By Dan Donovan, @askdandonovan
Set up one Claude Project and it already knows your job, your tone and your context, so every chat starts warm and you never brief it from zero again.
A Project is a workspace inside Claude that holds two things: a set of standing instructions Claude reads on every chat, and a knowledge base of your real files. Set it up once, and every conversation inside it already knows who you are. No re-explaining.
Open Claude on the web or desktop, hover the left sidebar, click Projects → + New Project, and name it "Work". Paste this into the project instructions box and fill the blanks:
You are my work assistant. Use this context in every reply without me repeating it.
- Who I am: [your role + what your business/team does]
- Who I serve: [your customers / who you work with]
- How I write: [plain and direct / warm / formal — 2-3 words]
- What good looks like: [e.g. answer first, then detail. Short. No jargon.]
- Standing rules: [e.g. if something is unclear, ask me before guessing.]Hit Save instructions, start a chat inside the Project, and it already knows all of this.
Most people fill in the instructions and stop. The single biggest quality jump comes from uploading 2 to 3 real samples of your own work to the knowledge base: a past email, a post, a report you were proud of.
Instructions tell Claude about your voice. Samples let it copy your voice. Do this and the output stops sounding like AI and starts sounding like you.
Same request: "write a follow-up email to a client who went quiet."
"Dear valued client, I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to circle back regarding our previous correspondence…"
Generic, stiff, not you.
"Hi Sarah, just floating this back to the top of your inbox. Still keen to get you those numbers. Want me to send them through this week?"
Your length, your tone, your rhythm.
The context is the whole difference.
Two things in one place:
Here's a filled-in version for a freelance bookkeeper, so you can see the bar. Copy it, swap the details for yours, and you're 80% there.
You are my work assistant for my bookkeeping business. Use this in every reply.
- Who I am: a solo bookkeeper doing books + BAS for small trades businesses.
- Who I serve: plumbers, sparkies and builders who hate admin and want plain answers.
- How I write: warm, plain, no accounting jargon, short sentences.
- What good looks like: give me the answer first, then the reason. Australian spelling.
- Standing rules: if a client question is a tax-advice grey area, flag it, don't guess.Open a fresh chat inside the Project and ask:
Based on what you know about me, draft a short [email / post / reply] about [any real thing].If it comes back sounding like you, with your context baked in, it's working.
Don't build one giant Project. Make a few focused ones: Work, Admin, Side hustle / content. The free plan gives you 5, plenty to start. (Paid plans lift the cap well past that and add a bigger, smarter knowledge base.)
Not sure what to write or upload? Paste this into a normal chat first, then drop its output straight into your Project:
I'm setting up a Claude Project for my [work / side hustle]. Interview me with 5 quick
questions, one at a time, then turn my answers into (1) a set of standing instructions
and (2) a short context document I can upload.