Clay Studio brings together the work you organize in projects and the collaborators you keep as Mates. A project gives work a place; a Mate gives you a continuing working relationship. You can use both for the same task.
#Projects: organize the work
A project connects to a directory on the machine running Clay Studio. Its sessions let you investigate, edit, test, and review work in that directory. Logs, Issues, Notes, and repository instruction files keep useful information with the work.
Choose a project session when the request belongs to a particular repository: “Fix the export error in this application, run the relevant checks, and show me the diff.” The session gives you a clear place to follow the changes and return to the task later. Projects can support collaboration with other people through their access and session-sharing settings.
Start with Your first project, or read Projects and working directories when choosing where changes should happen.
#Mates: keep a collaborator
A Mate has a persistent identity, working instructions, Knowledge, and private conversations. Shape one around a role you want to keep: a research partner, a technical reviewer, or someone who helps you plan.
For example, create a reviewer Mate and explain how you want proposals evaluated. Give it your review checklist in Knowledge. You can return with a different proposal next week without defining the role again.
Mates can also help with project work. Within the available tools and your permissions, they can find project sessions, read conversation history you can access, and propose a reviewed assignment or follow-up in a project. A Mate is not confined to discussing only material you paste into its chat.
Use Create and shape a Mate to set up that relationship. Conversations with Mates remain private to their owner, even when they concern a shared project.
#Clay: your lead Mate
Clay is the built-in lead Mate within Clay Studio. Clay is its name; Clay Studio is the product's name.
Click Clay's icon in the rail to open its conversation; click again to enter its full workspace.
Talk to Clay when you want help finding your way through ongoing work or coordinating across it. For example: “Find the export investigation I worked on recently and help me decide what to do next.” Clay can search workspace conversation history and activity, draw on Knowledge held by your other Mates, and use supported workspace controls.
Other Mates keep their own roles and expertise. They share useful capabilities with Clay, including project context and reviewed project assignments; Clay adds coordination and product controls described below.
#Clay and other Mates compared
Both can help you understand project work and propose an assignment. Review the proposed project and task before it starts. Clay also has controls for specific workspace actions; available tools still depend on your provider, connections, and access.
| Capability | Clay, the lead Mate | Other Mates |
|---|---|---|
| Persistent identity and private conversations | Yes; its built-in role is managed by Clay Studio | Yes; shape their roles through interviews and instructions |
| Use available tools, such as shared Browser and connected services | Yes, where supported and authorized | Yes, where supported and authorized |
| Find project conversations you can access | Yes | Yes, project by project |
| Ask a project agent to start or continue work | Proposes an assignment for your review | Can propose the same kind of assignment |
| Find recent work across projects | Can search workspace history and activity | Searches through project-specific tools |
| Work with Mate Knowledge | Can read across your Mates to coordinate their expertise | Maintains its own Knowledge |
| Use built-in workspace controls | Supported actions include session management, saved View arrangements, and selected project records | Does not receive Clay's product-control tool set |
| Use Me knowledge about you and report observations | Yes | Yes |
| Decide which reported observations to save in Me | Reviews and maintains saved knowledge | Reports observations for Clay to review |
Clay's workspace controls cover specific operations rather than every button in Clay Studio. Server Settings and User Settings remain controls you operate yourself.
#Move from advice to project work
Your reviewer Mate might identify a problem that needs a code change. Ask it to propose a bounded task in the relevant project, then review the assignment before it starts. Continue implementation in the resulting project session and bring the result back to the reviewer when useful. The Driver, the project agent responsible for the task, manages execution and any Split Workers.
Me holds owner-private knowledge about you across projects and Mates. Mates can consult relevant entries and report preferences or corrections; Clay reviews those observations and curates the saved knowledge. It is separate from a project's reference documents or a Mate's own Knowledge. See Knowledge, Memory, and Me.