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A project is any directory containing a rive.yaml. Only name is required:
rive.yaml

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File discovery

Everything else in the directory is bundled by extension. There is no manifest to maintain.
This is how sources are discovered, not a promise that everything in the directory ends up in the .riv. Assets embed when something references them, either a file= in the RML or a lookup by name from a script. A font or image nothing uses adds nothing to the output.Scripts and shaders are the exception: every .luau and .wgsl in the scan is compiled into the file whether or not anything references it. Use exclude to keep one out.
Markup files compile together, so an id declared in one file can be referenced from another. Ids may not repeat across files, and a problem is reported against the file it is in. Split by whatever reads well, such as artboards in one file and view models in another. Dot-files and dot-directories are skipped, and so are rive.yaml, whatever output.dir points at, and anything ending .riv, .rev or .log. Asset paths in RML are project-relative:
A conventional project on disk:

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Full shape

rive.yaml

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Keys

name — Required. Also the name other projects use to import this one. main — Which artboard is the file’s default. Without it, the first one declared wins. debugLevel, optimizationLevel, shaderOutputs — Publish settings the Editor keeps on the Backboard. A fragment declares no Backboard, so these live here instead, and the build synthesizes one from them. create --from-rev writes a .rev’s Backboard back into these keys. artboard — Default size and background for generated artboards, used only when there is no .rml. Sizes default to 800 x 800. background takes #RRGGBB or #AARRGGBB; the # is required, which is why the value must be quoted. A value the CLI cannot read is dropped without a warning, leaving the default #FF1D1D1D. artboards — The same settings as artboard, set per artboard. Key each entry by its layout script’s path with .luau dropped, so ui/panel.luau is ui/panel. exclude — Paths not to bundle at all. An entry matches a file or directory by exact path, matches everything under a directory, and matches files by glob with the same * and ? as excludeFromRev. output.dir is excluded for you. Use it to keep the scan tidy. excludeFromRev — Drops matching things from the exported .rev only. The .riv and the preview window always contain everything. Four categories: Patterns support * (any run of characters, including /) and ? (one character). Excluding a layout script also drops its generated artboard. libraries — Other project directories whose modules become importable under their project name:
Dependencies resolve through nested libraries, a library two projects both depend on is loaded once, and cycles are an error. Each library also exports its own .rev alongside the project’s. revFlavor — editable (the default) or library. Controls whether the exported .rev opens as a normal editor file or as a library others import. push — projectId and fileId, the binding rive push writes back after the first push. push.fileId is what --publish sends when it asks whether to watermark. Do not hand-edit this property. output.dir — Where the .riv is written. Defaults to build. logs.file — Append-only interleave of compiler problems, script print output and system messages. logs.problems — Rewritten on every build, opening with a # rive generation N | E errors, W warnings | OK|FAILED header, so it always describes exactly one build. This is the file to read when scripting around the CLI. Neither logs key has a default. Omit them and no log file is written. rive create writes both into the scaffolded rive.yaml, pointed at build/; a hand-written rive.yaml holding only name gets no logs. Keys the CLI does not know are ignored without a warning, and so is an artboards: entry naming a script that does not exist. A misspelled key will not fail the build.