Projects & Knowledge

In the last lesson, you set up Claude Desktop and had your first conversation. That was great, but here is the problem: every time you start a new conversation, Claude starts from scratch. It does not know who you are, what you are working on, or how you like things done. You have to explain everything over and over again.

Projects fix that. They give Claude persistent memory about a specific area of your work. Think of a Project as a briefing folder you hand to Claude before every conversation: "Here is who I am, here is what we are working on, and here are the documents you need."

This is where Claude goes from "helpful chatbot" to "knowledgeable assistant who understands your world."

What Is a Project?

A Project in Claude is a container that holds three things:

1. Custom Instructions -- persistent rules and context that apply to every conversation in the Project
2. Knowledge Base -- documents you upload that Claude can reference
3. Conversations -- all the chats you have within this Project

When you start a conversation inside a Project, Claude automatically has access to the custom instructions and knowledge base. You do not need to re-explain anything.

Creating Your First Project

Let's create a Project right now. This will be your personal workspace for learning.

Adding Custom Instructions

Custom instructions are the secret weapon of Projects. They tell Claude who you are, what you need, and how you want responses formatted. Every single conversation in the Project will follow these instructions.

Click on the Project settings (usually a gear icon or the Project name) and find the Custom Instructions field. Here is a template to get you started:

## About Me
- Name: [Your name]
- Role: [Your role, e.g., "Product Manager at a startup"]
- Experience with AI: Beginner, currently learning
- Main tools I use: [e.g., "Notion, Linear, Google Docs, Slack"]

## How I Want Responses
- Use plain language, avoid jargon unless you explain it
- Give concrete examples, not abstract theory
- When I ask for help with a task, break it into steps
- If you are unsure about something, say so
- Keep responses concise unless I ask for detail

## Current Focus
- Learning to use Claude effectively
- Building AI-enhanced workflows
- Following the Haku's Playground curriculum

This is a starting point. You will refine these instructions over time as you learn what works best for you.

Uploading Documents to Your Knowledge Base

This is where things get powerful. You can upload documents to your Project, and Claude will be able to reference them in every conversation. This means you can give Claude your company's style guide, your project roadmap, technical documentation, meeting notes, or anything else relevant to your work.

What Can You Upload?

Claude accepts a variety of file formats:

• PDF files (reports, papers, documentation)
• Text files (.txt, .md, .csv)
• Code files (.py, .js, .ts, .html, .css, and many more)
• Documents (.docx)
• Images (Claude can analyze images too)

How Much Can You Upload?

Here is where the 200K context window comes in. Claude can process approximately 200,000 tokens at once. In practical terms:

• 1 token is roughly 3/4 of a word
• 200K tokens is approximately 150,000 words
• That is roughly 500 pages of standard text

This is a lot. You can upload an entire book, a full codebase, or months of meeting notes and Claude can work with all of it in a single conversation.

Organizing Multiple Projects

As you get comfortable with Projects, you will want more than one. Here is a structure that works well for most people:

By Work Area

• "Product Work" -- PRDs, specs, roadmap docs, product custom instructions
• "Writing" -- Style guide, brand voice docs, writing-specific instructions
• "Learning" -- Course materials, notes, learning-focused instructions
• "Personal" -- Personal tasks, planning, general assistance

By Client or Project

If you work with multiple clients or on distinct projects:

• "Client A - Website Redesign" -- Brand guidelines, sitemap, requirements
• "Client B - Marketing Campaign" -- Campaign brief, audience research, past campaigns

The key is that each Project has a clear purpose and its own set of relevant documents and instructions.

Writing Effective Custom Instructions

Let's go deeper on custom instructions, because this is the single most impactful thing you can do to improve your Claude experience.

The Three Layers

Think of custom instructions as having three layers:

Layer 1: Identity -- Who you are and what you do.

I'm a frontend developer at a mid-size SaaS company.
I work primarily with React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS.
I've been coding for 3 years.

Layer 2: Preferences -- How you want Claude to respond.

- Write code in TypeScript, never JavaScript
- Use functional components, not class components
- Prefer Tailwind over CSS modules
- Explain your reasoning when making architectural decisions
- When showing code, include the file path as a comment at the top

Layer 3: Context -- What you are working on right now.

Current project: Customer dashboard redesign
Tech stack: Next.js 14, Supabase, Tailwind CSS
Key constraint: Must support mobile viewports
Timeline: MVP due in 3 weeks

When all three layers work together, Claude's responses feel like they come from a colleague who has been on your team for months.

Common Mistakes

Too vague: "Be helpful and give good answers." This tells Claude nothing it does not already know.

Too restrictive: "Never use bullet points. Always write exactly 3 paragraphs. Never use the word 'however.'" This leads to awkward, constrained responses.

Too long: Custom instructions that run thousands of words can actually dilute the most important parts. Aim for 200-500 words.

The 200K Context Window in Practice

Let's make the 200K context window concrete. Here is what fits and what does not.

What Fits Comfortably

• A 50-page technical specification
• An entire codebase for a small to medium application
• 6 months of weekly meeting notes
• A full book manuscript
• 100+ pages of API documentation

What Might Not Fit

• An entire large enterprise codebase (millions of lines of code)
• Years of chat logs or email archives
• Multiple books at once
• Very large datasets (use a database for that)

Practical Strategy

You do not need to use all 200K tokens at once. Here is a better approach:

1. Put permanent context in custom instructions (200-500 words)
2. Upload your most-referenced documents to the knowledge base (the ones you would keep on your desk)
3. Attach additional files per-conversation when needed for specific tasks
4. Summarize and archive old documents rather than keeping everything loaded

Real-World Use Case: The Documentation Project

Let's walk through a practical example. Imagine you are a product manager and you want Claude to help you write a feature specification.

1. Create a Project called "Product Specs"
2. Custom instructions:
   • "I'm a PM at [company]. Our specs follow a standard format: Problem Statement, User Stories, Requirements (P0/P1/P2), Success Metrics, Open Questions."
   • "When writing specs, always start with the user problem, not the solution."
   • "Reference our product principles document when making trade-off recommendations."
3. Upload to knowledge base:
   • Your product principles document
   • Your spec template
   • Two or three examples of good specs your team has written
   • Your current product roadmap
4. Start a conversation:
   • "I need to write a spec for adding CSV export to the dashboard. Users have been requesting this in support tickets. Here are the top 5 tickets: [paste them]"

Claude now has everything it needs: your format, your principles, examples of good specs, your roadmap for context, and the specific user feedback. The resulting spec will be dramatically better than what you would get from a cold-start conversation.

Sharing and Collaboration

If you are on a Team or Enterprise plan, Projects can be shared with your team. This means:

• Everyone on the team gets the same custom instructions
• The knowledge base is shared (no more "did you read the brief?")
• Conversations remain private to each person
• Admins can manage permissions

Even if you are on an individual plan, you can share the concept. Write up your custom instructions in a document and share it with colleagues so they can create similar Projects on their own accounts.

Tips for Project Maintenance

Projects are not "set and forget." Here are some habits that keep them useful:

• Review custom instructions monthly. Your role, priorities, and preferences evolve.
• Rotate knowledge base documents. Remove outdated docs, add new ones.
• Archive old conversations. They still count against your storage.
• Start fresh conversations when you shift to a new subtopic. Don't let conversations sprawl endlessly.