Projects
A Project holds one piece of research: the desktop you work on, the files it uses, every run made on them, and the people you share it with. Each Project has a Project Home that shows where every result came from.
Switching and creating
Section titled “Switching and creating”The menu bar shows the name of the Project you are in. Select it (or press ⌘⇧S) to open Projects: a card for each one, with a search box.
- New Project creates one and opens it. Relay names it; double-click the name on its card to change it.
- My Projects lists your own. Each team you belong to has its own list beside it.
- The menu on a card has Rename, Duplicate, Share and Delete. Deleting a Project removes its comments and annotations. Files in your Drive are not affected.
Guided samples
Section titled “Guided samples”Samples, next to your lists, holds guided examples: real data, the analysis already run, and notes on the desktop that walk you through it. One of them puts 2,643 blood cells beside an R notebook that analyses the same cells with Seurat. A new account opens straight into that one on its first visit, with Ray’s tour running over it.
Project Home
Section titled “Project Home”Two buttons in the middle of the menu bar switch between Workspace (your desktop and its windows) and Project Home. Project Home shows the Project’s name and research question, and has four tabs: Map, Sheets, Tasks and Integrations.
Edit, next to the name, changes the name, the research question, notes, and Instructions for Ray: the conventions Ray follows in every conversation in this Project. See Instructions for Ray.
Map opens first. A switch at the top right shows it as a Graph or a Timeline (press T to flip), and Relay remembers which you used last.
The graph draws the Project’s files, runs, sheets and cited papers as one picture, joined by what read and wrote what. Select anything to see where it came from:
- A file shows what made it, Made from and Used by, with Show in Data.
- A run shows its status, who ran it, its settings, and the files it Read and Wrote. Ask Ray hands those files to Ray.
- A sheet has Open sheet; a paper has Open in Commons.
The bar at the bottom is the Project’s history. Press play (or P) to watch the Project grow from the start, or drag along the bar to see it as it was on an earlier day. Graph settings (S) searches the graph and hides or shows Runs, Papers, Sheets, Replaced versions and Orphans. = and - zoom, and 0 fits everything on screen.
Timeline
Section titled “Timeline”The timeline lists runs newest first, grouped by day: what ran, who ran it, and the files it produced. The run on the path to your current results is marked Current. Current path only hides the runs that were replaced; All runs brings them back.
Beside the list, Current results names the files that are current now, and selecting a run shows what it read and wrote. Select any file to show it in Data. Above the list, a short summary (Inputs, Done so far, Now) says where the Project stands; people who can edit the Project can rewrite it.
The Project’s folder
Section titled “The Project’s folder”A pipeline you run inside a Project saves to
Projects/<project>/Runs/<date> <pipeline> in your Drive, with one subfolder
per step when the pipeline has more than one. Renaming the Project later keeps
the same folder, and if you rename the folder in Data, Relay follows it.
A Project that belongs to a team has one folder for the whole team instead,
under Projects/<project> in the Team Drive, so every member’s runs land
side by side and everyone can open them. Notebooks are the exception: a
notebook stays in the Drive of the person who made it.
On the timeline, select the path under Folder to open that folder in Data. There, Relay adds two folders to what is on disk: Results gathers the current results, and Inputs links to the original files the Project used. A run folder that has been replaced is noted as superseded. Switch from All to Results only to see the current results and nothing else.
Files shown in Results and Inputs stay where they really are, so they cannot be renamed, moved or deleted from there.
Sheets and Integrations
Section titled “Sheets and Integrations”Sheets holds the Project’s tables, with a Sources view listing the data the Project draws on. Integrations links the Project to records kept elsewhere, such as Benchling.
Tasks is the Project’s to-do list. New task (or N) asks what needs doing, who the Assignee is, and what it Uses: files, folders or notebooks from the Project. People who can edit the Project can add tasks.
- A person in the Project: pick them, set a Due date if you want one, and press Assign.
- Someone else: type their email and choose Invite and assign. Relay sends them an invite to the Project.
- Ray: choose when it starts (Now, At a time, Repeat or When files arrive) and a Budget of $1, $5, $20 or a custom cap. The cap covers Ray’s own model use and the notebook compute it starts. At the cap Ray stops and asks you. Tick Show me the plan before it starts to approve the plan first.
Repeat runs every day, on weekdays or weekly at a time you set, and the cap applies to each run. When files arrive watches a folder in your own Drive.
Tasks are grouped into Needs you, Running, Scheduled, Open and Done, and All, Mine, Ray and Scheduled filter the list.