Keep a Running Summary So Long Drafts Stay Coherent

A pattern for long documents where you maintain a short running summary — the key claims made, terms defined, and decisions settled so far — and feed it forward so each new section stays consistent with everything before it.

In a long piece, contradictions creep in: a term gets redefined, a figure changes, a stance softens between sections. Restating the whole draft each time is wasteful and eventually won't fit. A compact running summary carries just the load-bearing facts forward, so Claude writes each section against a stable memory of what's already committed rather than guessing or drifting.

Documents long or interdependent enough that consistency is a real risk — technical guides with defined terms, reports with recurring figures, anything drafted across many turns or sessions.

Short or self-contained pieces where the whole draft is easily in view. The summary is overhead you only need once length threatens coherence.

We're writing a long document in sections. Maintain a running summary I can carry forward: after each section, output an updated list of the key claims made, terms defined (with their definitions), figures used, and decisions settled. When drafting the next section, treat that summary as authoritative and don't contradict it. Flag if a new section would conflict with something in it.

Halfway through a technical guide, Claude's running summary notes that you defined 'tenant' a specific way in section 2. In section 6 it catches that the new text used 'tenant' loosely, flags the conflict, and keeps the definition consistent — a drift you'd otherwise only find in a final read-through.

Store the running summary as a small document (a Project file or a pinned note) that persists across sessions, so you can pick up a long piece days later without re-establishing what's already been decided. The summary becomes the document's memory.

• Letting the summary grow into a second draft — keep it to load-bearing facts, not prose.
• Not updating it after a section, so it goes stale and stops catching conflicts.
• Trusting the summary over the actual text when they disagree; reconcile, don't blindly follow either.