Hidden Features

Projects

Persistent context and knowledge across chats.

Knowledge cards
Best practice
One Project per Context, Not One for Everything
Organising Claude Projects around distinct bodies of work — one per client, product, course, or ongoing topic — so each project's knowledge and custom instructions describe exactly that context, rather than piling everything into one general-purpose project.
L2 · Context engineering
Best practice
Prune Project Knowledge So It Stays Sharp
Treating a Claude Project's knowledge as something you maintain, not just accumulate: periodically removing outdated files, reconciling documents that now contradict each other, and cutting material that's no longer relevant — so the project keeps giving accurate context instead of stale context.
L2 · Context engineering
Best practice
Put Standing Context in a Claude Project
Using a Claude Project to hold the context you'd otherwise paste every time — reference docs, instructions, style, and background — so every chat in the project starts already informed.
L2 · Context engineering
Best practice
Put Your Source of Truth in Project Knowledge
A Projects habit: load the stable reference material a body of work depends on — style guide, product facts, key docs, decisions — into the project's knowledge once, so every chat in that project starts already knowing it, instead of you re-pasting the same context each time.
L3 · Workflows
Claude Projects

Persistent context across chats

Projects hold shared knowledge and files across many conversations, so a long engagement does not scatter into unrelated threads. You put the background, the goal, and the reference material at the Project level, and every chat inside it starts already informed. For ongoing work — a client, a product, a research effort — this keeps the context coherent and saves you re-pasting the same setup into each new conversation. It is the difference between a project folder and a drawer of loose notes.

Set the foundation, branch the work

The value comes from investing once in the shared context. Load the documents Claude should know, write instructions that apply to the whole body of work, and then use separate chats inside the Project for separate tasks or angles — all drawing on the same foundation. When the reference material updates, you update it in one place. Projects are how you scale Claude from single conversations to a sustained piece of work without losing the thread between sessions.

Frequently asked
What are Claude Projects?

Projects hold shared context and files across many conversations, so an ongoing body of work stays coherent instead of scattering across separate chats.

When should I use a Claude Project?

For sustained work — a client, a product, a research effort — where the same background and files apply across many conversations and you want them available in each.

How do Projects save time?

You set the shared context once — files and instructions at the Project level — so every chat inside starts informed, and you update reference material in one place.