Restrict student projects

What this panel controls

Restrict Student Projects writes a student_project_functionality policy into each student project's course metadata. The CoCalc frontend reads that policy and hides or disables matching UI features inside student projects.

These options are useful for exams, guided labs, and courses where students should focus on a narrow set of tools. They are not a hard security boundary: students may still have other ways to communicate, copy data, or use tools outside CoCalc.

When the settings take effect

Choose Save changes after changing options. Saving also starts reconfiguration of student projects; wait for it to complete and check any reported errors. New student projects get the current policy when they are created. To apply the saved course configuration again, use Reconfigure all Projects.

File and upload restrictions

• Disable file actions hides or disables common file-management actions in Files, such as delete, download, copy, move, publish, and related context-menu actions. It also disables drag-and-drop file reordering where that would otherwise expose file actions.
• Disable file uploads disables the Upload button and drag-and-drop upload paths in the project file UI.

These settings are meant to reduce accidental or casual use of those actions. They do not rewrite assignments or make files cryptographically immutable.

Notebook and server restrictions

• Disable toggling whether cells are editable or deletable disables notebook UI that lets students change Jupyter cell editability/deletability. It also disables the raw JSON editor and Jupyter command-list dialog.
• Disable JupyterLab notebook server hides the JupyterLab launcher.
• Disable VS Code IDE Server hides the VS Code server launcher.
• Disable Pluto Julia notebook server hides the Pluto launcher.
• Disable RStudio hides the RStudio launcher.

The server-launcher options matter because external IDEs and notebook servers can have their own file browsers, download tools, terminals, or editing interfaces outside the main CoCalc course UI.

Terminal and collaborator restrictions

• Disable command line terminal disables opening terminal sessions from the main project UI and flyouts.
• Disable adding or removing collaborators disables collaborator-management controls. The collaborators panel can still show the current collaborators in read-only form. Reconfiguring the course removes collaborators who are neither the assigned student nor a course manager, while retaining project owners. If the student account has not yet been resolved from an invitation, extra collaborators are retained until the student identity is known.

The course still manages student-project collaborators during reconfiguration: students, instructors, and TAs are kept in sync based on the course roster and the collaborators on the instructor project.

AI restrictions

• Disable all AI integration hides CoCalc AI features in the student project.
• Disable some AI integration keeps limited help such as explain, hint, and chat replies, but disables stronger "complete the work for me" style actions such as solution-oriented Help Me Fix flows.

These AI settings are course UI policy. They do not stop a student from using an external AI tool in another browser tab.