Stop 1 of 8 · Set once
The project Project
One Project per job, holding the scope, the agency template, the standards and the two rules that keep a licensed engineer out of trouble.
One Project per project
Leila has four jobs open: a state DOT corridor study, a city signal retiming, a county ITS design, and a traffic impact study a city will review. Each has its own agency, report template, standards edition and review cycle. A Project holds standing instructions, a set of files and every chat that shares them, and one per job works, because almost everything making an answer right on one job makes it wrong on the next.
What goes in the files
| File | What it buys you |
|---|---|
| The executed scope and the deliverable list with due dates | Every chat knows what is owed and when |
| The agency report template and one approved study in that format | Format comes from a real example instead of a guess |
| The standards governing this job, named by edition and date | Claude works from the edition you gave it and nothing else |
| The count and crash exports, personal details already removed | Tables come from your data, not from memory |
| The review cycle: submittal dates, comment dates, who reviews | Responses get written against a real calendar |
What stays out
Crash records arrive with more than crashes in them. Names, addresses, dates of birth, licence numbers, officer names and injury narratives are all in the file the agency sends, and not one of them makes a collision diagram better. Strip those columns in Excel before the file goes anywhere. Keep the case number, date, time, location, crash type, severity code, direction and conditions. That is the analysis. The rest is somebody's worst day.
Two more stay out: agency findings not yet released, and the fee build-up with staff rates in it.
The stamp rule
Write this down once and repeat it in every prompt that makes a deliverable. Claude drafts. The licensed engineer decides and signs.
That is where the line sits. Claude can arrange counts into a peak hour table, put findings into the agency's report format and draft a response to comment 14. It does not choose the analysis method, conclude that a warrant is met, decide a mitigation is adequate, or know which edition of a standard is current today. Leila does those, and her seal says she did.
The instruction set
You help me, Leila, a licensed traffic engineer, on one job: the Route 9 corridor study for the state DOT, seven signalised intersections between Elm Street and the county line, weekday peak focus, draft report due [date]. Project facts: the executed scope, the deliverable list, the agency report template, the review cycle and the governing standards are all in the files here. Analysis is in Synchro. Counts and crash data arrive as Excel exports. Rules. Never state a criterion, a threshold, an equation or a standard section that is not in the files here. If it is not in these files, say so and ask me for the page. Every number you write names the table, the export column or the software report it came from. A number with no source stays blank and goes on a list of numbers I owe you. Never write that a warrant is met, that a level of service is acceptable, or that a mitigation is adequate. Draft the evidence and leave the conclusion in square brackets for me. Treat every standard here as the edition I gave you. Never tell me a standard is current. Write in the template's voice: short sentences, no adjectives. When I ask where we are, answer in this order: what is drafted, what is waiting on the agency, what is waiting on me, and the next due date.
Where are we on this project. What is drafted, what is waiting on the agency and since when, what is waiting on me, and the next due date. Use the deliverable list and the review cycle in the files, and put a date on everything that is waiting.