  • Git repository status
  • Available commands

Creating Groups

Groups help organize projects by context:

  1. Right-click on the tree background or an existing folder
  2. Select “New Folder”
  3. Enter a name for the group
  4. Right-click the new folder to set its color

Default Groups

Create groups for different contexts:

  • Work — client projects, deadlines
  • Personal — side projects, experiments
  • Learning — tutorials, practice repos
  • Archive — inactive projects

Drag and Drop

Move projects between groups by dragging and dropping. Reorder within a group by dragging up or down.

Removing Projects

Right-click a project and select “Remove from Tree”. This only removes the project from Needlecast’s tree — it doesn’t delete the files.

Project Context Menu

Right-click any project for additional options:

  • Open in Terminal — start a terminal in the project directory
  • Environment Variables — configure per-project environment
  • Rescan — force a rescan of build files
  • Open in File Explorer — open the project directory in your OS file manager
  • Change Color — assign the project to a different folder

Next Steps