Hey there,

One of the worst AI experiences you can have is when you’re deep within a project and want to use AI as a partner only to realize that you’ll first need to spend 10 minutes catching the model up on details you’ve already shared yesterday in a previous chat. This is where Claude Projects come in. Now, you only need to share your goals and relevant files once, and then you can have as many unique conversations about them as you want, all within a single workspace.

What Are Claude Projects?

In the simplest terms, Claude Projects are persistent, long-term workspaces that are focused around a single task or topic. Instead of every new chat being an independent, unique interaction, Projects allows you to create chats that already have access to the necessary context. This includes uploaded documents, code, and other files, as well as the full chat history of that project. 

Core Capabilities: 

• Persistent Files: You only need to upload a file once within your project. They will remain accessible to the model and can be referenced in all future chats within that project. 

• Conversational Memory: Claude remembers the entire history of all conversations within a project. 

• Access Files using RAG: Claude utilizes Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to access massive amounts of content within responses without losing quality. 

• Organized Workspaces: Being someone who uses AI everyday, my chat history is incredibly unorganized. Luckily projects allow me to keep my chats organized. 

The beauty of Projects is their versatility. You can use them to organize a series of complex chats that all reference the same codebase, or you could create a simple Project just to keep your notes about a single book in one place. This flexibility makes Projects an incredibly powerful tool for anyone.

How to Create Your First Project

Now let’s quickly create our first project. 

• Step 1 - Click on “Projects” in the upper left corner. 

• Step 2 - Name your project and describe what you want to build. This might just be a collection of similar chats or could be how you interact with your work or school files. 

• Step 3 - Add files and instructions. Now that the project has been created, you can customize it. Mainly this involves adding any files and custom instructions that you want all future chats to have access to. 

Step 4 - Start chatting. Now that your project is set up, you can start working within it. 

Why Projects Are a Game-Changer 

Projects change the way we interact with AI chatbots like Claude. They are so impactful that they’ve become a common feature across the AI ecosystem. ChatGPT, for example, has a very similar feature that I love. 

• Time Saver: Now you don’t need to spend 10 minutes describing your goals every time you create a new chat. Instead just create within the relevant project.

• Better Answers: Because the model has access to more information (files + previous chats), you will get more accurate, context-aware responses. 

• Stay Organized: You can easily find and interact with various projects in seconds. 

• Tackle Larger Tasks: Using projects you can complete huge, complex tasks by breaking it into individual chats without losing access to the relevant context. 

• Include / Use Artifacts: Anthropic has ensured that you can use Artifacts within projects which means that you could potentially create Artifacts specifically for a project.  

Ultimately, Projects give you more control and freedom over how you use AI in your long-term work.

Helpful Use Cases

The best part about tools like Claude Projects is that they can help every user. Let’s look at a few powerful use cases. 

• For Developers: You can upload a project or small code base and use Artifacts to help solve problems, improve the code, or write documentation. 

• For Writers: Create a Project for your next article or book. Upload the relevant research, notes, and writing examples and have Claude play the role of writer or editor.

• For Students: Upload notes and course work. You can then ask questions, create worksheets and example problems, or just have a personal tutor. 

• For Everyone: Planning a trip? Preparing for a big purchase? Create a project that keeps all your notes and thoughts organized.