Claude Projects + Knowledge Bases

Learning objectives

• Name the three components of a Claude Project: custom instructions, knowledge base, persistent chat history.
• State the knowledge-base limits (30MB per file, unlimited files) and what triggers RAG mode expansion.
• Apply the "most important rules first" ordering principle when writing Project custom instructions.
• Build a working "Reddit Marketing Ops" Project seeded with your Stage 1-5 assets.
• Identify which Claude plan tier (Free, Pro, Team, Enterprise) this stage's workflow actually requires.

Prerequisites: Stage 1's subreddit ecosystem map and ethics line; Stage 3's brand-voice guide; Stage 4/5's KPI dashboard and case-study library.

Core concepts

A Claude Project bundles three things that normally live in three different places on a laptop: custom instructions (what Claude should always assume about this work), a dedicated knowledge base (the files it can search), and a persistent chat history scoped only to this project (Anthropic Help Center, "What are projects?"). The knowledge base accepts PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, and HTML files, up to 30MB each with no cap on file count; free accounts get five projects, while Pro, Team, and Enterprise plans get unlimited projects plus a RAG mode that automatically expands effective capacity up to 10x once the knowledge base nears the context limit (Claude Help Center; Melissa Onwuka, 2025). For a Reddit operation, that ceiling is generous, not tight, your subreddit map, brand-voice guide, ICP, ethics red-line document, and case-study library from Stages 1 through 5 fit comfortably in a single project with room to grow.

The instructions field is where most builders leave value on the table. Claude weighs earlier content more heavily, so put your most important rule first, not your most comprehensive one. A strong Project's custom instructions cover four things in order: your role and organization, this project's specific purpose, the expected tone and output format, and any always-apply rules (Like One; Producing Paradise, 2025 guides). For this course, "always-apply rule #1" should be the human-in-the-loop line itself, stated so plainly that no downstream Skill or subagent built on top of this Project can quietly forget it.

# Reddit Marketing Ops, Project custom instructions
1. NEVER draft output implying it will be posted automatically. Every reply,
   DM, or launch post you produce is a DRAFT for human review before posting.
2. You are the Reddit-ops assistant for {{company_name}}, a {{product_category}}
   SaaS. Our disclosed founder account is u/{{reddit_username}}.
3. Purpose: monitor, score, and draft, never publish. Reference the attached
   subreddit map, brand-voice guide, ICP, and ethics red-line doc for every task.
4. Tone: match brand-voice-guide.pdf exactly. Format replies at 80% genuine
   advice / 20% disclosed mention, per our Stage 4 standard.

Knowledge-base contents worth uploading on day one: Stage 1's subreddit ecosystem map (member counts, promo tolerance), Stage 3's brand-voice guide, Stage 4's ICP and 95/5 funnel spec, Stage 4/5's KPI dashboard template and case-study library, and the team's red-line ethics document. Everything downstream in this stage, Skills, slash commands, subagents, either reads from this Project directly or from a lighter-weight file copy of the same source-of-truth documents, following the "define once, reference everywhere" pattern this course will reuse in Module 6.2.

Video lessons

Supporting reading

• How can I create and manage projects?, Claude Help Center (https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9519177-how-can-i-create-and-manage-projects), the authoritative source for the file-size, file-count, and plan-tier limits cited above.
• Anthropic Academy, Courses (Skilljar) (https://anthropic.skilljar.com/), free, self-paced official courses to point students toward for every module this stage covers, each with a verifiable certificate.
• What 4 Gen Marketers Are Building with Claude Code, MKT1 Newsletter (https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/real-marketers-claude-code-builds), grounds the Project-building exercise in real B2B marketer builds, not just feature documentation.

Exercise

Create your "Reddit Marketing Ops" Project. Write custom instructions following the four-part order (role, purpose, tone/format, always-apply rules), with the human-in-the-loop rule listed first. Upload your five Stage 1-5 source documents.

Assignment

Submit a one-page Project spec: your custom-instructions text in full, a list of every knowledge-base file and why it's there, and a note on which plan tier you're running and why (free 5-project cap vs. paid unlimited + RAG).

Claude workflow

• Skill idea: a "project-health-check" skill that audits whether the knowledge base is stale (flags any file older than 60 days) so the Project doesn't silently drift from your live Stage 4/5 numbers.
• Automation: none for the Project itself, it is the always-on foundation everything else in this stage reads from, not a task to schedule.

Expected outcomes

• Working Reddit Marketing Ops Project live, with five-plus knowledge-base files.
• Can recite the four-part custom-instructions order and explain why order matters.
• Can state the 30MB/file limit and the free-vs-paid project-count difference from memory.