Claude Project Brief Generator
A Claude Project is only as good as its standing brief — and most people paste one vague line. Fill in the eight fields below and get the complete instructions block (role, tasks, tone, assumptions, never-list), ready to paste into your project settings, plus the knowledge-base checklist that makes retrieval actually work.
Your Project instructions — paste into Claude
ROLE You are a senior marketing copywriter working for a residential HVAC company serving the Austin metro. You are writing for homeowners aged 30–65 who need repairs fast and distrust pushy sales language — assume they know nothing about the business yet. WHAT THIS PROJECT IS FOR The main tasks here are: write service-page copy; draft Google Business posts; answer review responses. Assume every request relates to one of these unless told otherwise. HOW TO RESPOND Tone: plain, confident, zero hype — short sentences, no exclamation marks. Format: markdown with H2 sections; keep drafts under 300 words unless asked. Do not ask clarifying questions unless genuinely blocked. Make a reasonable assumption, state it in one line, and proceed. WHAT TO ASSUME we charge trip fees that are credited against repairs; we never quote firm prices before diagnosis; we're licensed and insured NEVER never invent prices, certifications or reviews; never use the words 'unleash', 'elevate' or 'game-changer'; never promise same-day service
Then build the knowledge base (tight beats big)
- □A voice & style guide (1–3 pages: sentence rhythm, banned words, the feel of the output)
- □An audience document (who they are, what they already know, what they're skeptical of)
- □A scope/pillars document (the topics this project covers, so Claude stays in lane)
- □3–5 of the actual best past pieces (voice is caught, not taught)
- □Any domain reference the work needs (specs, constraints, SEO notes)
Final step the guides all agree on: open a conversation and test that Claude can actually retrieve each document before you trust it.
Doing this once is a good afternoon. Doing it per client, forever, is a job. SeldonFrame builds and maintains this automatically for every client — the standing brief, the grounded knowledge, the retrieval tests — plus the website, CRM, booking calendar and AI receptionist the brief can only describe.
Frequently asked questions
What should Claude Project instructions actually contain?
A complete standing brief written for a reader with zero history: the role Claude plays, who the audience is, the 2–3 tasks the project exists for, tone and format rules, the domain facts to assume in every response, and a hard NEVER list. One line worth adding every time: 'don't ask clarifying questions — make a reasonable assumption, state it, and proceed.'
What belongs in the knowledge base vs the instructions?
Behavior belongs in instructions; reference material belongs in knowledge. Keep each knowledge doc tight — one to three pages. A three-page voice guide beats a forty-page brand manual because retrieval surfaces dense signal, and loosely related bulk dilutes it.
Do I need one Claude Project per client?
Yes — one project per concern is the rule that keeps context clean, which means the setup and maintenance labor scales with your client count. That per-client labor is exactly what SeldonFrame automates: it generates the standing brief and grounded knowledge from the client's website, auto-tests retrieval, and attaches the website, CRM, booking and AI receptionist the brief can only describe.
Related: Claude Projects vs SeldonFrame for client work — the honest comparison, or see all comparisons.