> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://anaconda.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Project templates

Data Science & AI Workbench provides several minimal Python environments, along with a Python Essentials template environment, to help you get started developing your projects.

These project templates are pre-solved conda environments with a curated set of pre-installed packages. Creating a new project from one of these templates clones the environment for exclusive use by that project. You can then use `anaconda-project` commands to [customize the project environment as needed](./project-config). These configuration changes will persist for the project environment, but will not affect the environment template.

To use one of the available templates, select it from the **Environment** dropdown when you create a new project:

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/anaconda-29683c67/GAawxvWy-HUVSCqf/images/project_templates_2.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=GAawxvWy-HUVSCqf&q=85&s=2216a49d30cd31d1caf9d4fb6030521e" alt="" width="876" height="610" data-path="images/project_templates_2.png" />
</Frame>

If the provided template environments do not suit your needs, you can create custom environments and include them as templates for your users. For more information, see [Configuring persistent environments and sample projects](/docs/data-science/latest/admin/custom_env_proj).