Which business task belongs in your first project?

Choose a repeatable task with a clear finish line. Customer reply drafts, service proposals and product descriptions are reasonable starting points. Pick something you understand well enough to review without asking another specialist.

Write the job before opening the tool

For a hypothetical stationery shop, define the job as “draft replies to questions about delivery and returns.” Leave pricing strategy, supplier negotiations and bookkeeping outside this first trial. Give yourself a manageable set of decisions to review.

Use these questions to narrow the scope:

• What exact document or message should come out?
• Which approved information should it use?
• Who will check it before anyone acts on it?
• What would make a draft unacceptable?

If you need a starting task, adapt one of the practical Claude prompt templates. A prompt is simply the request you give the assistant. Replace the template's business details with your own before testing it.

Set a boundary around the audience too. A reply for an existing customer needs a different brief from an advertisement aimed at someone browsing. For this project, write “existing customers asking about an order” at the top of your working notes.

Is Claude Projects available on the free plan?

Yes. Free users can create up to five projects, according to the official availability information. Start with one, then decide whether the work justifies expanding your setup.

Do not turn an unclear brief into a subscription decision. First check whether the source material is complete and the task is specific. For help with the initial account experience, use the guide to using Claude for free.

Separate the familiar workspace from the new beta

Anthropic's Projects redesign announcement describes a staged beta beginning with Claude Code. Beta means a feature is still being introduced and tested. Do not assume the announcement's parallel working features are available in your ordinary chat workspace.

Use the interface you actually have as your starting point. If it differs from this guide, check which Projects experience you are using before following a different tutorial. Keep your first business trial focused on reference material, instructions and reviewed drafts.

How do you create a useful Claude project?

Open Projects, choose + New Project, and enter a name and description. These are the opening steps in the official setup guide. Then prepare the working brief below.

Give the project a practical boundary

For the hypothetical stationery shop, use “Customer reply drafts” as the name. In your working brief, state that the output is a proposed reply for staff review. Include the audience and the policies the reply must respect.

1. Purpose: help staff prepare clear answers to routine customer questions.
2. Inputs: approved product notes and current delivery and returns information.
3. Output: a short reply plus anything the staff member must verify.
4. Approval: a named person checks the draft before sending it.

Put the actual working directions in the instructions, rather than relying on the project name. Give the first conversation a narrow request: identify the information needed to answer a delivery question. Fill the gaps before requesting customer-facing text.

If you are still choosing between tools, take this same brief to the Claude versus ChatGPT business guide. Compare your actual task rather than building a long feature wishlist.

What should go in your project knowledge base?

Prepare a small collection of approved reference documents. A knowledge base is that collection of material for the assistant to consult. In the current project interface, use the knowledge area's + button to add content, following the upload instructions.

For the shop example, prepare the documents below. Treat the table as a suggested starting pack, not a required software format.

Check the material before asking for polished writing

Ask for the delivery conditions in plain language and the document supporting each condition. Compare the answer with your actual policy. If two documents disagree, resolve that disagreement yourself before continuing.

Use descriptive filenames and make the approved version obvious. Assign someone to replace outdated material when a policy changes. Do not ask the assistant to guess which conflicting version management intended.

For the trial, remove customer names, email addresses and order identifiers. Use a made-up customer question that still contains the practical problem. You can evaluate the wording without bringing an actual customer's details into the exercise.

What should your Claude project instructions say?

Write the purpose, tone, evidence rule and output format. The current setup uses Set project instructions followed by Save instructions. The management guide explains this setting.

A starter instruction for the shop example

Prepare customer reply drafts for our stationery shop. Write in clear, friendly English. Use the approved project documents for product details and policy statements.

If information is missing or contradictory, identify the gap instead of choosing an answer. Do not promise a refund, delivery date or exception without supporting information. Return a proposed reply followed by a short staff checklist.

This is a hypothetical working template. Adapt the approval rules to your business. Keep a permanent rule, such as the writing tone, in the instructions; put the customer's specific question in the conversation.

Give the assistant one approved reply as a style example. Explain what you like about it: perhaps it answers the question immediately and avoids excessive apologies. Avoid asking for a vague “professional tone” without showing what that means to you.

For more draft structures, adapt the customer service prompt examples. Treat them as writing briefs and check each one against your policies before using it here.

How should a small team work with a project?

Assign responsibility for documents, drafts and approval before inviting colleagues. Organizational project sharing is available on Team and Enterprise, subject to administrator controls. Check the official sharing overview for your setup.

For a hypothetical two-person shop, let the owner approve policy changes and the support colleague prepare replies. Keep those responsibilities explicit even when both people can access the same workspace. Record important decisions in the reference material you intend everyone to use.

Use a simple handover note

When a document changes, write what changed, who approved it and which older material it replaces. Ask the next person using the project to check that note. Do not leave an important exception buried in an informal discussion.

For a marketing team, apply the same method to campaign terms. Designate someone to confirm the offer before anyone requests advertising copy. To prepare the recurring tasks, use the content planning prompt examples and adapt their outputs to your approval process.

At the end of a trial, review who needs access and who owns future updates. Make that a business decision with a named owner. Avoid leaving maintenance as an undefined task for “someone on the team.”

How do you know whether the project is helping?

Compare the whole task, including checking and corrections. A fluent draft is only one part of a usable customer reply. Decide your acceptance rules before reading the first result.

1. Prepare a routine question with a clear answer in the documents.
2. Prepare another question that requires missing information.
3. Prepare a question involving conflicting draft policies.
4. Review the responses against the approved material.
5. Record correction time and decide what to change.

These are proposed tests, not reported results. For each answer, check whether it states the correct policy, avoids unsupported promises and gives the customer a clear next step. Reject any reply that requires inventing a business decision.

Fix the cause you can identify

If the tone is wrong, revise the style example. If the answer uses an obsolete policy, repair the reference pack. If the task is vague, rewrite the request before adding more instructions.

Keep a short trial log: request, usable draft, correction needed and final decision. After several examples, decide whether to continue, narrow the task or pause the setup. Choose based on the work remaining for your team.