Projects: Persistent Workspaces
A Project is a dedicated workspace in Claude.ai that bundles its own files, knowledge, and instructions. Instead of re-uploading the same documents and re-explaining context every chat, you set it up once — and every conversation in the Project starts already informed.
Why use a Project
- Grounded answers. Add your documents (a handbook, specs, notes) and Claude answers from them — a built-in, no-code flavor of RAG.
- Persistent context. Project instructions act like a scoped system prompt for everything inside it.
- Organized. All the chats about one topic/client/initiative live together.
Set one up
- Create a Project and give it a clear purpose.
- Add knowledge — the files/text it should always know.
- Write project instructions — role, conventions, what to do/avoid.
- Start chatting — every conversation inherits the knowledge + instructions.
Great use cases
- A client/account workspace (their docs + your notes).
- A codebase or product knowledge base for Q&A.
- A writing project with your style guide and past pieces (so drafts match your voice).
- Study for a course, with the syllabus and materials loaded.
Tips
- Curate the knowledge — relevant, current files beat dumping everything (noise hurts retrieval).
- Keep instructions tight and true (same rule as custom instructions).
- Don't add sensitive data you're not comfortable storing — see Privacy.