figured it out. its because i didn't have the right permissions. even adding me as an admin didn't work they had to put me as a team leader and then the real admin had to assign my account as edit view rights to the API express section

so i created a new database connection in api express
and then the instructions told me to create new project under api express
I did that and gave it a name then I end up on the screen of the root folder with the grayed out options for new folder and new service

switching to my actual account I logged in with the wrong google account. but both new folder and new service are grayed out.