Planting Your First Tree — Transplanting and Seasons
Ask your AI to move a project you've already built into a tree, split its growth into seasons, and take root to start recording — with prompt examples.
Now that you’re connected, it’s time to plant the tree. This part covers asking your AI to move a project you’ve already built into a tree. If you’re starting a new project, the flow is the same, so just follow along.
Transplanting: bringing in a tree that has already grown
When you first create a ground, the top of the screen shows Transplanting in orange. It means you’re moving a tree that grew somewhere else onto new land.
While transplanting, you can freely change or delete anything. You don’t need to get it perfect on the first try, so start relaxed.
Open your AI tool in your project folder and ask:
Look through this project's code and transplant it into my Umtri ground coffee-app as a tree.
Before planting, show me how you'd split it into trunks and branches, and only plant once I say it's OK.The “show me first” line matters. Looking at the structure the AI proposes, you can ask for changes like “make the admin screens their own trunk” or “put payments on a separate branch, not inside orders.” Shaping it in conversation before planting gives a much cleaner tree.
Once the AI has planted it, open the ground in your browser. The tree will be there.
Ask for the files too
It helps a lot later if every leaf on the tree says which file it actually is. When you change a file, the record attaches to that leaf, and the AI immediately knows “to change this leaf, open this file.”
When you plant, write down the file path for each leaf too.Check that it moved over properly
After transplanting, have the AI check its own work.
Read the coffee-app tree and check whether any features in the code are missing from the tree.Tell me if any leaves are split too finely or attached to the wrong branch.Seasons: splitting growth into stages
An Umtri tree grows inside seasons. A season is a label for “which stage” of the project you’re in. It can be a version like 1.0 or 2.0, or a stage name like Pilot or Launch.
The coffee-ordering app in the demo has three seasons.
| Season | What happened |
|---|---|
| MVP | Browsing the menu, cart, placing orders |
| Launch | Order status, login, coupons, the admin screen |
| Growth | Sales chart, notifications (planned) |
Only one season is now; the rest are past. When you open a new season, the one before it becomes past and can no longer be changed. It’s a way of drawing a line: “this was one stage.”
Ask for seasons while transplanting
If your project has been going for a few months, splitting its past into stages while you transplant makes the time slider much nicer to watch later.
Plant features built through the end of April in a "Pilot" season,
and everything after that in a "1.0" season.
Use the git history to tell when each one was built.When the AI creates a season, it always asks you first. Opening a season is hard to undo, so it only happens after a person confirms. When the AI asks “Shall I create this season?”, check the name and answer.
To make one yourself, click + Add season on an empty ground, or + New Season in the season list.
Taking root: recording starts now
When the tree looks right, click the Root button next to the orange label at the top to take root.
Here’s what changes once it takes root:
- From now on, every change to the tree is recorded.
- Deleting a branch doesn’t erase it completely; it leaves a trace that it was there.
- Past seasons can no longer be changed.
Taking root can’t be undone. Tidy things up while transplanting before you click it. Only the ground’s owner can click it; the AI can’t.
If you’re starting a new project
With no code yet, there’s nothing to transplant. Create a first season, and once your first feature starts working, ask:
Plant what we've built so far in the coffee-app tree.
From now on, whenever we add a feature, we'll add it to the tree too.You can take root right away. A new project has no past to bring over.
Replaying with the time slider
Drag the time slider at the bottom all the way left and you start from bare ground. Each step to the right sprouts branches and leaves in the order they appeared. Pick a season in the sidebar to see only what grew during that season.
If your own tree is still small, try it on the demo first. You can watch it grow across three seasons.
The next part covers everyday life after planting: drawing a plan on the tree before building a feature, recording once it’s built, and checking how far a bug reaches when one shows up.