# What is a program?

Understand what a RandomCoffee program is, where to find ready-made templates, and what each program status means.

import Callout from '@components/Callout.astro';
import UseCasesLibrary from '@components/app-screens/screens/UseCasesLibrary.astro';
import ProgramRounds from '@components/app-screens/screens/ProgramRounds.astro';

A program is a project you create, as an admin, to connect members for a specific purpose: virtual coffees between remote teams, onboarding buddies, networking between departments, mentoring...

Each program has its own audience, its own matching settings, its own messages and its own sessions.

## Start from a template or from scratch

You can create a program in two ways:

- **From a template**: the "Use Cases Library" (in the "Programs" menu) offers ready-made programs. Each one comes with its settings and messages, and you can customize everything.
- **From scratch**: you configure everything yourself with "Create from scratch".

In the library, filter the templates with the "Labels" field (for example Networking, Remote work or Communities), or look for a specific one with the "Search" field.

<UseCasesLibrary highlight="filters" alt="The Use Cases Library, titled Templates, with the Create from scratch button, the Search and Labels fields circled, and program templates such as Virtual coffees, Women@Work and Team Connect" />

To create your program step by step, see [Create a program](/admin/programs/create-a-program/).

## Program statuses

A program has one of the following statuses.

| Status | Status filter | What it means |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Running | "Active" | The program is active: its sessions are sent on the scheduled dates. |
| Paused | "Inactive" | The program has been paused: nothing is sent until you reactivate it. Its page shows a "Paused" tag. |
| Draft | "Draft" | An old status that new programs no longer get. Some workspaces may still have draft programs. Their page shows a "Draft" tag. |

### Find your programs by status

The "All programs" page lists your programs. By default, it shows only the active ones: use the "Status" field to add "Inactive" or "Draft" programs to the list. You can also look for a program by name with "Search programs".

Paused and draft programs appear faded in the list.

### Running programs

A running program can have sessions planned or not. Its card in the list tells you which:

- "Next round on" followed by a date: a session is planned;
- "No upcoming session for now": nothing is planned yet. [Schedule sessions](/admin/programs/schedule-sessions/) so that the program sends its next invitations.

<ProgramRounds alt="The All programs page with three running programs: Virtual coffees shows Next round on and a date, Onboarding buddy program shows No upcoming session for now" />

### Paused programs

A paused program sends no emails and no Slack or Microsoft Teams messages. Its card shows the date of its last session ("Last round on") or of its last update ("Last updated on").

Most of the time, an admin paused the program. RandomCoffee can also pause a Slack program by itself when it can no longer reach the program's channel, for example when the channel was deleted.

You can [reactivate a paused program](/admin/programs/manage-a-program/#reactivate-a-program) at any time. See [Manage a program](/admin/programs/manage-a-program/) to pause, reactivate, duplicate or delete a program.

### Draft programs

Draft is an old status: new programs are created directly as running programs. If you still have a draft program, you can activate or delete it like a paused program.

<Callout type="note">
  A deleted program has no status in the list: it no longer appears anywhere in your workspace.
</Callout>