Browse Scient Docs Project settings

Project settings

Project settings control project-specific behavior such as reusable agent instructions, the icon shown in Scient, and commands that open a local preview. They do not change the settings of every other project.

Manage project skills

Open Settings → Skills → Project skills, then select the project. Valid skills from the selected checkout’s .scient/skills directory appear there. Choose Agent access to let the agent select a matching skill, $name only to require explicit selection in the composer, or Deactivated to hide it from future turns. These choices apply to the same Scient project across its worktrees; each worktree still uses the skill files in its own checkout.

Project skills are project-owned instructions, not installed add-ons. Scient validates them before use but does not rewrite them or grant them extra tools or permissions.

Customize a project icon

Scient selects a project icon automatically from common favicon and app-icon paths or icon links in project HTML files.

To choose a different icon:

  1. Open the project selector at the top of the sidebar.
  2. Select the settings control beside the project.
  3. Under Project → Project icon, select Choose file.
  4. Search for an image file and select it.

Scient supports SVG, PNG, ICO, JPEG, GIF, AVIF, and WebP files. The selected path applies to each checkout in the project group and appears on your connected clients.

To use automatic detection again, use the reset control beside Project icon.

Open a browser preview from a project action

Project actions that start a website or application can open it in Scient’s Browser automatically:

  1. Open a thread or new-thread draft in the project.
  2. Use the project-action controls in the top-right thread header. Select Add action, or use the settings control beside an existing action to edit it.
  3. Enter the development command and its Preview URL.
  4. Turn on Open Browser automatically when you run this action.

When the action starts, Scient opens the Browser. Localhost preview URLs wait for the configured server to become ready instead of showing an immediate connection error. Running the action again focuses an already healthy matching browser tab. If you leave or navigate the Browser while Scient is waiting, it does not take focus back later.

Automatic preview is available in the Scient desktop app. Other clients still run the action but do not open the embedded Browser. Actions that run automatically during worktree creation start on the server and do not currently trigger this client-side Browser opening.