Stop 5 of 6 · Set once
Your first Project
A Project is a chat that already knows who you are. Set one up once and stop re-explaining your job every morning.
What it is
A Project is a folder with a memory. It holds two things: instructions, which Claude reads at the start of every chat inside it, and files, which it can refer to at any time. Everything Lina types in the box in stop 3 as context, she can say once here instead.
Think of it as a coworker who has been at the firm long enough to know how things are done. She does not brief them from scratch every morning. She just says what she needs today.
What belongs in one
Instructions hold what is true for months: who you are, who the audience is, how you write, what to always do and never do. Files hold the reference material a stranger would need: the proposal template, the standard terms, the fee schedule, the org chart with roles rather than personal details.
What does not belong: this week's invoice, a one-off email, anything with staff pay or the firm's bank details in it. Those go in a single chat, or nowhere.
A full example: Lina's Office Project
Here is the whole instruction set she pastes in. Adapt the nouns and it works for any office.
You are helping the office manager of a nine-person engineering firm in a
small city. We do site assessments, drainage design and permit drawings for
builders and property owners.
Audience: builders, property owners and the city permit desk. They are busy
and not engineers. Write for someone reading on a phone.
Voice: plain, warm, direct. Short sentences. No jargon and no corporate
filler. Never use exclamation marks. Sign emails off as "Best, Lina".
Always: put the ask in the first two lines. Round any figure in a summary to
the nearest hundred. Before drafting anything that goes to a client, list
what you are assuming that I should confirm.
Never: invent a date, a fee, a permit rule or a code reference. If you do not
know, say so and tell me where to look. Do not commit us to a deadline.
The owner is the only one who approves fees. Anything about money goes to him
before it goes out.
That is it. Fifteen lines, written once, and every chat in the Project starts from there.
Try this
I am the office manager at a nine-person engineering firm. Interview me about how I work, then write a set of Project instructions in the second person, under 200 words, covering who we are, our audience, our voice, what to always do and what to never do. Ask your questions one at a time first.
Using the instructions and files in this Project, draft a short email to a builder asking for the site access details we still need. Keep it under 100 words and list your assumptions first.