How to Use Claude Projects (With Instructions to Paste)

If you use Claude for more than one kind of work, you'll know the routine: open a new chat, paste in the same background, explain your tone of voice again, upload the same documents again. Claude Projects exist to stop that. Set one up per client, per offer or per job, and every chat inside it starts with the right files and instructions already in place.

Here's how Projects work according to Anthropic's help pages, how to set one up in a few minutes, and the instruction text I'd paste in for the most common small business jobs.

What are Claude Projects?

Anthropic describes Projects as self-contained workspaces with their own chat histories and knowledge bases. Inside each project you can upload documents, add instructions and have focused chats with Claude, all with that context to hand.

Projects are available to everyone, including free Claude accounts. Free users can create up to five projects.

How do you create a project in Claude?

1. Hover over the left side of your Claude account and click Projects, or go straight to the Projects page.
2. Click + New Project in the top right corner.
3. Give it a name and description. Anthropic notes that Claude can't see these, so they're just for you.
4. If you're on a Team or Enterprise plan, choose whether to keep it private or share it with your organisation.

Once it's set up, any chat you start inside the project uses its knowledge and instructions.

What should you put in project knowledge?

Project knowledge sits on the right side of your project's main page. Click the + button to upload documents, text files or code. Anything you add is used across every chat in that project.

For a small business, the most useful things to add are usually:

• A one-page summary of the business, who you serve and what you sell.
• Examples of your best writing: emails, proposals or posts you're proud of.
• Your FAQs, policies and the answers you give most often.
• For a client project, their brief, brand notes and anything they've signed off.

Anthropic notes that context isn't shared between chats within a project unless it's in the knowledge base. So if you decide something important in one chat, add it to the knowledge so the next chat knows too.

On the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, when your project knowledge gets close to the context limit, Claude automatically switches on a retrieval mode that expands how much the project can hold.

How do project instructions work?

Click Set project instructions, write how you want Claude to behave and respond, and save. Claude uses those instructions for every chat in the project. Anthropic's own examples are asking for a more formal tone, or answering from the perspective of a particular role or industry.

Here's the instruction template I'd start with for a client project.

Copy this prompt

You're helping me with work for [client name], a [type of business] that serves [who they serve].
Use the files in this project as the source of truth. If something isn't in them, ask me rather than guessing.
Tone: [their tone of voice]. Words to avoid: [list].
Always write in [UK / US] English.
When I ask for a draft, give me one version first, then ask whether I want alternatives.

And one for a project that handles customer replies:

Copy and paste this prompt

You draft replies to customer emails for [business name].
Use our FAQs and policies in this project. Never promise anything that isn't in them.
Keep replies short, warm and plain. Sign off as [name].
If a customer is upset, acknowledge it in the first line and offer a clear next step.
Flag anything that needs a human decision instead of answering it.

If customer service is the job you'd most like to hand over, I've gone deeper on using Claude for customer service enquiries.

Do Claude Projects have their own memory?

Yes. Anthropic says each project has its own separate memory space and project summary, so what Claude remembers in one project stays focused on that project and separate from your other projects and everyday chats. You can also move an existing chat into a project from the drop-down next to its name, using Add to project.

Can you share a Claude project with your team?

On Team and Enterprise plans, yes. Open the project, click Share project, add colleagues by name or email, and choose Can view or Can edit for each person. Can view lets them chat inside the project without changing it; Can edit lets them update the instructions and knowledge. Your Projects page then has tabs for your own projects, those shared with the organisation and those shared with you.

Do projects help with usage limits?

They can. Anthropic says content in projects is cached, so when you reuse it, it counts less against your limits than uploading the same files fresh each time. The cache expires after a period of inactivity, so the first message after a long break counts the content in full again. It's one more reason to keep your core documents in a project rather than attaching them to every chat.

Common mistakes with Claude Projects

Most of the disappointing projects I see go wrong in the same few ways, and all of them are easy to fix.

• Too much in one project. A project that covers every client and every job ends up with instructions that pull in different directions. Split it.
• Out-of-date files. If an old brochure or out-of-date policies are still in the knowledge base, Claude will happily use them. Remove what's no longer true.
• Instructions that describe, but don't direct. 'We're a friendly brand' tells Claude very little. 'Use short sentences, no jargon, and always end with a next step' tells it exactly what to do.
• Decisions left in chats. If you agree something important in one chat, add it to the knowledge so every other chat in the project knows.
• No examples. One or two pieces of your own writing do more for tone than a paragraph of adjectives.

Five projects I'd set up first

• Your business brain: company summary, services, tone of voice and best examples.
• Customer replies: FAQs, policies and model answers.
• Proposals and quotes: past winning proposals and your standard terms.
• Content: your content plan, best posts and audience notes.
• One project per big client: their brief, brand notes and approved work.

If you'd like Claude to sound more like you across all of them, an AI voice bank built from your old content is a brilliant thing to upload first.

Tools that work well with projects

Keep the master copies of what you upload in Google Drive or Microsoft 365, so there's one place to update them. On Team plans, Anthropic's connectors for Google Drive, Gmail, Microsoft 365 and Slack let Claude find context in those tools without manual uploads.

If you'd like a set of projects designed around how your business works, that's the kind of setup I do with business owners.

Frequently asked questions

What are Claude Projects?

Projects are self-contained workspaces in Claude with their own chat history, knowledge base and instructions, so every chat in a project starts with the right context.

Are Claude Projects free?

Yes. Anthropic says Projects are available to all users, including free accounts. Free users can create up to five projects.

How do I add files to a Claude project?

Open the project, find the project knowledge area on the right, click the + button and upload your documents, text files or code.

Do chats in a project share information?

Only through the knowledge base. Anthropic says context isn't shared across chats in a project unless it's added to project knowledge, though each project also has its own memory space.

Can I share a Claude project with my team?

Yes, on Team and Enterprise plans. Click Share project, add colleagues and give each one Can view or Can edit permission.