The short answer
To set up a Claude Project, click Projects in the sidebar (or go to claude.ai/projects), click + New Project, name it, then add files with the + button in the project knowledge panel and click Set project instructions to tell Claude how to behave. Every chat in the project uses that knowledge and those instructions. Projects work on every plan from Anthropic, including Free (up to five), while sharing with colleagues needs a Team or Enterprise plan.
What a Claude Project is, and what you need first
A Project in Claude, Anthropic's assistant, groups chats around one piece of work. Each project has a knowledge base (documents, text, code) and a set of instructions that apply to every chat inside it. Chats in a project do not share context with each other unless the information is in the project knowledge, which is exactly why the knowledge base matters.
Before you start, gather:
- The reference material Claude should always know: a style guide, a brief, product documentation, last quarter's report, a glossary.
- Your standing instructions: who Claude is helping, the tone, the format you want back and anything it must never do.
- The right plan. Free accounts can create up to five projects; Pro and above have no cap. On paid plans, when project knowledge nears the context limit, Claude switches on retrieval mode automatically, which Anthropic says expands capacity by up to 10 times. Sharing projects is limited to Team and Enterprise.
How to create a Claude Project, step by step
- Hover over the left side of the Claude window and click Projects, or go to claude.ai/projects.
- Click + New Project in the upper right.
- Enter a name and description. These are for you and your colleagues: Claude cannot see them, so do not put instructions here.
- On a Team or Enterprise plan, choose Keep it private or Share with your broader organization.
- Open the project. The knowledge base sits on the right of the page. Click the + button and upload documents, text files or code.
- Click Set project instructions, write how Claude should behave and respond, and click Save instructions. They apply to every chat in the project.
- Start a chat from inside the project and test it with a real task.
To bring in a chat you already had, click the dropdown arrow next to the chat name, choose Add to project and pick the project in the Move chat window.
What to put in the instructions
Good project instructions are short, specific and written like a brief to a capable new colleague. Cover five things:
- Who it is for. "You are helping the marketing team at a B2B payroll software company."
- What good looks like. "Drafts are under 150 words, lead with the customer's problem and end with one clear action."
- Which files to trust. "Use the style guide for tone and the product sheet for every feature claim. If a fact is not in the files, say so."
- The format. "Return a headline, the draft, then two alternative subject lines."
- The hard rules. "Never mention competitors by name. Never invent customer quotes or numbers."
Keep instructions to a few hundred words. Put long reference material in files, not in the instructions box.
A worked example: a monthly report project
Say you write a monthly performance report for your leadership team. Create a project called "Monthly leadership report". Upload last month's report as the model to follow, your metrics definitions and the company glossary. In the instructions, say who reads it (busy directors), the structure (three headline numbers, what changed, risks, decisions needed), the length (one page) and the rule that every number must come from the data you attach in the chat. Each month, start a new chat in the project, attach this month's figures and ask for the draft. Because the template, definitions and tone live in the project, the first draft is close, and your edits go on judgement rather than formatting. If you are on Pro or above, choose Claude Opus 5.5 for this kind of judgement across lots of material; Free uses Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5.
Sharing a project with your team
On Team and Enterprise plans:
- Open the project and click Share project, to the right of the project name.
- Add colleagues by name or email, or paste a list of addresses.
- Set each person's permission: Can view lets them see the knowledge and instructions and chat, but not edit; Can edit lets them change instructions and knowledge and manage members.
- Click Share.
To remove someone, the project creator clicks that person's role and selects Remove access. Owners can switch project sharing off for the whole organisation, and on Enterprise it can be restricted by role. A Shared with you tab on the Projects page shows projects others have shared with you.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Instructions in the description field. Claude cannot see the name or description. Fix: put everything Claude needs in Set project instructions.
- Expecting chats to remember each other. They do not share context. Fix: when a chat produces something important, such as a decision or a final version, add it to the project knowledge.
- Uploading everything. A pile of loosely related files makes answers vaguer. Fix: one project per piece of work, with only the files that matter, and remove outdated versions.
- Outdated files. Claude will happily quote last year's prices. Fix: date your files and replace them when they change.
- Hitting the Free limit. Free allows five projects. Fix: archive finished ones (three dots, then confirm), or move to Pro for no cap. Archived projects keep their chats and can be unarchived.
- Forgetting privacy. On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, content can be used for training unless you switch it off. Fix: open Settings, then Privacy, and turn off Help Improve our AI models. Team and Enterprise are not used for training by default.
Is a Claude Project the right tool?
Use a Project when the same context comes up again and again: a client, a product, a report, a book. For one-off questions, a normal chat is enough. For an instruction set you want Claude to apply wherever it fits, across projects, save it as a skill instead. Anthropic is also testing a new version of projects, announced on 17 September 2026 and in beta for selected paid subscribers who use Claude Code first, in which one project runs work as parallel threads that each start with the project's files, instructions and memory, with a Library for files you add and files Claude produces. Anthropic says existing projects keep working as they do today until the rollout reaches them.
If you are coming from ChatGPT, a Claude Project is the closest replacement for a custom GPT; see what replaced custom GPTs. Compare the assistants in ChatGPT vs Claude and Claude vs Gemini, or browse Claude prompts for writing.
Prompts to copy
Write my project instructions
Interview me with up to eight questions about this project: who the work is for, what good output looks like, which files to trust, the format and the rules. Then write project instructions under 250 words that I can paste into Set project instructions.
You get: Clear, tested instructions without a blank page
Check the knowledge base
Look at the files in this project. List each one with a one-line summary, flag any that overlap, contradict each other or look out of date, and say what is missing for the job described in the instructions.
You get: A cleaner knowledge base and a list of gaps
Answer only from the files
Using only the files in this project, answer: [question]. Quote the passage behind each point and name the file. If the files do not answer it, say so rather than guessing.
You get: An answer you can check line by line
Monthly draft from the template
Write this month's report following the structure and tone of the previous report in the project. Use only the figures in the attached file. Put any number you had to calculate in a short table at the end with the formula used.
You get: A first draft that matches last month's format
Capture a decision
Summarise what we decided in this chat as a short note for the project knowledge: the decision, the reason, the date and anything still open. Keep it under 120 words.
You get: A note to add to the project so future chats know
Onboard a colleague
Write a short welcome note for a colleague who has just been given access to this project: what it is for, what is in the files, how to start a chat and two example requests that work well.
You get: A note that gets a new teammate productive quickly