---
slug: teams-and-projects
title: "Teams and projects: the team owns the memory, the project is the way in"
description: "Who owns the memory (the team) and how you get into it (the project). The save target (Main) and the guard on switching it."
lang: en
---


# Teams and projects: the team owns the memory, the project is the way in

This doesn't land at first. "Why split it up. Isn't one memory enough?" But once
a little piles up, **memory you didn't split becomes unusable.** Two things are
all you need: **who owns the memory (the team)** and **how you get into it (the
project)**.

## Why split: what happens if you don't

Pour every memory into one bucket and:

- **Work** and your **personal fiction drafts** come back in the same search.
- You want to show a colleague a work memory, and your private notes open too.
- You ask about one project's decision and another project's tags along.

Memory is useful **inside a context**. Mix it and that context collapses. So
AiAkiv has teams own memory, and splits access through projects.

## Team: the owner of the memory

- **Memory belongs to a team.** You need a team to save or read at all.
- Signing up **creates a personal team automatically**: usable right away.
- You can make as many more teams as you like, and **invite other people** to
  turn one into shared memory.
- Sharing, isolation, and billing all draw their boundary at the team. **One
  team's memory does not leak outside that team.**

## Project: the way into that memory

- **A project is a way into the team's memory.** Not a separate warehouse, but a
  door into memory the team already has.
- **One team memory can have several projects.** Each way in is configured
  differently to control saving precisely:
  - **Sub-folder**: the compartment memories saved through this way in land in.
  - **Persona**: the role and voice the AI takes on this way in →
    [Saving](saving).
- The way in that saving currently points at is called the **Main project**.

## As a picture

```
Account (email sign-in)
 └─ Team = owner of the memory (personal team on signup · shared by invitation)
     └─ Team memory  ←──  several Projects (ways in)
                          Project = tunes saving via (sub-folder · persona)
                          The one saving goes through now = Main
```

If you're using it lightly on your own, a personal team plus the default project
is a fine start. When you later want to split things up, make more projects, or
make a new team to share with someone.

## The Main project: where saving goes right now

A memory landing **in the wrong way in** is the number-one accident for
newcomers. So the current target is always checkable.

- The **check target** tool tells you the current account, team, project (Main),
  sub-folder, and the switch link.
- Search and save responses also show this information every time, the save
  location is always visible.
- **One exception, folder binding:** an AI that uses folder-based MCP (Claude CLI,
  for instance) can pin a project to a folder (folder-project binding). Then you
  don't have to think about Main at all. Setup in [Folder
  binding](folder-binding).

## Only people switch it: the guard

**Only a person changes the save target. Neither an AI nor a tool can.** This is
the guard that stops prompt injection from quietly changing where your data gets
written.

- The check tool is **read-only**: it shows the location, it can't change it.
- To change it, **a person clicks** the console's switch link (`switch_url`).

## Situations that come up

- **"Saving goes somewhere unexpected."** → Check with the check-target tool
  first. If it isn't what you expected, switch in the console. (With folder
  binding you never hit this → [Folder binding](folder-binding).)
- **"A memory I expected isn't there."** → Before assuming data loss, check
  whether the **team and project match** between when you saved and when you're
  searching. Most of the time it isn't loss, it's a **target mismatch** →
  [Common problems](faq).

## Next

- What you may store (and security) → [What to store](what-to-store)
- Using it together inside a team → [Team sharing](sharing)