Claude Projects: the complete setup guide

If you re-paste the same brief every Monday, Projects are your fix.

Claude Projects keep your instructions, files, and chat history in one place — so you stop burning the first 200 tokens of every conversation re-explaining yourself.

3-minute setup

  1. Create a project named after the outcome — e.g. Weekly newsletter, not Writing stuff.
  2. Paste your tone guide, audience brief, and banned phrases into Custom instructions.
  3. Upload 2–5 reference files: brand guide, past top-performers, FAQ doc.

Daily habit

Open the same project every session. New threads inherit everything. No more "as a reminder, I sell handmade leather goods to…"

What to put in custom instructions

  • Role — "You are my senior copywriter. You know my brand inside out."
  • Tone — 3 adjectives max: "direct, warm, never corporate."
  • Banned words — list them. Claude will avoid them without being reminded.
  • Output format — "Always return a headline, a subhead, and 3 bullet points."

Pro tip

Name projects after outcomes, not topics. Q3 launch copy beats Marketing. You'll find them faster when you have 20 projects running.

Free resource

A ready-to-use checklist for setting up your first Claude Project.

Download project setup checklist (TXT)
Link copied!