Session 3 · 2 hours

Projects & Memory

Give Claude a permanent brain for your business.

By the end of tonight

"Roofing & Solar Launch" Project — fully set up
A system prompt that's the constitution for every chat
3+ documents uploaded to Project knowledge
Mental model: when to use a new chat vs. new project

Notice anything annoying yet?

Every new chat, you've had to re-explain:

Who you are
What business you're in
Who your customers are
How you sound

That's about to stop.

First, see the problem

Projects.

A container for one part of your life. You set it up once. Every chat inside it starts with that knowledge already loaded.

It's like giving Claude an employee handbook for your business that it reads before every conversation.

Three layers of memory

1

System prompt

The rules of the road. Set once per Project. Every chat inherits it.

2

Project knowledge

Files you upload. Claude reads from these whenever helpful.

3

Chat context

What's been said in this specific chat. Wipes when chat closes.

Start a chat inside a Project → start with #1 and #2 already loaded.

Layer 1

System prompt = the constitution.

The rules Claude follows every time you open a chat in this Project. Who you are, what you sound like, what you want Claude to default to.

Write it once. Edit when things change. That's it.

Layer 2

Project knowledge = the file cabinet.

Documents you upload. Claude reads from them whenever they're useful.

What to put in

Brand brief. Pricing sheets. Quotes. Contracts. Competitor sites (saved as PDF). Financial summaries. Anything you'd hand a new employee.

What NOT to put in

Anything truly sensitive (SSNs, full financial accounts). Anything you wouldn't want Claude referencing in a response.

Layer 3

Chat context = today's meeting.

What you've said in THIS specific chat. Built up as the conversation goes. Disappears when the chat closes.

This is the layer you've been using since Session 1. Now we add the two above it.

Hands-on

Create the Project.

Claude sidebar → Projects → New project
Name: Roofing & Solar Launch
Description: short — "Everything for launching [COMPANY] in [CITY]."
Create

Hands-on

Write the system prompt.

Open the Project's instructions area. We're going to paste a template from your exercise file, then edit together until it sounds like you.

What goes in your system prompt

WHO I AM

Your name, the new company, the existing AC business, employee count, your trades background.

WHAT WE DO

Roofing. Solar. Bundles. Whatever services. Be specific.

WHO WE SERVE

The 4 personas: storm, planned, solar-curious, bundle.

HOW WE SOUND

Brand voice rules. What you never sound like.

Hands-on

Upload knowledge.

Drag & drop into the Project knowledge area:

brand-brief-v1.pdf from Session 1
AC company financials (any format — even a QuickBooks screenshot)
2–3 competitor websites — saved as PDFs first

Tip · save a webpage as PDF

Open the page in your browser
Right-click anywhere → Print
Change destination to "Microsoft Print to PDF"
Save to your Roofing & Solar Launch folder
Drag the PDF into Claude Project knowledge

You'll do this a lot. Memorize the move.

Test the brain

Your turn. Inside your Project.

What's my tagline?

Look at the competitor sites I uploaded.
What's ONE thing each does well and ONE
thing I should do differently?

Based on my AC company's revenue and
customer mix, what should I expect for
my first 12 months of roofing + solar?
Be conservative. Show the math.

When to start what

Same chat

Iterating on one task. Each message builds on the last.

New chat, same Project

New task, same business. Claude still knows everything you set up.

New Project

Different part of your life. (AC business → separate Project. Personal finances → another.)

Keep feeding the Project.

Anytime you make something new — a quote, a contract, a photo of a finished job — drag it in. The Project gets smarter every week.

In 6 months your Project is the closest thing you have to a chief of staff.

Update the system prompt as you grow.

New service? Add it. New pricing? Update it. New persona discovered? Document it.

Re-read your system prompt every couple of months. If it's out of date, Claude is following stale instructions.

Three things tonight

1. Projects = permanent brain

One per part of your life. Roofing & Solar is the only one we need now.

2. Three layers

System prompt · Project knowledge · Chat context. Stack them.

3. Always work inside the Project

For anything roofing/solar related. The label at the top tells you you're in.

Before next week

Upload one more document.

A contract template, an old quote, a referral letter — anything roofing/solar related. Get the Project richer.

Next session

Session 4 — Files & Artifacts

We use your Project to generate real working documents — a competitor pricing spreadsheet, a one-page service menu, and a proposal template.

Bring: nothing new. Everything's in your Project.