Project Registry

Panopticon’s project registry enables multi-project management with intelligent issue routing and label-based workspace creation.

Overview

Projects are registered in ~/.panopticon/projects.yaml. Each project can have:

Issue routing rules - Route issues to different subdirectories based on labels
Custom workspace commands - For complex polyrepo setups
Linear team mapping - Connect projects to Linear teams

While projects.yaml is the source of truth, much of this configuration is also surfaced in the dashboard’s Settings page, alongside model routing for the agents and conversations Panopticon runs and tracker API keys.

Panopticon manages both the workflow pipeline and the agents and conversations that move issues through it. The Settings page is where model routing for those agents lives, while per-project routing and workspace rules below are edited in ~/.panopticon/projects.yaml.

Registering Projects

# Register a project
pan project add /path/to/your/project --name myproject --linear-team PRJ

# List registered projects
pan project list

# Remove a project
pan project remove myproject

Project Configuration

Projects are defined in ~/.panopticon/projects.yaml:

projects:
  myn:
    name: "Mind Your Now"
    path: /home/user/projects/myn
    issue_prefix: MIN
    issue_routing:
      - labels: [splash, landing-pages, seo]
        path: /home/user/projects/myn/splash
      - labels: [docs, marketing]
        path: /home/user/projects/myn/docs
      - default: true
        path: /home/user/projects/myn

  panopticon:
    name: "Panopticon"
    path: /home/user/projects/panopticon
    issue_prefix: PAN

Configuration Fields

Field	Required	Description
`name`	Yes	Human-readable project name
`path`	Yes	Absolute path to project root
`issue_prefix`	Yes*	Issue prefix for standard format IDs (e.g., “MIN”, “PAN”)
`tracker`	No	Tracker type: `linear`, `github`, `gitlab`, `rally`
`issue_prefixes`	No	Array of prefixes for multi-prefix trackers (e.g., `[F, US, DE, TA]`)
`issue_pattern`	No	Custom regex for issue ID parsing: `^(PREFIX)-(\\d+)$`
`issue_routing`	No	Label-based routing rules
`workspace_command`	No	Custom workspace creation script
`workspace_remove_command`	No	Custom workspace cleanup script
`workspace`	No	Polyrepo/progressive workspace configuration

*Not required if issue_prefixes or issue_pattern is specified.

Label-Based Routing

Issues are routed to different subdirectories based on their labels:

Labeled issues - Matched against issue_routing rules in order
Default route - Issues without matching labels use the default: true path
Fallback - If no default, uses the project root path

Example: An issue with label “splash” in the MIN team would create its workspace at /home/user/projects/myn/splash/workspaces/feature-min-xxx/.

Linear Project Mapping

If you have multiple Linear projects, configure which local directory each maps to. Create/edit ~/.panopticon/project-mappings.json:

[
  {
    "linearProjectId": "abc123",
    "linearProjectName": "Mind Your Now",
    "linearPrefix": "MIN",
    "localPath": "/home/user/projects/myn"
  },
  {
    "linearProjectId": "def456",
    "linearProjectName": "Househunt",
    "linearPrefix": "HH",
    "localPath": "/home/user/projects/househunt"
  }
]

The dashboard uses this mapping to determine where to create workspaces when you click “Create Workspace” or “Start Agent” for an issue.

Custom Workspace Commands (Legacy)

Note: For most polyrepo projects, use the built-in workspace configuration (see Polyrepo Configuration) instead of custom scripts. Custom commands are only needed for highly specialized setups.

For projects that need logic beyond what the configuration supports, you can specify custom workspace scripts:

projects:
  myn:
    name: "Mind Your Now"
    path: /home/user/projects/myn
    issue_prefix: MIN
    # Custom scripts handle complex workspace setup
    workspace_command: /home/user/projects/myn/infra/new-feature
    workspace_remove_command: /home/user/projects/myn/infra/remove-feature

When workspace_command is specified, Panopticon calls your script instead of creating a standard git worktree. The script receives the normalized issue ID (e.g., min-123) as an argument. When workspace_remove_command is specified, Panopticon calls your script when deleting workspaces (e.g., aborting planning with “delete workspace” enabled). This is important for complex setups that need to:

Stop Docker containers and remove volumes
Clean up root-owned files created by containers
Remove git worktrees from multiple repositories
Release port assignments
Remove DNS entries

What your custom script should handle:

Creating git worktrees for multiple repositories (polyrepo structure)
Setting up Docker Compose files and dev containers
Configuring environment variables and .env files
Setting up DNS entries for workspace-specific URLs (e.g., Traefik routing)
Creating a ./dev script for container management
Copying agent configuration templates (CLAUDE.md, .mcp.json, etc.)

Example script flow:

#!/bin/bash
# new-feature script for a polyrepo project
ISSUE_ID=$1  # e.g., "min-123"

# Create worktrees for frontend and api repos
git -C /path/to/frontend worktree add ../workspaces/feature-$ISSUE_ID/fe feature/$ISSUE_ID
git -C /path/to/api worktree add ../workspaces/feature-$ISSUE_ID/api feature/$ISSUE_ID

# Generate docker-compose from templates
sed "s/{{FEATURE_FOLDER}}/feature-$ISSUE_ID/g" template.yml > workspace/docker-compose.yml

# Set up DNS and Traefik routing
# ... additional setup

The standard pan workspace create command will automatically detect and use your custom script.

Project Initialization

When registering a new project with Panopticon (pan project add), the system will:

Check for existing PRD - Look for docs/PRD.md, PRD.md, README.md, or similar
If found: Use it to create/update the canonical PRD format, prompting for any missing crucial information
If not found: Generate one by:
- Analyzing the codebase structure
- Identifying key technologies and patterns
- Asking discovery questions about the product

This ensures every Panopticon-managed project has a well-defined canonical PRD that agents can reference.

Progressive Workspaces

For large projects with 10+ repositories, progressive workspaces provide on-demand repo checkout. Enable in workspace config:

projects:
  enterprise:
    name: "Enterprise Integration"
    path: /home/user/projects/enterprise
    tracker: rally
    issue_prefixes: [F, US, DE, TA]
    workspace:
      type: polyrepo
      progressive: true
      always_include: [meta]
      groups_file: team-meta/panopticon/repo-groups.yaml
      pr_target: qa
      repos:
        - name: meta
          path: team-meta
          link_type: symlink
          readonly: true

Key progressive fields:

Field	Description
`progressive`	When `true`, only `always_include` repos created on workspace init
`always_include`	Repo names to always include (typically meta/docs repos)
`groups_file`	Path to `repo-groups.yaml` for named repo groups
`pr_target`	Default PR target branch (e.g., `'qa'`)

See Progressive Polyrepo for full documentation.

Polyrepo Configuration - Multi-repository workspace setup
Progressive Polyrepo - Large-scale polyrepo with on-demand checkout
Setup Wizard - Interactive project configuration
Meta Repos - Team conventions and onboarding kits
Issue Tracker Integration - Connecting to Linear, GitHub, Rally, etc.
Workspaces - Workspace management

​Project Registry

​Overview

​Registering Projects

​Project Configuration

​Configuration Fields

​Label-Based Routing

​Linear Project Mapping

​Custom Workspace Commands (Legacy)

​Project Initialization

​Progressive Workspaces

​Related Guides

Project Registry

Overview

Registering Projects

Project Configuration

Configuration Fields

Label-Based Routing

Linear Project Mapping

Custom Workspace Commands (Legacy)

Project Initialization

Progressive Workspaces

Related Guides