Feature Request: Nested Sub-Projects with Inherited Context
I would like to suggest adding Sub-Projects inside ChatGPT Projects, with the ability for Sub-Projects to inherit context, files, instructions, and knowledge from their parent Project.
Current Problem
Projects are extremely useful for long-running areas of work because they allow related conversations, files, instructions, and context to stay together.
However, as a Project grows, organization becomes difficult.
For example, a user might have a Project called:
Home / DIY
Over time, that Project may contain conversations about:
- Plumbing
- Electrical work
- Bathroom renovation
- Roofing
- Tools
- Appliance repair
- Carpentry
Creating completely separate Projects helps organization, but it can also fragment context and knowledge that logically belong together.
Keeping everything in one Project preserves context, but eventually creates a very large flat collection of conversations.
Proposed Solution
Allow Projects to contain Sub-Projects:
Project → Sub-Project → Conversation
For example:
Home / DIY
├── Plumbing
├── Electrical
├── Bathroom Renovation
├── Roofing
├── Tools
└── Appliances
Or:
Spiritual
├── Personal Study
├── Family Worship
├── Congregation
├── Meeting Preparation
└── Talks
Parent Context Inheritance
The most important feature would be context inheritance.
A Sub-Project should be able to inherit the parent Project’s:
- Files and sources
- Project instructions
- Relevant context
- Knowledge
- Preferences
Then the Sub-Project could optionally contain its own:
- Additional instructions
- Additional files
- Conversations
- Specialized context
Conceptually:
Parent Project Context
↓
Inherited by Sub-Project
Sub-Project-Specific Context
↓
Conversation
There could be a simple setting:
Use parent Project context: ON / OFF
This would allow users to decide whether a Sub-Project acts as an organizational subdivision of the parent or as a more isolated workspace.
Why This Would Be Valuable
For users who use ChatGPT occasionally, the existing Project structure may be sufficient.
But for users who use ChatGPT as a persistent workspace across many areas of their personal and professional lives, Projects can eventually become extremely large.
The current choice is often:
Better organization but fragmented context
or
Shared context but poor organization
Nested Sub-Projects with inherited context would eliminate that tradeoff.
Suggested Hierarchy
ChatGPT
└── Project
├── Parent instructions
├── Parent files / sources
│
├── Sub-Project A
│ ├── Additional instructions
│ ├── Additional files
│ ├── Conversation
│ └── Conversation
│
├── Sub-Project B
│ ├── Conversation
│ └── Conversation
│
└── Ungrouped Conversations
Potential features could include:
- Create, rename, move, and delete Sub-Projects
- Drag conversations between Sub-Projects
- Collapse and expand Sub-Projects
- Search the entire parent Project
- Search only within a Sub-Project
- Inherit parent sources and instructions
- Override or extend parent instructions
- Turn parent-context inheritance on or off
- Allow conversations to be moved without losing their history
- Keep an Ungrouped section for conversations not assigned to a Sub-Project
Relationship to Existing “Groups” Proposals
I have seen proposals for conversation groups or folders inside Projects. I think those would already be useful.
However, Sub-Projects could go one step further.
A Group could simply organize conversations visually.
A Sub-Project could organize conversations while also having its own files, instructions, and context — while still optionally inheriting those resources from its parent.
This would make ChatGPT Projects much more scalable for long-term and power users.
The goal is simple:
Keep related knowledge together without forcing every related conversation into one enormous flat Project.