# Your first Niamoto project

Follow the desktop app from the welcome screen to a published portal.

## Prerequisites

- Niamoto desktop installed ([installation.md](installation.md)).
- Your data (a CSV of occurrences, and optionally shapefiles), or a
  sample from
  [niamoto-example-data](https://github.com/niamoto/niamoto-example-data).

## 1. Create a project

Launch the app. The welcome screen shows recent projects and a button to create
a new one:

![Welcome screen](../assets/screenshots/desktop/02.welcome-project-picker.png)

Click *Create project*, pick a name and a folder. Niamoto creates the standard
tree:

```
my-project/
├── config/
│   ├── config.yml
│   ├── import.yml
│   ├── transform.yml
│   └── export.yml
├── imports/
├── exports/
├── plugins/
├── templates/
├── db/
└── logs/
```

## 2. Import your data

Drop CSVs, shapefiles, or GeoPackages onto the import screen. Niamoto's
classifier suggests a role for each column: taxonomy, occurrences, plots,
shapes, or raster.

![Import with auto-detection](../assets/screenshots/desktop/11.import-config-detected.png)

Review the suggestions, fix the misses, then click *Import*. The progress panel
shows imported rows and rejected rows.

See [../05-ml-detection/README.md](../05-ml-detection/README.md) for
the details of the auto-detection pipeline.

## 3. Explore the collections

The dashboard lists the collections Niamoto built: taxa, plots, shapes. Open a
collection to inspect raw rows and computed widgets:

![Collections overview](../assets/screenshots/desktop/15.collections-overview.png)

Each collection exposes the widgets available for that data. Niamoto renders the
previews against your local project.

## 4. Arrange the portal

Open the site builder. Drag widgets into pages, set titles and descriptions,
then wire the navigation:

![Site builder home page](../assets/screenshots/desktop/21.site-builder-home-page.png)

## 5. Publish

When the preview looks right, click *Publish*. Pick a deployment target:
Cloudflare Workers, GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Render, or SSH / rsync.
Niamoto renders the static site, uploads it, and returns the result:

![Deploy success](../assets/screenshots/desktop/29.deploy-success.png)

## What's next

- [concepts.md](concepts.md) for the import, transform, and export model behind
  the UI.
- [../02-user-guide/README.md](../02-user-guide/README.md) for the detailed
  desktop tour.
- [../02-user-guide/import.md](../02-user-guide/import.md) for the full import
  workflow.
- [../02-user-guide/collections.md](../02-user-guide/collections.md) for
  collection outputs and widgets.
- [../02-user-guide/site.md](../02-user-guide/site.md) for pages, navigation,
  and appearance.
- [../02-user-guide/publish.md](../02-user-guide/publish.md) for build preview
  and deployment.
- [../03-cli-automation/README.md](../03-cli-automation/README.md) for the same
  pipeline from a shell.
- [../04-plugin-development/README.md](../04-plugin-development/README.md) for
  custom transformers, widgets, loaders, exporters, and deployers.