> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.unitlab.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.unitlab.ai/api-sdk-cli/clis/cli-projects-and-data-units.md).

# CLI: projects and Data Units

{% hint style="info" %}
**Outcome:** Create, update, inspect, delete, upload, import, attach, and inspect project Data Units and sources.
{% endhint %}

```bash
unitlab project list --json
unitlab project create "Road scenes" --json
unitlab project update PROJECT_ID --name "Road scenes v2"
unitlab project data-units PROJECT_ID --status annotate --json
unitlab project data-unit PROJECT_ID DATA_UNIT_ID --json
unitlab project sources PROJECT_ID --json
unitlab project upload PROJECT_ID ./data --fps 2.0 --json
unitlab project import-cloud PROJECT_ID CLOUD_ID incoming/ --json
unitlab project attach PROJECT_ID --dataset-id DATASET_ID --version 3 --json
```

Use `detach-source` only after its preview and downstream impact are understood. Project delete is a state-changing operation; resolve the exact ID first.

### Operating contract

| Concern           | Required behavior                                                           |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Execution surface | Pinned `unitlab==3.0.0` command in the intended Python 3.10+ environment.   |
| Machine contract  | Use `--json`; human-readable output is not an automation interface.         |
| Target resolution | Resolve stable IDs with a read command before a state-changing command.     |
| Success evidence  | Exit status, JSON result, returned IDs, and a read-after-write state check. |

### Failure and recovery boundary

| Condition                                       | Response                                                                                                     |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Authentication or authorization fails           | Stop, correct the service identity or access model, rotate exposed credentials, and rerun a read-only check. |
| Validation or entitlement rejects the operation | Correct the input or entitlement; do not retry an unchanged request.                                         |
| A request times out                             | Inspect remote state before repeating a mutation because the server may have accepted it.                    |
| Asynchronous processing exceeds its deadline    | Preserve the Batch Queue or release ID, continue bounded monitoring, and inspect item-level failures.        |
| Only part of a batch succeeds                   | Keep successful identifiers, isolate failed rows, and retry only the corrected subset.                       |

{% hint style="warning" %}
Pin and test the production SDK version. Use stable IDs, keep secrets out of logs and command history, and record the correlation ID, target IDs, counts, final state, and redacted error details for material state changes.
{% endhint %}