# Starting Node Red with a clean slate!

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/starting-node-red-with-a-clean-slate/17315>\
**Category:** Dashboard\
**Created:** [30 October 2019 10:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/starting-node-red-with-a-clean-slate/17315 "2019-10-30T10:19:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![johnd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@johnd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/johnd)\
**Post date:** [30 October 2019 10:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/starting-node-red-with-a-clean-slate/17315/1 "2019-10-30T10:19:00Z")

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One aspect of reacquainting myself with Node Red that I'm struggling with is that - unless I've missed it, which is entirely possible - there seems to be no obvious way of clearing out the NR workspace and starting a new project with no residue from previous flows, projects etc.

So when I start NR afresh, it shows the last flow I was working with. OK, hit the Plus button to start a new flow, double-click the old flow's tab and hit the delete button. A bit clunky, but it works, up to a point.

But when configuring a dashboard for the new flow, there seem to be a whole bunch of tabs and groups still showing up from previous projects, which is all pretty confusing.

I'm sure I must be missing something obvious, but how do I get rid of all the old references to the dashboard in the previous project please?

Oops, browsing the documentation I see that 'project' has a special meaning wrt NR. I was just meaning to use it in a generic sense, ie a specific activity or set of requirements

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**Author:** ![knolleary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/knolleary/32/3_2.png) [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)\
**Post date:** [30 October 2019 10:29 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/starting-node-red-with-a-clean-slate/17315/2 "2019-10-30T10:29:49Z")

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Hi @johnd

if you really want to start from a clean slate then you can delete your flow file before starting Node-RED. The exact path to the file its using is logged when NR starts up.

Within the editor, the tabs and groups are 'Configuration Nodes' - [https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/concepts#config-node](https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/concepts#config-node)

You can manage them with the Config Node sidebar - [https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/editor/sidebar/config](https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/editor/sidebar/config)

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**Author:** ![Andrei](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/andrei/32/10446_2.png) [@Andrei](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Andrei)\
**Post date:** [30 October 2019 12:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/starting-node-red-with-a-clean-slate/17315/3 "2019-10-30T12:21:42Z")

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> [@johnd](#):
>
> Oops, browsing the documentation I see that 'project' has a special meaning wrt NR. I was just meaning to use it in a generic sense, ie a specific activity or set of requirements

Using the project feature of Node-RED is a way to start new projects (in the generic sense) that are not related to any of your previous projects. It is worth to give it a try.

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**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [30 October 2019 16:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/starting-node-red-with-a-clean-slate/17315/4 "2019-10-30T16:32:39Z")

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Or you can start Node-RED with the command line parameter of a new flow file - so that will be totally clean. ` node-red my-new-flow.json`

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**Author:** ![Darshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Darshan](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Darshan)\
**Post date:** [9 March 2022 23:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/starting-node-red-with-a-clean-slate/17315/5 "2022-03-09T23:16:04Z")

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That's great, however I was wondering on how to get the flow inside a docker container, so we could start/stop it from the Docker desktop app.