What is root-build in intellij?

Question

Whenever I create an sbt project in intellij, I get something like this:

What is root-build , and why is it marked as "root source"?

Answer 1

When you create an sbt project in IntelliJ, the default root sbt called root added as a module. You can see this by right-clicking on the project and clicking on "Open module settings". This is what root-build refers to.

You can read the description of the content roots on the IDEA website.

Answer 2

I just guess (at least I'm honest), but I believe that the SBT configuration itself can be considered a "development project" and therefore is configured as a separate module called "project" for its assembly, that is, assembly of the assembly configuration. Note that it has its own "target" directory.