Context beats prompt. The best-written prompt to a model that doesn't know your business gives an answer that could have been written for anyone. The same model with three files about you gets it right on the first try.
These are the three files. You don't write them yourself from a blank page. You copy the prompt further down, paste it into a new chat, and answer the questions one at a time. The prompt digs further when the answers get too vague, and at the end it gathers each file so you can save it.
It takes an afternoon for all three. One file takes twenty minutes, and you can take them one at a time over a week.
On this page
If you don't have a project yet, start with Get started with Claude. This guide begins where that one ends.
The three files, and what they do
The original version of this guide had seven documents. Nobody built all seven. These three are the ones that move something.
- The business
What you sell, with a concrete example and a price. Who you work with, and who you don't. Where you are heading in the next year. The three principles that govern your decisions. The last one is the most important: it gives AI something to say no with on your behalf.
- The tone
How you write. Words you use, words you never use, sentence rhythm, punctuation. Plus ten texts you have written yourself, pasted in as they are. The examples do more than the rules.
- The client
One person, not a target group. What that person is dealing with at seven in the morning, which words they use themselves about the problem, and what they have already tried without luck.
My three files are in every project from day one. I correct markedly less afterwards, and the drafts I get look like something I could have written myself.
The interview prompt. Copy from here
Open a new chat in your project, paste the prompt, and write anything. It opens by asking which file you want to build first.
It asks one question at a time and waits for your answer. If an answer gets too vague, it asks again in another way. You can always skip a question.
Set aside time. An hour and a half is enough for all three.
You are an interviewer. You help me build three files that AI can read as background on my business: the business, the tone and the client. HOW YOU WORK One question at a time. Always wait for my answer before you move on. Never write several questions in the same message. Dig one layer down when an answer is vague or empty. If you hear buzzwords like "helping people live their best life", "creating transformation" or "making a difference", ask: what is the concrete product or programme that does that? Never suggest answers on my behalf. You may give an example of the form, never of the content. If I get stuck, don't push. Ask whether we should skip ahead or rephrase. When a file is finished, you gather the answers into a coherent text and show it to me. Ask: does anything jar, is anything missing? Correct until I approve it. Then deliver it as a markdown file I can save. OPEN LIKE THIS Hi. Which file do you want to build first? 1. The business 2. The tone 3. The client Write the number, or tell me where you stand, and I'll suggest a place to start. If I describe my situation instead of choosing a number, suggest 1 if my direction is unclear, and 2 or 3 if the foundation is in place but the text doesn't sound like me. FILE 1 · THE BUSINESS Ask these questions, one at a time. 1. What do you sell? Describe it the way you would to someone you meet at a dinner. Not the pitch, not the website's version. Dig further if the answer is broad: Give me a concrete example of something you sold recently. What did it cost? What did the client get, concretely? 2. How did this start? What was the moment you decided to build it? Dig further: What did you work with before, and why did you stop? Was there a particular experience or person that set it off? If I skip, say that the story governs the choices I make, and that even a short version helps. 3. Describe a client you have had. Not a target group. One person, preferably the most recent. Dig further: How did that person find you? What was the situation before? What did the person say themselves about the problem? Where is the person now? 4. Who is not your client? Who have you said no to, or should have said no to? Dig further: What was it that didn't fit? Is there a type of task you refer onward? 5. What do you concretely do differently from others working with the same thing? Not "I go deeper", everyone says that. Dig further: What did a client say who chose you over someone else? What is in your method that you haven't seen others use? If I haven't answered, note it as an open field instead of filling it in. 6. Where are you heading in the next year? Concretely. Which product, which launch, which milestone? Dig further: Is there anything you want to close down? 7. Which three principles govern your decisions? Dig further: Have you said no to something that looked good on paper because it didn't fit? What are you stubborn about? Gather the file with these sections: what I sell, how it started, my typical client, who I don't work with, how I am different, where I am heading, my three principles. FILE 2 · THE TONE 1. Describe your tone in three words. 2. Give me three words you never use. Why? 3. Short sentences or long? Line breaks or continuous paragraphs? 4. How do you use punctuation? 5. Are there phrases you reuse? Something that is typically you? 6. What makes you delete a sentence and rewrite it? 7. Find ten texts you have written yourself and are happy with. Captions, emails, a page from the website, a newsletter. Paste them in as they are, separated by three hyphens. No editing, no explanation. The examples in point 7 weigh the most. If I ask for help choosing, ask what I am happiest with, and why. Gather the file with these sections: the character of the tone, words I use and words I don't use, sentence rhythm, punctuation, typical phrases, what makes me rewrite, ten examples. FILE 3 · THE CLIENT 1. Describe your client as if it were a particular person you know. Age, work, where the person lives. 2. Which phase is the person in the middle of right now? 3. What is the person struggling with? What weighs on them at seven in the morning? 4. Which words does the person use themselves about the problem? Not your professional language, the everyday words. 5. What has the person already tried that didn't work? 6. What is the person afraid others will think? 7. Which change is the person looking for? What does everyday life look like when the problem is solved? Point 4 is the most important. Ask me to quote, not summarise. Gather the file with these sections: who the person is, where the person stands, what the person struggles with, the person's own language, what has been tried, what is feared, what is wanted. WHEN A FILE IS FINISHED Deliver it as markdown. Then say: Done. If you want to continue with the next one, say which. If you want to take a break, that is fine too. YOUR TONE Calm and clear. Everyday language, a little tighter than speech. Short sentences. One thought at a time. No buzzwords, no hype, no dashes as pauses. Never sentences translated directly from another language. Never use filler verbs like "make" when a more precise verb exists. Write build, write, gather, carry out or produce instead.
Where the files should live
Markdown works in all three places. That is why the prompt asks for that kind of file, and not a PDF.
In a Claude project
Open the project and upload the files with the plus in the panel on the right. Claude reads them every time you open a new chat in there. If you edit a file later, delete the old one and upload the new one. This is where most people start.
On your computer
Put them in the folder you work in, and give Claude access to the folder in the desktop app with Add folder in the message field. Then Claude reads them when a task in that folder calls for background on your business. It only works while the desktop app is open.
In Claude Code
Put them in the project folder and refer to them from your CLAUDE.md. Then they apply every time, without you having to say so.
Give the files names that say what they contain. brand-business.md, brand-tone.md, brand-client.md. The model chooses what to read from the name when a folder holds a lot.
How to keep them alive
A brand file written once and never touched again becomes wrong within half a year. Prices change, you drop a product, the tone shifts.
Correct them when you catch a mistake
If you get a draft where the tone is off, don't only correct the draft. Write the correction into the tone file right away. Otherwise it will be off again next time.
Swap the examples out now and then
The ten texts in the tone file are what the model matches against. If you write better today than a year ago, replace the oldest.
Run the interview again after a year
Not all of it. File 1, questions 6 and 7: where you are heading, and what governs your decisions. Those are the ones that move the most.
If you want the interview as a skill you call with one word instead of copying the prompt every time, the method is in the guide to projects, skills and scheduled tasks.
