The everything project.
One giant project for your whole business reads as noise. Claude cannot tell which client you mean. One project per body of work.
PLAYBOOK · 02 · COWORK PROJECT SETUP · BY MARC KLEINMANN
Set the project up once, and Claude walks in already knowing the work.
How to set up a project so Claude shows up already knowing the work, every session, without being re-briefed. The three layers of a well-set-up project, the calls you make, and the starter templates, filled in. Written for the operator ready to stop starting every conversation cold.
01 ·Context
The difference is almost never the prompts. It is the setup.
The difference between people who get a little out of AI and people who run their week on it is almost never the prompts. It is the setup. The light users start every conversation cold, re-explaining who they are and what they are working on. The heavy users set the project up once, and Claude walks in already knowing.
A project in Cowork is a workspace pinned to one body of work. A client. An initiative. A part of your business. You point it at the folder where that work actually lives, you write down the standing brief once, and from then on every conversation in that project starts with the context already loaded. You stop re-briefing. That is the whole win.
Thirty minutes of setup, paid once, saves you the first five minutes of every conversation for the life of the project.
02 ·Architecture
Three layers, like onboarding a new hire.
A well-set-up project has three layers. They map cleanly onto how you would onboard a new hire.
Layer 01 · The primary folderThe one place the work lives.
The client's folder, the project's folder. Claude reads and writes here. This is the desk you sit the new hire at.
Layer 02 · The instructionsThe standing brief Claude reads every time.
Who the work is for, how you want things done, what to never do. This is the one-page brief you would hand a new hire on day one.
Layer 03 · The knowledgeThe reference material, already open.
Notes, past work, source documents in the folder. Claude can pull from these without you pasting them. This is the filing cabinet, already open.
03 ·Setup
Setting it up, step by step.
Step 01Make the project.
Create a new project in Cowork and name it for the body of work, not the task. "Acme Corp," not "draft Acme email."
Step 02Point it at the primary folder.
Set the project's folder to where that work actually lives. If the folder does not exist yet, make it first, with the handful of subfolders you already think in (one for finished work, one for notes, one for reference).
Step 03Write the instructions.
Fill the project instructions with the standing brief. The copy box below is a starting template. Keep it short and real. This is the highest-leverage thirty minutes you will spend.
Step 04Add the knowledge.
Drop the reference material into the folder: your last few pieces of work for this client, the key source docs, anything you would otherwise paste. Claude can now reach it on its own.
Step 05Test it cold.
Start a fresh conversation and ask it something that requires context, without explaining anything. "What should I be on top of for this client this week?" If it answers like it read the file, the setup is right. If it asks who the client is, the instructions need more.
04 ·Decisions
Three calls you make when you set one up.
Decision 01One project per what.
One project per client, or per initiative, or per part of the business. Not one giant project for everything (it blurs) and not a new project per task (you lose the standing context). Match the project to a body of work that outlives any single conversation.
Decision 02What goes in the instructions, what goes in the folder.
Rule of thumb: standing truths and how-you-work go in the instructions (they are short and always loaded). Reference material and past work go in the folder as knowledge (it is large and pulled on demand). Do not paste a 40-page document into the instructions.
Decision 03How much to write up front.
Enough that a competent stranger could do the work. If you would have to explain it to a new hire, write it down. If it is obvious from the work itself, leave it out. You can always add a line later when you catch yourself re-explaining something.
05 ·Runbook
The two artifacts that make the project real.
Two artifacts sit behind the setup above. The instructions are the standing brief Claude reads every session. The folder layout is where the work lives. Here is both, as starting templates.
Start from the instructions template. Fill one section at a time.
project instructions · starter template
WHAT THIS PROJECT IS [One or two lines. The client or initiative, and what we do for them. "Everything for Acme Corp, a 30-person logistics firm. We run their lead intake and their weekly reporting."] WHO IT IS FOR / WHO I AM [The audience and your role. "Outputs are for the Acme ops lead, Dana. I am their outside automation partner, not an employee."] HOW I WANT THINGS DONE [Your standing preferences. Tone, format, defaults. "Plain language, no jargon. Draft first, never send. Lead with what they need to act on. Short sentences."] WHERE THINGS LIVE [Point Claude at the folder structure so it knows where to read and write. "Finished work goes in /outputs. My notes are in /notes. Their source docs and past reports are in /reference."] NEVER [The hard stops. "Never send anything on my behalf. Never mix Acme's information into another client's work."]
Then set up the folder the project points at. This is the shape that makes the "where things live" section above true.
starter folder layout
Acme Corp/ <- the project's primary folder ├── outputs/ <- finished work (reports, drafts, deliverables) ├── notes/ <- my running notes and session logs └── reference/ <- their source docs, past work, anything Claude should know
Set those two up and the project is real. Every new conversation now starts with the brief loaded and the filing cabinet open.
06 ·Gotchas
The four that catch everyone.
Empty instructions.
A project with no standing brief is just a chat window with a folder attached. The instructions are where the leverage is. Spend the thirty minutes.
Pasting documents into the instructions.
Instructions are loaded every time, so keep them short. Large reference material goes in the folder as knowledge, where it is pulled only when needed.
Never testing it cold.
If you always explain the context anyway, you never find out whether the setup works. Start one fresh conversation with no explanation and see if it already knows.
07 ·What's next
A well-set-up project is the foundation. Two things build on top of it.
A well-set-up project is the foundation. Two things build on top of it.