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Your First Rill Project

When you create a new Rill project, you're setting up a complete data pipeline that transforms raw data into interactive dashboards. This guide explains what happens during project initialization and introduces you to the key files you'll work with.

What Happens When You Create a Rill Project?​

A Rill project consists of several data assets that work together to create a dashboard. The data pipeline begins with connecting to your data sources, transforms raw data through models, defines metrics and dimensions in metrics views, and results in interactive dashboards for data analysis.

When you create a new Rill project, the following files are automatically generated:

  • rill.yaml - Central configuration hub for your entire project
  • connectors/<connector>.yaml - Connector configuration files for the project's default OLAP engine (e.g., duckdb.yaml, clickhouse.yaml)
  • .gitignore - Git ignore rules for the project

Initial Project Files​

These are the foundational files that Rill creates for you. As you build your project, you'll add many more files including sources, models, metrics views, and dashboards.

rill.yaml​

The central configuration file that controls project-wide settings. You rarely need to modify rill.yaml when starting out - the defaults work great! This file enables you to set project-wide defaults, configure variables, define connector settings, create test users, and establish security policies.

connectors/<connector>.yaml​

Configuration for your default OLAP engine (DuckDB, ClickHouse, Druid, or Pinot). When starting a blank project, this always defaults to duckdb.yaml. This file defines how Rill connects to your analytical database.

.gitignore​

Specifies which files and directories should be ignored by Git version control. Rill automatically generates this file with appropriate rules to exclude sensitive files like .env, temporary files, and build artifacts from being committed to your repository.

Next Steps​

Now that you understand the basics, you can:

  1. Create your first model - Transform your raw data
  2. Build a metrics view - Define your metrics and dimensions
  3. Create a dashboard - Visualize your data
  4. Deploy to Rill Cloud - Deploy your project to Rill Cloud

When you need more control over your project configuration, see our project configuration guide for advanced settings and customization options.