Create a Project
Pin your knowledge to a workspace so every conversation inherits it.
TUTOR WITH THEFOCUS.AI
Copy this prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or any external AI assistant. It points the assistant to the course instructions and links it to your student profile to track your progress and customize observations.
You are not enrolled yet. Enroll to generate a Student ID to track lesson completions and store learning notes.
Create a Project
You captured knowledge in Chapter 02 — dictated rules, an interview transcript, a structured document Claude formatted for you. Right now that knowledge lives in a chat thread. It worked once. But start a new conversation and ask a categorization question, and Claude knows none of it. The knowledge is captured but not installed.
The first installation step needs no terminal and no new tools: a Project.
On claude.ai, a Project is a workspace that carries knowledge across every conversation inside it. Create one (sidebar → Projects → new project) and it gives you two things:
| Piece | What It Is | What Goes In It |
|---|---|---|
| Project instructions | Standing directions every chat in the project follows | How to behave: “You are helping with Cornwall Market’s bookkeeping. Always use our account codes. Flag anything unusual instead of guessing.” |
| Project knowledge | Files and documents every chat in the project can read | What to know: the vendor rules document from Chapter 02, the chart of accounts export, the delivery schedule |
Sarah creates a project called Cornwall Market — Books. She uploads the vendor rules document she dictated in the aisles, adds the chart of accounts CSV, and writes three lines of instructions: use these account codes, split Pacific Foods invoices by department, flag anything over the exception thresholds.
Then the test. She opens a brand new conversation inside the project and asks the Chapter 01 question cold: “How should I categorize a $600 invoice from Chen’s?” No attachments. No explanation.
Claude asks which Chen’s — Produce or Bakery Supplies — because the rules document says the names are ambiguous and the items tell them apart. It cites account 5100 or 5120 depending on her answer. The knowledge is no longer something she carries to each conversation. The conversations happen inside the knowledge.
Create a Project for the area of work you have been using all course. Upload the structured document you captured in Chapter 02 as project knowledge. Write 3-5 lines of project instructions — how Claude should behave when working in this domain.
Then start a fresh conversation in the project and ask a question that requires the knowledge — without attaching or explaining anything. Does Claude use it? If it misses something, that is a gap in the document, not a failure of the feature: fix the document. You will formalize it into a skill later in this chapter.
A Project is the first container in the distillation pipeline — informal knowledge, one workspace, zero setup. The rest of this chapter climbs the ladder of formality: CLAUDE.md (per-project memory for Claude Code), then SKILL.md (structured, portable, shareable). Same knowledge, progressively better packaging.
Check your understanding
Answer in your own words — write it down before opening the key. Your tutor grades against the criteria and generates fresh variants on retries.
Q1. Project instructions vs project knowledge: what belongs in each, and what is the test for deciding where a given piece of information goes?
Answer key — attempt every question first
Answer key
Q1
Model answer: Instructions hold behavior — how Claude should act in this domain (“always use our account codes, flag anomalies instead of guessing”). Knowledge holds reference — the documents, mappings, and data Claude consults. Test: is it a standing directive (instructions) or something to look up (knowledge)?
Pass criteria: behavior vs reference distinction; a workable deciding test
Next: Why Legibility Is Hard