A project is the unit Strut is built around. It is not a folder of loose files but a working set: the documents you are writing, the material behind them, the record of what changed, and the people allowed to see it. This guide covers how to shape a project so it survives months of intermittent work.
- Scope one project per finished artefact, and use the three free slots for work that is genuinely live.
- Start documents from a template so the outline has structure on day one.
- Write the central thread and the next writing move down; they are what makes a cold return cheap.
- Name a version before every restructure, and use Compare selected to see what a week of edits did.
- Use a review snapshot for feedback and full membership only for people who should change the text.
What a project actually holds
One project contains any number of documents, an unlimited pile of rough notes, imported source files, a version history for each document, comments, a list of collaborators, and a timeline recording all of it. The free plan allows three projects at a time; Pro removes that ceiling.
Scope a project around a finished artefact rather than a topic. A report, a chapter, a long feature, a dissertation section: each is a project. A subject you are generally interested in is not, because it never reaches a state where you can call it done.
The project title appears at the top of the sidebar and on your workspace dashboard, where projects are ordered by the date they were last touched. Choosing a title you will still recognise months later costs nothing at the outset and saves you a search on every return visit.
Documents, and the templates that start them
The sidebar has a small form for creating documents: a title, a plus button, and a template selector. Blank page opens with a single prompting line. Essay, Chapter, Article pitch, and Research memo open with headings already in place, ready to be replaced.
Those templates are ordinary text, not locked structures. The essay layout asks for the claim, the reason it matters now, the strongest evidence, the honest counterargument, and what follows. Delete what you do not need; the headings exist to give the outline something to hold on the first day.
Split the work across documents rather than scrolling through one enormous file. Keep the pitch, the research memo, and the manuscript separate, and switch between them in the document list whenever you need to. They go on sharing the project's notes, sources, and collaborators regardless of how many there are.
A good project answers one question on arrival: what is the next writing move?
The outline builds itself from your headings
Every H1, H2, and H3 in the current document appears in the Outline section of the sidebar within moments of being typed. Click any entry and the editor scrolls to that heading and flashes it briefly so you do not lose your place.
This is what makes heading discipline pay off. A draft with real section headings is navigable at a glance, while a draft of undifferentiated paragraphs offers nothing but a scroll bar. The toolbar's H2 and H3 buttons apply a heading to whichever block your cursor is currently sitting in.
The outline reflects only the document you are looking at. If a piece has grown so long that its outline no longer fits on screen, that is usually a signal to split it into two documents in the same project.
Keep the structure panel honest
The Structure panel holds three things. Central thread is the claim the project is prepared to defend. Next writing move is the smallest useful action you could take when you next sit down. Both are editable in place and save themselves as you type.
The third element is state: a count of notes, documents, and sources, plus a status you set to Notes, Outlining, Drafting, Revising, Review, or Complete. Status is for you, not for an algorithm. It answers the question of what kind of work this session should be.
Update Next writing move before you close the tab, not when you next open it. Deciding while the material is still fresh in your mind takes a few seconds, whereas reconstructing the same decision a week later costs half an hour of rereading. That asymmetry is the whole argument for the field.
Version history is the project's memory
Strut writes autosave checkpoints as a document changes over the course of a working session, and you can add named versions yourself at any moment: type a label into the field in Version history, or press Cmd/Ctrl+S anywhere in the editor to store a manual save point immediately.
Every version can be compared with the current draft, showing added, removed, and unchanged blocks with counts. Tick any two versions and use Compare selected to diff them against each other instead, which is how you see what an entire week of revision did.
Restore puts an earlier version back into the editor, and it first saves your current text as a version labelled before restore. Nothing is thrown away by restoring, which makes it safe to reach back several drafts and look at an abandoned structure again.
Bring in an editor or a reviewer
The Collaboration panel adds people by email address, and they need a Strut account first. An editor can change the manuscript, the notes, and the sources. A reviewer can read and comment. The owner is the only person who can add members, share, or delete the project.
Comments sit underneath the document and can carry an optional passage reference, so a remark about the ninth paragraph is never ambiguous about which paragraph it means. Anyone with editing rights can resolve a comment or reopen it later, and both of those actions are recorded in the timeline.
When you want reactions without granting access, publish a review snapshot instead. It freezes the current text at a private link, takes an optional password and an expiry of 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days, and can be revoked immediately. Your later edits stay unpublished until you refresh it.
Read the history, then the dashboard
The History panel is the project's full timeline: documents created and renamed, versions saved and restored, notes added and deleted, sources imported and removed, collaborators added, comments resolved, exports taken, and every AI operation run. Each line carries a name and a timestamp.
It is the fastest route back into a project you have not opened in several weeks. Reading the last ten lines tells you what state the work was in and what you were doing when you stopped, without reopening every document in the list and guessing from the text.
The workspace dashboard sits one level above all of this. It lists the projects you own alongside the ones shared with you, shows a fourteen-day activity graph built from the words you added each day, and tracks both your current writing streak and the past week's total.
Reopening a project after three weeks away
You open the manuscript, scroll for a while, reread two sections you had already finished, and spend forty minutes recovering the argument before writing anything new.
You open the project, read Central thread and Next writing move in the Structure panel, glance at the last few lines of History to see that a source was imported and a version restored, and start writing the section that was already chosen for you.
The difference is not memory or discipline. It is two sentences that were written down at the end of the previous session, while the decision was still obvious.
Common mistakes
| The mistake | Why it costs you, and what to do instead |
|---|---|
| Making the project a topic instead of an outcome | A project named after a subject never finishes, so its status never changes and its next move is never obvious. Name it after the thing that will exist when you are done, and open a second project for the next piece. |
| Letting one document grow past its outline | When the sidebar outline no longer fits on screen, navigation collapses and every edit means scrolling. Split the work into several documents in the same project; they keep sharing notes, sources, and collaborators. |
| Relying only on autosave checkpoints | Checkpoints exist, but they carry no meaning you chose. A version named after the change you are about to make is the one you will actually find in the list when you need to go back. |
| Adding an editor when you wanted a reader | Editors can change your manuscript, which is rarely what a friendly first reader needs. Reviewer access, or a frozen review snapshot with an expiry, gives you the feedback without the risk. |
Your checklist
- Name the project after the artefact you intend to finish.
- Create the documents you need from templates, rather than one file that holds everything.
- Fill in the central thread and set the project status honestly.
- Use real headings so the sidebar outline stays a usable map.
- Save a named version before restructuring, and compare versions after long revision passes.
- Close each session by rewriting the next writing move for your future self.
Key terms
- Central thread
- The field in the Structure panel holding the claim the project is prepared to defend. It is the first thing to read when returning to work after a break.
- Autosave checkpoint
- A version Strut records automatically as a document changes over time, sitting in Version history beside the versions you name yourself.
- Project history
- The timeline panel listing every recorded action in a project, from documents and versions to sources, comments, collaborators, exports, and AI operations.
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Frequently asked questions
How many documents can one project contain?
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As many as the work needs. Only the number of projects is limited on the free plan, and that limit is three. Documents, rough notes, imported source files, comments, and saved versions inside a project are uncapped on both the free plan and Pro.
What do the project statuses do?
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Nothing automatic at all. Notes, Outlining, Drafting, Revising, Review, and Complete exist for you and your collaborators to read, so that anyone opening the project can tell what kind of work it currently needs before reading a single word of the draft itself.
Can I move a document between projects?
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Documents belong to the project they were created in. To move work, copy the text into a new document in the other project. Sources and notes stay with their original project, so import or recapture what the new home needs.
Who can delete a project?
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Only its owner, and the deletion is permanent rather than reversible. Everything inside goes at the same moment: documents, saved versions, rough notes, imported sources, comments, and the stored files behind them. Take your exports first, because there is no archive left to recover anything from.
What does the activity graph on the dashboard measure?
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Words added per day across your whole workspace over the last fourteen days, shown alongside your current consecutive-day streak and the total for the past week. It counts additions rather than effort, so a heavy day of cutting and rewriting can still show a small bar.
Does a shared project count against my three free projects?
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No, the limit applies only to the projects you own yourself. Projects shared with you as an editor or a reviewer are listed separately on the dashboard and do not consume one of your three slots, although you still need your own Strut account to open them.