Guide: Claude Projects

Claude Cowork · Feature primer

What a Project Is

A Project is a persistent workspace in Claude. Everything you put in it — your instructions, your files, your connected folders — is available to Claude every time you open it. You don’t re-explain your business. You don’t re-upload your files. You just start the conversation where the last one left off.

Most recipes in this library are built around a Project. This guide covers how to set one up correctly, including the steps most people skip.

Step 1 — Create the Project

1. In Claude, click Projects in the left sidebar, then New Project.
2. Give it a name that reflects what it’s for — “Payroll Planning,” “Client Onboarding,” “Sales Pipeline.” Be specific. You’ll have multiple projects eventually.
3. Optionally add a description. Useful if you come back to it months later and can’t remember what it was for.

Step 2 — Write Your Instructions

This is the most important step and the most commonly skipped. The Instructions field is Claude’s standing operating context for this project — it shapes every conversation you have here.

Think of it as what you’d tell a new employee on day one: who you are, what this project is for, and how you want things handled.

To find it: Open your project and look for “Project instructions” or the settings/edit area at the top of the project.

What to write in your Instructions:

1. Who you are and what your business does (two or three sentences).
2. What this project is specifically for.
3. How you want Claude to communicate — tone, format, level of detail.
4. Any standing rules Claude should always follow in this context.
5. Anything that would otherwise take a paragraph to explain every single conversation.

Example for a payroll project: “I’m the owner of a seven-person landscaping company. This project helps me manage cash flow and make sure I can cover payroll. Be direct about financial risks — don’t soften bad news. When I ask for a forecast, give me a specific number. When you draft messages to customers, keep the tone friendly but professional — not formal.”

What does NOT go in Instructions:

• Specific data (customer names, amounts, dates) — that goes in files
• Task-specific instructions — put those in your prompts
• Anything that changes regularly — update a file instead

Step 3 — Add Your Files and Connect Your Folders

There are two ways to get information into a project. Use both.

Uploaded files are documents you attach directly to the project. Claude can read them in any conversation. Use these for things that rarely change.

1. Open your project.
2. Look for Add content, Files, or a paperclip icon.
3. Upload PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets, or plain text files.

Good candidates for uploaded files:

• A company overview or profile
• A product or service catalog
• A policy document
• Any reference material Claude should always have access to

Connected folders let Claude read files you keep on your computer or in Google Drive. Use these for files you’ll update regularly — because you update the file in the folder and Claude automatically has the latest version.

1. In Claude Cowork, open your project settings.
2. Connect a local folder or your Google Drive.
3. Claude will be able to read (and in some cases write) files in that folder during conversations.

Good candidates for connected folders:

• Customer lists you update as accounts change
• Working files like cash-rules.md or payroll-schedule.md
• Any file you’ll revisit and edit over time

The practical difference: Uploaded files are snapshots. Connected folders are live. If you upload a customer list and then add three new customers, Claude still has the old list. If your customer list is in a connected folder and you update it, Claude has the new version next time you open the project.

Step 4 — Set Up Memory

Memory is a separate feature from files, and it’s the step most people miss entirely.

While files are things you create and manage, Memory is what Claude learns about you through your conversations — your preferences, patterns, and context that comes out naturally over time rather than being written into a file.

How to enable and view Memory:

1. Open your account settings in Claude.
2. Find Memory or Personalization settings.
3. Make sure memory is turned on for your projects.
4. You can view, edit, and delete individual memories Claude has stored.

What Memory is good for:

• Preferences Claude notices (“you always ask for three options, not one”)
• Patterns in how you work (“you prefer bullet points over paragraphs”)
• Context that comes up repeatedly in conversation (“you have a difficult client named X”)

What Memory is not:

• A replacement for files. Don’t rely on Claude’s memory for facts that matter — put those in a file where you control them.
• Permanent. Memory can be edited or cleared. Critical business data belongs in a file you own.

A good habit: At the end of a useful conversation, tell Claude explicitly what to remember:

“Remember that I prefer short chase lists — never more than five invoices — and that Greenfield Landscaping always pays late but always pays.”

Step 5 — Start Your First Conversation

1. Open the project. Claude now has your instructions, your files, and your memories loaded.
2. Start with a focused prompt. Don’t re-explain context that’s already in your files — Claude has it.
3. If Claude’s response seems generic or off-base, it’s usually one of two things: the Instructions aren’t specific enough, or the relevant file isn’t in the project yet.
4. Each conversation in a project is its own thread, but they all share the same instructions, files, and memory. Previous conversation history is not automatically carried forward — but everything in your files and memory is.

What Goes Where — Quick Reference

Common Mistakes

Leaving Instructions blank. Claude has no standing context and gives generic responses. Even two or three sentences is dramatically better than nothing.

Putting data in Instructions instead of files. Instructions are for behavior rules and standing context. If you’re listing customer names and invoice amounts, that’s a file.

Not updating connected files when things change. Claude reads what’s in your folder. If your customer list is six months old, Claude’s working from six months of outdated relationships.

Uploading huge documents. Very large files eat into Claude’s context window and can crowd out other information. Break large reference documents into smaller, focused files when possible.

Relying on Memory for facts that matter. Memory is useful for preferences and patterns. For anything with a dollar amount or a deadline attached, put it in a file you own and control.

Starting a new project for every conversation. Projects are meant to be reused. One project for payroll planning, used every cycle — not a new project every month.