What is a Project?

A Project is a way to group multiple Sites from the same Git Repository. By creating a Project on CloudCannon, you can designate a Main Branch, define branching rules that allow your team members to create their own Sites, and set up publishing workflows that control how content moves between branches.

You can access the Projects Browser using the Projects link in the App Sidebar.

Why use a Project?#

Projects are useful when you want multiple team members to work on content independently without affecting the live website. Common scenarios include:

• Create a Staging workflow — Maintain a Production branch and a Staging branch. Team members create their own branch Sites from the Staging Site, then merge it back into Staging for review before publishing changes go live to Production.
• Make content changes in parallel — Multiple team members can create branch Sites from your Main Branch, work on changes independently, and merge them back when ready.
• Control branch defaults — Determine the default publishing method, authentication settings, and permissions for all branched Sites in your Project.

Without a Project, you would need to manage branches and publishing manually through your Git Provider.

How branching works#

Branching is the process of copying information from an existing Site to a new Site, including content, code, and CloudCannon settings. When you create a branched Site in CloudCannon, an identical branch is created in your Git Repository even if you don't have access to the Git Provider.

By copying the CloudCannon settings, each branched Site has the same publishing method, authentication rules, permissions, and build settings as its parent, so team members can start editing content immediately.

Changes on each branch Site do not affect any other Site until explicitly published to its Publish Branch (the Publish Branch does not have to be the same as the parent branch). CloudCannon handles the Git operations and, by default, automatically deletes the branch Site after changes are published to keep your Project clean.

You can designate a Main Branch for your team members to copy (e.g., your Staging branch), or allow team members to branch from any Site in your Project.

The Main Branch

When you create a Project, you can designate one branch in your Git Repository as the Main Branch. This is most likely your Production or Staging branch (i.e., the most correct and up-to-date branch of your website), but it could be any branch you want your team members to iterate on.

The Main Branch determines which Site CloudCannon will copy to your branched Site when you click the Create a Site button on the Project Sites Browser.

Allow all branching

By default, team members can only create branch Sites from the Main Branch. This keeps your workflow simple and linear. However, if you need a more flexible workflow, you can enable the Allow all branching feature to allow team members to branch from any Site in your Project.

For a tour of the Project interface, including the Projects Browser, Project Sites Browser, Publishing tab, and Project Settings tab, please read our documentation on the Project Browser.