Opening a Workspace

Opening a Workspace

Ptah can open any local folder as a workspace. There are three ways to do it.

1. From the UI

Use File → Open Folder… (or the welcome screen’s Open Folder button) and pick the project root. Ptah will:

1. Record the folder as the active workspace.
2. Add it to the Recent Workspaces list.
3. Kick off the initial project analysis.

2. Recent workspaces

The welcome screen and the File → Open Recent menu list the last workspaces you used, most recent first. Selecting one re-opens it instantly — Ptah caches the previous analysis and only re-runs scans when files have changed.

3. From the command line

Launching Ptah with a folder path opens that folder directly, bypassing the welcome screen. This is useful for shell aliases, editor integrations, and scripted workflows.

# macOS / Linux
ptah ~/code/my-project

# Windows (PowerShell)
ptah C:\code\my-project

If the path is invalid, Ptah falls back to the last active workspace (or the welcome screen if there is none).

Note

The CLI argument takes priority over the persisted active workspace. If you pass a folder on launch, that folder wins for the session.

Persistence across restarts

The active workspace is stored in Ptah’s app-level settings. When you relaunch:

• If you passed a folder via CLI → that folder opens.
• Otherwise → the last active workspace reopens automatically.
• If that folder no longer exists on disk → Ptah shows the welcome screen and logs a warning.

See Workspace restoration for what else is restored with the workspace (open chats, expanded tree nodes, panel layout).

Supported folders

Any directory works. Ptah does not require a package.json, .git, or any specific marker file. Detection runs best-effort — the more standard your project layout, the more accurate the auto-detected stack.

Caution

Avoid opening very large folders (e.g. your entire home directory or node_modules). The initial analysis walks the tree and can be slow. Open the project root, not its parent.