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AliceProjects

An AliceProject is one independently startable OpenAlice runtime. It owns:

AliceProject
├── one complete OPENALICE_HOME
├── one Guardian process tree
│   ├── one Alice backend
│   ├── optional UTA
│   └── optional Connector Service
├── one logical frontend endpoint
└── many Workspaces and Sessions

An AliceProject sits above a Workspace. A Workspace is a durable agent desk inside one project; a Session is one conversation inside a Workspace. A browser tab does not own the backend.

The ordinary user has one implicit Default AliceProject. Named projects are useful when two source checkouts must run concurrently, or when separate companies, personas, experiments, or non-trading uses must not share state and failure domains.

Identity and complete homes

Each project has a stable id, a machine-local selector key, a mutable display name, and one canonical complete home. Ports, URLs, application roots, and one Guardian process-tree id are live launch details rather than project identity.

Two AliceProjects can run at the same time when they use distinct complete homes and ports. Equal or nested homes are rejected, and a second Guardian may not write the same home. Selecting or opening project B never stops, moves, copies, or deletes project A.

Open Settings → General → About OpenAlice to see the current AliceProject's name, health, stable id, home, and application root beside the installation and update status.

TraderAlice and NanoAlice

Product is an immutable project-birth choice:

  • TraderAlice is the default trading product. Lite and Pro remain trading intensity choices inside TraderAlice.
  • NanoAlice is an experimental general-purpose product. Its Guardian never starts UTA for that complete home.

The choice is written once to <OPENALICE_HOME>/data/config/alice-project.json. A missing stamp means TraderAlice for compatibility. An unreadable or malformed stamp blocks startup instead of silently enabling trading services. Product is not a Settings toggle; create a separate AliceProject to use another product.

NanoAlice also removes product chrome that assumes the trading stack: Market, News, Trading as Git, and Portfolio disappear from the Activity Bar, while Trading, Market Data, and News Sources disappear from Settings. Bookmarks to those routes return to Ask Alice or the Settings index rather than opening a half-available screen. AutoQuant and Tracked remain visible while their longer-term Nano boundary is reviewed separately.

Create and select projects

The installed CLI can create a named project directly:

openalice create alice-project
openalice create alice-project \
  --name office \
  --home ~/.openalice-office \
  --product nano \
  --yes
openalice project list
openalice project use office

Bare openalice opens the Supervisor. Its i panel lists the implicit default and registered AliceProjects, selects the target for subsequent actions, or creates a separate Trader-equivalent project. The explicit lifecycle commands accept --project <key>, and OPENALICE_PROJECT selects one registered project for a launch.

Released automation using --instance or OPENALICE_INSTANCE continues to work as a deprecated compatibility alias. Current UI, documentation, and new integrations should use AliceProject terminology.

The machine-local Supervisor registry lives outside every project home. It stores selectors, paths, ports, update policy, and optional source selection; it never stores product credentials or Workspace contents.

openalice project list --json exposes the same registered-home summary for automation. openalice project use <key> changes only the Supervisor's remembered target for a future bare start; it does not start or stop a Runtime and does not move project state.

Copy AI credentials explicitly

AliceProjects normally keep credentials isolated. When two registered homes should intentionally share the same AI access rows, use the dedicated command:

openalice project copy-ai-creds --from default --to office
openalice project copy-ai-creds --from default --to office --yes

Interactive use asks for confirmation. Non-interactive use requires --from, --to, and --yes. The command merges only the credentials map from data/config/ai-provider-manager.json: identical vendor/auth/key rows are skipped, and a source slug that collides with a different destination row is renamed. It never prints secrets or copies Workspace launch preferences, broker accounts, provider-keys.json, or sealing.key.

Credential copy is a separate, explicit mutation. Creating, selecting, opening, or stopping an AliceProject still never copies or merges its home.

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