Claude Projects Tutorial: Organize Your Work with AI

This Claude projects tutorial gives you the whole setup first. Click Projects in Claude’s sidebar, then + New Project, and give it a name. On the right side of the project page, click + to add project knowledge (documents, text files or code). Click Set project instructions, write how Claude should behave, and click Save instructions. From then on, every chat you start inside the project already knows your files and your rules, so you never paste the same context twice.

Watch the video:

This is Episode 2 of Mastering Claude & Claude Code, my free 12-episode course. In Episode 1 you learned the 3-part prompt: task, context and format. Projects solve the next problem: you stop retyping the context in every new chat.

I checked every step against Anthropic’s help center on 4 November 2026. Claude’s screens change often, so yours may look slightly different.

Arabic and Middle East note: Claude is available in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Palestine. Syria, Yemen, Libya and Sudan are not on Anthropic’s supported list today. Claude reads and writes Arabic well (Anthropic’s own multilingual tests put Arabic at about 97% of English quality for its larger models), so your project files and instructions can be in Arabic. Anthropic does not document an Arabic interface for claude.ai, so expect the menus in English.

What is a Claude project?

A project is a workspace for one job. It holds three things:

Project knowledge: files Claude can use in every chat in the project.
Project instructions: rules for how Claude behaves inside the project.
Chats: every conversation you start inside the project.

Each project also has its own memory, so this work doesn’t mix with your other chats.

Free plan vs paid plans

Feature	Free	Pro, Max	Team, Enterprise
Create projects	Up to 5	Yes	Yes
Project knowledge	Yes (must fit the context window)	Yes, plus RAG mode (up to 10x more)	Yes, plus RAG mode
Project instructions	Unclear (see below)	Yes	Yes
Share a project	No	No	Yes (Can view / Can edit)

Anthropic’s own help pages disagree on project instructions for free accounts: one page says projects are “available to all users”, another says project instructions are for “paid plans only”. If you don’t see the Set project instructions button, use the workaround in Step 3.

Step 1: Create your first project

In claude.ai, click Projects in the left sidebar. You can also go straight to claude.ai/projects.
Click + New Project in the top right corner.
Give it a name and a short description. Mine is mouhimen.dev IT Docs, described as “Runbooks and ticket replies for my clients”.

The important detail most people miss: Claude can’t see the project name or the description. They are labels for you. Never put rules there.

On the free plan you get five projects, so choose them well. My rule is one project per client, or per big job.

Step 2: Add project knowledge

On the right side of the project page, click the + button and upload documents, text files or code. For my IT docs project I added four files:

servers.md              # server list for my clients (hostnames, roles, OS)
backup-policy.md        # what we back up, when, and where
nginx-standard.conf     # our standard Nginx server block
ticket-reply-guide.md   # how we write replies to clients

Here is a short example of servers.md (sample data):

# mouhimen.dev client servers
| Host   | Role          | Stack                      | Sites              |
| ------ | ------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------ |
| web-01 | Web (main)    | Ubuntu 24.04, Nginx, PHP 8.4 | mouhimen.dev     |
| web-02 | Web (shop)    | Ubuntu 24.04, Nginx, PHP-FPM 8.4 | shop.mouhimen.dev |
| db-01  | Database      | MySQL 8.4                  | all                |
Owner: Abd Almouhimen Shamout

The limits, from Anthropic’s help center:

Each file can be up to 30 MB.
There is no fixed number of files, but everything has to fit in Claude’s context window.
On paid plans, when your knowledge gets close to that limit, Claude switches on RAG mode automatically. It searches your files instead of reading all of them, which lets a project hold up to 10 times more.

The key rule: chats inside a project don’t share their messages with each other. If Claude should know a fact in every chat, put it in project knowledge, not in an old chat.

Step 3: Set project instructions

Knowledge is what Claude knows. Instructions are how Claude behaves. Click Set project instructions, type your rules, and click Save instructions. These are mine:

You are the help desk assistant for mouhimen.dev.
Answer from the project files first, and say which file you used.
If the answer isn't in the files, say so. Don't guess.
Reply to clients in short, friendly steps. Never include passwords or keys.

Keep them short and clear. Five clear rules beat fifty vague ones.

Don’t confuse them with account instructions (Settings > Your Claude > Instructions). Account instructions apply to every chat you have. Project instructions apply only inside this project.

No button on your plan? Save the same rules in a text file called instructions.md and add it to project knowledge. It works almost the same way.

Step 4: Use the project on a real ticket

Inside the project, start a new chat and paste the ticket:

Ticket #2418: shop.mouhimen.dev shows "502 Bad Gateway" since 8 AM.
Reported by Abd Almouhimen Shamout.
What should I check first? Then write the reply to the client.

I don’t explain my servers and I don’t paste my config. Claude finds web-02 in servers.md, points to the upstream block in nginx-standard.conf, and gives three checks in order:

systemctl status php8.4-fpm      # 1. is PHP-FPM running?
grep -n "fastcgi_pass" /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/shop.conf   # 2. does the socket match?
df -h                            # 3. is the disk full?

It names the files it used (my rule 2), then writes a short, friendly client reply in the style of my ticket guide.

Already started a chat outside the project? Open the menu next to the chat name, click Add to project, and pick the project.

Step 5: Organize and share

Star the projects you use every day so they stay at the top.
Archive or Delete from the three dots menu. Careful: right now there is no way to delete an archived project. If you really don’t need it, delete it instead of archiving it.
Sharing is for Team and Enterprise plans only. Click Share project, add teammates, and choose Can view or Can edit. On Free, Pro and Max there is no project sharing, so share your files and instructions as a document.

A tip from my work

I keep one project per client. When Claude gives me a great answer, like a fixed config or a clean procedure, I save it as a new file in project knowledge (for example fix-502-web-02.md). After a month, the project becomes the runbook I always wanted, and the next ticket takes minutes.

Keep the files up to date. When the backup policy changes, replace the old file. Two versions of the same document will confuse Claude. And as in Episode 1: no passwords, no API keys and no client personal data in your files.

Errors and fixes

1. Claude ignores my rules. Check where you wrote them. Claude can’t see the project name or description. Put rules in project instructions, or in a knowledge file.

2. Claude forgot what I told it in another chat. Chats in a project don’t share their messages. Put the important facts in project knowledge.

3. The free plan won’t let me create another project. You’ve reached the limit of five. Delete a project you don’t need, or upgrade.

4. “Your message will exceed the length limit for this chat.” Your project knowledge is taking most of the space. Remove old and duplicate files, split big PDFs, and keep only what the project needs. On paid plans, RAG mode gives you much more room.

FAQ

Are Claude projects free?

Yes. Free accounts can create up to five projects and add project knowledge. RAG mode for large knowledge bases and project sharing need a paid plan, and Anthropic’s pages disagree on whether free accounts get project instructions.

Can Claude see my project name and description?

No. Anthropic says Claude does not have access to them. Use project instructions or a knowledge file for anything Claude must follow.

How much can I upload to a Claude project?

Each file can be up to 30 MB, with no fixed number of files, as long as everything fits in the context window. Paid plans switch to RAG mode automatically and can hold up to 10 times more.

Do chats in the same project share memory?

They share the project knowledge and instructions, and each project has its own memory. They don’t share the messages of other chats, so keep must-know facts in project knowledge.

Does Claude work in Arabic and in Saudi Arabia?

Yes. Claude is available in Saudi Arabia and most Arab countries, and it reads and writes Arabic well, so your files and instructions can be in Arabic. The claude.ai interface itself has no documented Arabic option.