Best PracticesProject Folder Workflow

Project Folder Workflow

How PRISMATIK stores your shows on disk, why every path inside show.json is relative, and how to use that to sync your shows across machines via Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive / OneDrive for Business / NFS / whatever filesystem-sync tool you trust.

The mental model

Every show is a portable folder. Move it between machines — different OS, different username, different drive letter — and it opens correctly. PRISMATIK never embeds absolute paths in show data.

{Projects Root}/
  .prismatik-index.json       ← lightweight manifest of all your projects
  Coachella 2026/
    show.json                 ← the live working state
    show-saves/
      v001_2026-03-01.json    ← manual save snapshots
      v002_2026-03-05.json
      v003_2026-03-11.json
      autosave_14-32-00.json  ← rolling autosaves (max 3)
    media/                    ← all show media, copied on import
    imports/                  ← verbatim copies of files brought in
    pixel-maps/               ← PNG exports from Pixel Map Generator
    timecode/                 ← LTC WAV files and timecode preset exports
    reports/                  ← PDFs and CSV reports
    exports/                  ← tool exports (Resolume XML, library CSV, etc.)
    images/                   ← label exports, TagIt outputs, venue images
    media-bible/              ← shareable creative package for content teams

  Glastonbury 2026/
    show.json
    ...

The Projects Root is a machine-local setting ({userData}/prismatik-config.json). It’s the only piece of state that knows the absolute path. Everything inside the project folder is relative.

Setting your Projects Root

On a fresh install, PRISMATIK defaults to ~/PRISMATIK Projects. Change it any time:

  1. Open Show Library
  2. Storage Location section at the top
  3. Change Location → native folder picker → pick the new root

Changing the root does not move files. PRISMATIK just points at a different directory. Old root stays untouched. If you want to move existing projects, copy them over yourself or use the migration wizard.

Syncing across machines via Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive

The killer feature. Put your Projects Root inside a synced cloud folder, point each machine’s PRISMATIK Projects Root at that same folder, and shows appear on every machine automatically.

Why this works

  • Every path inside show.json is relative to the Projects Root
  • media/, imports/, etc. are inside the project folder, so they sync too
  • No PRISMATIK cloud account needed — your cloud sync tool does all the work

Setting it up

  1. Pick where you want shows synced: Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive / Box / iCloud Drive / NFS / synology / etc.
  2. Create a folder inside that synced location: e.g. ~/Dropbox/PRISMATIK Projects
  3. On each machine:
    • Open Show Library
    • Change Location → pick ~/Dropbox/PRISMATIK Projects
    • PRISMATIK rescans, picks up any projects already there
  4. Save a show on machine A → wait for Dropbox to sync → open it on machine B

What if conflict?

PRISMATIK doesn’t implement its own conflict resolution — your cloud tool does. Dropbox tags conflicted files with (Conflicted Copy); resolve manually.

To minimize conflicts:

  • Save before switching machines
  • Wait for sync to finish before opening on the other machine
  • Use the version history to recover if a conflict overwrites something

Snapshot discipline

Two kinds of saves coexist:

Save typeTriggerNamingRetention
ManualYou hit Save (or Save As)v{NNN}_{YYYY-MM-DD}.json (zero-padded, sequential)Last 50
AutosaveEvery 5 minutes while a show is loadedautosave_{HH-MM-SS}.jsonLast 3 (rolling)

Rules of thumb:

  • Hit Save explicitly at meaningful milestones — before you start a big change, after a rehearsal, at end-of-day. Autosaves are insurance, not your version control.
  • Restore from a snapshot via Show Library → Version History. Restoring takes a snapshot of the current state first, so it’s itself undoable.
  • Manual snapshots compound forever — last 50 are kept, oldest auto-pruned. You almost never run out of headroom.

Common pitfalls

“I changed Projects Root and my shows disappeared.” PRISMATIK didn’t delete anything — it just points at the new root. Either copy the files over from the old root, or change Projects Root back and you’ll see your shows again.

“My media files aren’t syncing with my show.” Media files are inside the project folder. Confirm Dropbox/Drive is actually syncing them (check Dropbox sync status). Sometimes large media folders are excluded by user settings.

“Two machines show different shows in the library.” Either the Projects Root differs between the two machines, or sync hasn’t completed. Check both.

“Cloud sync is too slow for my big media files.” This is true at scale. Two options:

  1. Put media/ outside the synced folder (host on local NAS / S3 / etc.) and reference media by absolute path — but you lose portability.
  2. Wait for v1.1.0+ which adds opt-in cloud media CDN.

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