MICHAEL
0 of 8 steps done
AI Q · Guide 2

How to give Claude a job

A project with no job is just a smart chat. Here's how I turn one into a role: instructions that stay true for months, docs for everything that changes, and a rule that nothing goes out without my yes.

Time about an hour, then a short review each quarter Cost projects work on every plan, including Free Level you finished guide 1

Prologue

From assistant to role

In guide 1 you made your first project. Now it gets a job. Everything else in the series runs inside a project that knows its job and what it must never do.

  1. 1Set up Claude
  2. 2Give Claude a job
  3. 3Define your brand
  4. 4A content inbox
  5. 5A free publishing stack
  6. 6Timing and comments
  7. 7Thought to motion

Where you are

Claude set up, memory on, and one project with a short starter in its instructions.

What you'll have

  • A one-sentence job
  • Instructions that hold for a quarter
  • Docs for facts that change
  • An approval gate
  • A memory you've read

How I came to it

My brand project is my social media manager. Claude drafts, I approve, it schedules. Changing my mind about one rule showed me what belongs in instructions and what belongs in docs.

Before you start

What you need

Your ticks are saved in this browser.

The picture

How a job runs

Top row: set up once. Middle row: every task. Tap a box to jump to its step. Boxes turn teal as you finish.

Set up once: the job, then instructions, then the timeless test, then docs. Every task: read the docs, Claude drafts, your yes, write to the docs, and back to reading. Project memory feeds the drafting. A quarterly review loops back to the instructions. The jobstep 1 · one sentence Instructionsstep 2 · the skeleton Timeless teststep 3 Docsstep 4 · facts that change Read beforestep 6 Claude draftsevery task Your yesstep 5 · the gate Write afterstep 6 Project memorystep 7 Quarterly reviewstep 8

On a narrow screen, swipe the picture sideways.

The hour

Eight steps

What to do, how I do it, and a task to tick.

1

Write the job in one sentence

  1. Pick a job title a person could hold: editor, social media manager, researcher.
  2. Add who does and who decides: "You draft, I approve, you publish."
  3. Add what it must never touch.
You're my [job title] for [area]. You [what Claude does], I [what I decide], then you [what happens after my yes].
You work only on [what's in scope]. Never touch [what's out of scope].
How I do it

Mine: my social media manager. It drafts, I approve, it schedules. The next line says where it may never publish.

Task
2

Give the instructions a skeleton

Instructions apply to every chat in the project.

  1. Your project
  2. Set project instructions
  3. Paste the skeleton, fill each section short
  4. Save instructions
# Role
[Your one-sentence job from step 1.]

# Where you work
[The places this project may act in. And the places it must never touch.]

# Who I am
[A few lines about you that won't change this quarter.]

# Themes
[The 3 to 5 subjects this project works on. Any rule for mixing them.]

# Formats
[How the work should usually look. A priority, not a cage.]

# Hard boundaries
[What must never be shared, said or done. Who must never be named without asking.]

# Voice
[One line. Then: "The source of truth is the [brand doc]. Read it before every draft."]

# Rhythm
[How often, how much, which days. Point to a doc for exact times.]

# Project docs
- [doc name]: [what it holds]. Read [when].
- [doc name]: [what it holds]. Read [when]. Update [when].

# Workflow
1. Propose [the idea].
2. Draft [the work]. Check it against [your quality bar] before I see it.
3. I approve the draft.
4. [Any second check, like a preview.]
5. Check [what already exists or is queued] yourself.
6. Get my explicit yes on the final version. No yes, nothing goes out.
7. [Do the thing.]
8. Log it in [the log doc].
How I do it

My brand project uses almost these exact headings. One boundary I'd copy: never invent stories, numbers or quotes. Ask me for the real one.

Screenshot coming: the project instructions box with the headings filled in (values blurred)
Task
3

Run the timeless test

Instructions

True for a quarter

  • The job and its edges
  • Hard boundaries
  • The workflow and your yes
  • The docs list, with when to read each

Test: still true in three months?

Docs

Facts that change

  • Tools and settings
  • Dates and numbers you're testing
  • This month's focus
  • Who you work with now

Leave a pointer in the instructions.

Memory

How you like to work

  • Lasting preferences
  • "I review the text first, then the visuals."

Not for rules. Not for facts.

What goes where.
  1. Move every line that won't be true in three months into a doc.
  2. Leave a pointer, like "Posting times are in the timing doc."
Read this project's instructions. List every line that is likely to change within the next 3 months: tools, settings, dates, numbers, current focus, people, accounts. For each one, suggest which doc it should move to and the one-line pointer I should leave in the instructions instead. Don't change anything yet.
How I do it

Folders, formats, the quality score, schedulers and music rules live in my pipeline notes. When they change, my instructions don't.

Task
4

Create the docs, one job each

  • ProcessTools, settings, limits, the format for each place you publish.
  • LogWhat's done and decided, newest first, plus open ideas.
  • BrandYour voice and look. Guide 3 builds it.
  • TimingWhen things go out.
Start with four plain text docs.
  1. Project knowledge
  2. + add each file
  3. List it in Project docs: what it holds, when to read it
How I do it

My log doc holds story threads, ideas and the published log. Later I added docs for video, comments and filming.

Screenshot coming: the project knowledge panel with the four docs
Task
5

Build the approval gate

  1. Before anything leaves the project, add: "Get my explicit yes on the final version. No yes, nothing goes out."
  2. Add "Never [post, send, schedule, delete] automatically."
  3. Add "Confirm back to me what you did."
How I do it
  1. ClaudeDraftsthe text
  2. Gate 1I approve the text
  3. Gate 2I approve visuals and timewith a preview per channel
  4. ClaudeSchedulesat that exact time, then confirms it back
No yes, no scheduling. Never auto-schedule.

Reading what Claude wrote keeps the voice mine. Claude is great at the framing. I complete the main thought: my wording, my experience. That part belongs to the human.

Task
6

Read before, write after

Docs that aren't read and updated go stale.

  1. When to readRead before every draft.
  2. When to updateUpdate after every publish.
  3. How to writeRe-read a doc right before you write to it, merge your change into what you just read, and never write from an older copy.
Add these three lines for each doc. If Claude can't edit project files, ask for the full doc and replace it yourself.
How I do it

Before every draft, Claude reads my log doc. After every publish, it logs the post there.

Task
7

Meet your project's memory

Inside this project, Claude uses
This project's memoryYour memory from chats outside projects
Your other projects Never shared

View or edit: Settings Memory the You section

Each project has its own memory.
  1. Tell Claude a lasting preference in the project: "Remember: I review the text first."
  2. Follow the path above and open a topic to read, edit or delete it. Older layout: Settings, then Memory.
  3. Want this project fully on its own? On its page, under Memory, turn off Use account memory.
How I do it

Honestly? I haven't opened mine yet. This step I'm learning with you.

Screenshot coming: a project's memory, one topic open
Task
8

Plan the quarterly review

  1. Add a quarterly calendar reminder: "Review [project] instructions."
  2. Changed your mind sooner? Put the new rule at the top of the right doc, marked as an override.
  3. At the review, move overrides into the instructions and check the docs list.
Quarterly review. Compare this project's instructions with its docs. Tell me: 1) any rule in a doc that overrides the instructions, 2) any doc that isn't in the instructions' docs list, 3) any line in the instructions that is no longer true. Then write the full updated instructions for me to paste. Don't change the docs yet.
How I do it

I do both: a calendar reminder, and a review whenever something changes.

Task

Check it works

Ask Claude to describe its job

Paste this in a new chat inside your project. If the answer matches what you wrote, the job is clear.

Before we start: in 5 short lines, tell me 1) your job in this project, 2) three things you must never do, 3) which docs you read before you start a task, 4) which doc you update after, and 5) what you need from me before anything goes out.
Task

A vague answer means a vague section. Sharpen it and ask again.

My mistakes

What went wrong for me

Each became a rule in this guide.

A rule changed

What happenedMy instructions banned mentioning one of my ventures. Then I changed my mind.

What I do nowRules that may change live in docs. A doc edit, not a rewrite.

An unlisted doc

What happenedI added docs but not to my docs list. Claude didn't know when to read them.

What I do nowEvery new doc gets a line in the list.

Stale copies

What happenedSeveral chats edit my log doc. Stale copies overwrote it and decisions were lost.

What I do nowRe-read right before every write. Never write from an older copy.

Stay in charge

My do's and don'ts

Do

  • Give each project one job, with clear edges.
  • Give every doc one job, and list it with when to read it.
  • Make "no yes, nothing goes out" a line in your workflow.
  • Tell Claude to ask you for real stories instead of making them up.

Don't

  • Put dates, IDs, settings or this month's numbers in the instructions.
  • Paste passwords, keys or account details into instructions, docs or chats.

Epilogue

Your project has a job

You wrote the job, gave it instructions that will hold for a quarter, moved the changing facts into docs, and put your yes between Claude and the outside world. Now every chat in that project starts from the same role, the same limits and the same habits.

That's what lets you hand it bigger work later, because the rules are already in place.

In guide 3, we fill the brand doc: your voice and your look, written down so Claude sounds like you.