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Introduction to projects

📖 Lesson content

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Explain what projects are and when to use them
  • Create a new project with a name, description, and visibility settings
  • Add documents and files to your project's knowledge base
  • Write effective project instructions to guide Claude's behavior
  • Share projects with teammates (for Claude for Work (Team and Enterprise plan) users)

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Video

[Video: Introduction to Projects - Getting started with projects in Claude.ai]

Key takeaways

  • Projects are self-contained workspaces with their own memory, chat histories, knowledge bases, and customized instructions. Think of them as dedicated environments for specific work streams.
  • Project knowledge enhances Claude's understanding by letting you upload relevant documents that Claude references across all chats within that project. No more re-uploading the same files each time.
  • Project instructions guide Claude's behavior—you can specify tone, expertise level, response style, and more. These instructions apply to every conversation within the project.
  • Projects scale automatically. When your knowledge base approaches context limits, Claude seamlessly enables Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) mode to expand capacity by up to 10x while maintaining response quality.
  • For Claude for Work users, projects enable collaboration. Share projects with teammates so everyone benefits from the same context, instructions, and accumulated knowledge.

What are Projects?

Projects are ideal for storing knowledge Claude should reference, organizing related chats around a specific topic or work area, and collaborating with team members who need access to the same shared context.

When to use Projects

Projects are particularly valuable when you're working on something ongoing—not just a one-off question. Consider creating a project when you have a workflow with:

  • Reference materials you'll use repeatedly (meeting notes, survey results, reports, historical data, etc.)
  • Consistent requirements for how Claude should respond (always use formal language, always cite sources, always follow our template)
  • Team collaboration needs where multiple people should work from the same foundation

Creating your first project

Setting up a project takes just a few minutes. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Set up your project

  1. Hover over the left sidebar and click "Projects," or navigate directly to claude.ai/projects
  2. Click "+ New Project" in the upper right corner
  3. Give your project a descriptive name (e.g., "Q4 Marketing Campaign" or "Product Documentation")
  4. Add a brief description of what you're working on. While Claude doesn't see this description directly, it helps you and your teammates understand the project's purpose.
  5. Choose your visibility settings: keep it private or share with your organization (for Claude for Work users)

Step 2: Add project instructions

Project instructions tell Claude how to behave across all conversations in this project. Click on "Instructions" to open the instructions panel.

Good project instructions typically include:

  • Context about what you're working on: "This project is for creating marketing content for our B2B software product."
  • Process instructions: "First consider a blog structure that will entice this audience, then write the draft."
  • Tone and style preferences: "Use a professional but conversational tone. Avoid jargon when possible."
  • Specific requirements: "Always include a call-to-action at the end of marketing copy."

Once you've written your instructions, click "Save instructions." These will apply to every chat in this project and work alongside any user preferences and styles you've set.

You can also use project instructions to automate workflows — for example, "When I upload a meeting transcript, create a structured summary using this template." Think of instructions as programming Claude's behavior for this project.

Step 3: Build your knowledge base

Your project's knowledge base is where you upload documents that Claude should reference. You'll find the files menu on the right side of your project's main page.

Click the "+" button to add content. You can upload various file types including PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, HTML, and more. You can also connect to Google Drive to link documents directly.

What to upload:

  • Reference documents (brand guidelines, style guides, templates)
  • Background materials (research reports, meeting notes, requirements docs)
  • Examples of work you want Claude to emulate
  • Technical documentation or specifications

Pro tip: Name your files descriptively. Claude uses file names to understand and retrieve the right information, so "Q4-2024-Brand-Guidelines.pdf" is more helpful than "document1.pdf."

How projects handle large knowledge bases

You might wonder what happens when you upload a lot of content. Projects automatically scale to handle large amounts through a process called Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). At a high level, this means that Claude can automatically find and use the most relevant parts of your uploaded documents when answering, without you needing to tell it which file to look at.

When your project knowledge approaches the context window limit, Claude seamlessly enables RAG mode. Instead of loading all project content into memory at once, Claude intelligently searches and retrieves only the most relevant information needed to answer your questions. This expands your project's capacity by up to 10x while maintaining response quality.

You'll see a visual indicator when your project is RAG-enabled, but the experience should feel the same—you can still upload documents, chat with Claude, and get context-aware responses.

Recurring workflow need

1. Setup — name, description, visibility

2. Add instructions — context, tone, rules

3. Build knowledge base — docs, examples

Project ready — every chat has context + instructions

Auto-RAG when KB nears token limit — 10x capacity

Working within your project

Once your project is set up, you can start chatting with Claude. Each conversation within the project automatically has access to your knowledge base and follows your project instructions.

Collaboration features

For users on Claude for Work (Team and Enterprise) plans, projects become even more powerful through collaboration features.

Permission levels

When sharing a project, you can choose from three permission levels:

  1. Can view: Members can see project contents, access knowledge, and chat—but can't make changes. Think of this as read-only access with discussion rights.
  2. Can edit: Members have full collaboration power. They can modify instructions, update knowledge, manage other members, and actively contribute to the project.
  3. Owner: Project creators control everything, including who sees the project. They can share with specific people or make projects visible to the entire organization.

Sharing your project

To share a project:

  • Open the project you want to share
  • Click the "Share project" button to the right of the project name
  • Add individual members using their name or email, or copy and paste a list of email addresses for bulk sharing (in this case, the project will show up in their "Shared with you" section)
  • Or, share with "Everyone at [your organization]" to make your project discoverable within the Team tab

Team members will receive email notifications when you share a project with them, and they can find shared projects in their "Shared with me" tab.

Example projects to inspire you

Not sure where to start? Here are some common project types across different functions:

  • Q4 product launch: Upload your product specs, competitive analysis, and messaging brainstorming notes. Claude will have this context top of mind for any inquiry or document draft.
  • Research support: Centralize your competitive review, user research data, and customer feedback. Claude can help you synthesize sources, draft reports, and maintain consistency across recommendations.
  • Client account hub: Keep your client's brand guidelines, past deliverables, and communication history in one place. Set instructions so Claude matches their tone and references their specific context when creating proposals or reports.
  • Event planning workspace: Upload venue contracts, speaker bios, and attendee data. Claude can help generate run-of-show documents, attendee communications, and post-event reports that stay consistent with your event's theme.
  • Job description generator: Gather past job descriptions, team charters, and internal headcount request docs. Work with Claude to draft job descriptions that reflect your team's actual work and culture.

Best practices for projects

To get the most out of projects:

  • Start focused, then expand. Begin with a specific use case rather than trying to create one project for everything. You can always add more content as you go.
  • Keep your knowledge base current. Outdated documents can lead to outdated responses. Review and update your project knowledge periodically.
  • Write clear instructions. Be specific about what you want. Vague instructions lead to inconsistent results.
  • Name your documents descriptively. (e.g., 'Q4-2025-Sales-Report.pdf' not 'report.pdf') and group related files together. Claude uses filenames and proximity to understand relationships between documents.
  • Reference documents by name. When asking questions, you can mention specific documents to help Claude focus its search: "Based on our Q3 report, what were the top customer concerns?"

Lesson reflection

Before moving on, consider:

  • What ongoing work could benefit from having a dedicated project with persistent context?
  • What documents do you expect you'll be re-uploading or re-explaining to Claude on a regular basis?
  • If you're on a team, are there projects that would benefit from shared knowledge and instructions?

What's next

In the next lesson, we'll learn how to create mini-apps with Artifacts — actual outputs that Claude build and you can share right away.

For more information on getting started with projects, visit the Anthropic Help Center.

Feedback

As you progress through the course, we'd love to hear from you about how you are using concepts from the course in your work and any feedback you may have. Share your feedback here.

🎬 Video transcript

Source video: GJ5jTgcbRHA

📜 Click to expand transcript (cleaned + AI-translated)

Overview of Claude Projects

With Projects, Claude users can create self-contained environments with their own chat histories, specific knowledge bases, and customized settings. This feature allows users to organize their work and provide Claude with the necessary context to deliver more informed, project-specific responses that align with team goals, terminology, and background.

Key Features of Projects

Project Knowledge and RAG

Project Knowledge enhances Claude's understanding by allowing you to upload relevant documents within each project. Every time you chat with Claude inside a project, this knowledge is automatically considered alongside your prompt.

Projects can handle significantly more content without running into limits. When a project contains a large amount of information, it is automatically processed using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), enabling Claude to use more context effectively to assist you.

Project Instructions

When setting up a project, you can define specific Project Instructions to further tailor Claude's responses. Like context, these instructions are considered every time you chat. This is an ideal space to guide Claude’s behavior—for example, asking it to use a formal tone, answer from a specific professional perspective, or target a particular industry.

Collaboration in Claude for Work

If you are on a Claude for Work plan, you can share projects with other members of your organization. This enables powerful collaboration and knowledge sharing. For instance, a brand team can create a project containing voice and tone guidelines, helping anyone in the company write like a professional marketer.

Creating and Setting Up a Project

Setting up your first project involves three simple steps:

  1. Initiate: Click "New Project" and give it a name.
  2. Describe: Define your project and what you hope to achieve (e.g., "Creating brand guidelines for a series of case study blogs for a flower business").
  3. Configure: Click "Create Project."

To the right of the project title, you can star the project for quick access, edit details, or archive/delete it. You should also choose the visibility: Private for personal use or Public for team collaboration.

Defining Instructions

Click on "Instructions" to specify how Claude should respond. Within this space, you can define:

  • Tone and expertise level.
  • Response style and desired outcomes.
  • Additional context regarding the project's goals.

Managing Project Knowledge

The Files menu is located on the right side of the project’s main page. Anything uploaded here—PDFs, documents, CSVs, text files, or data from Google Drive—will be used across all chats within the project.

Note that while Claude references the project knowledge base across all chats, individual chat histories remain separate unless that information is explicitly added to the project knowledge. If the knowledge base approaches the context window limit, Claude automatically enables RAG mode to expand capacity.

Collaboration and Permissions

You can make chats public so teammates can view and build upon your work. There are three permission levels:

  • Can View: Members can view project contents, access knowledge, and chat, but cannot make changes (read-only access with discussion rights).
  • Can Edit: Members have full collaboration power. They can modify instructions, update knowledge, manage members, and contribute actively.
  • Project Creators: Creators have full control, including the ability to manage visibility and delete the project.

The "Shared with me" tab allows you to easily find projects others have shared with you. Multiple members can contribute documents and create chats within the same environment, making it ideal for team-based workflows.

Use Case Examples

Projects are flexible and can be adapted for various professional and personal tasks:

  • Product Development: Manage the process from ideation to launch (e.g., developing an eco-friendly water bottle), tracking design evolution and keeping all related information in one place.
  • Content Creation: Streamline the process by generating ideas, receiving writing assistance, and maintaining consistency across platforms.
  • Educational Courses: Organize materials for courses, such as Anthropic's AI Fluency course, using Claude to explain complex concepts and iteratively improve content.
  • Personal Finance: Track, analyze, and plan budgets in a secure space where Claude can analyze spending patterns and help with financial calculations.
  • Home Renovation: Centralize design ideas, budget calculations, and communication for projects like a kitchen remodel.

By customizing each project to fit specific needs, users can better organize information, generate higher-quality ideas, and streamline their overall workflow.

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