Domain 5 – Configuration and Knowledge Management (12%)

• Configure Claude Projects with instructions (behaviour) and knowledge sources (content)
• Manage uploaded files and connectors (Google Drive, Gmail, etc.)
• Write effective system-level / project-level instructions
• Keep configurations and knowledge bases up to date

CCAO-F Domain 5 · Task 5.1

What You Need to Know

A Project has two configurable halves:

Container	Job
Custom instructions	How Claude should behave and respond (tone, role, format, standing rules)
Project knowledge	Material Claude works from (documents, text, files)

Instructions answer “how should this work be done?” Knowledge answers “what should it be done from?”

The Container Test

Is this a rule about behaviour, or material to consult?

• Behaviour → instructions
• Material → knowledge

Claude applies the instructions to every chat in the Project. Knowledge is consulted when the work calls for it. A knowledge file can be swapped in one step when revised; a policy pasted into the instructions has to be found and cut out by hand.

Build the Setup from What You Already Do

Whatever you re-explain at the start of every conversation is the instruction set. Whatever you re-attach is the knowledge base. Write the first list as behaviours and upload the second as files.

Key Concept: When competing setups are offered, route behaviour to the instructions and material to the knowledge.

Exam Traps

• Pasting the reference document into the custom instructions so Claude can never miss it
• Uploading the standing rule as a knowledge document and expecting it to govern every response
• Skipping the Project and re-explaining and re-attaching everything in each chat

Practice Scenario

Tenants and residents association secretary is setting up a Project for estate casework and monthly meeting papers. Two pieces in hand: the association repairs policy, and the rule that every letter must name the responsible officer and the date the repair was reported. Where should each go?

Build Exercise: Sort a Month of Manual Work into the Two Containers (25 min)

CCAO-F Domain 5 · Task 5.2

What You Need to Know

A Project’s knowledge arrives by one of two routes. The choice turns on how the material changes.

Route	Properties	Best for
Upload	Snapshot taken on the day of upload; stable and predictable; goes stale silently	Stable reference documents (terms, policies, handbooks)
Connector	Links to the live source (e.g. Google Drive); always the latest version; carries live mess	Material that changes frequently (schedules, rotas, living docs)

Permissions and Governance

On Team and Enterprise plans, an Owner or Primary Owner must enable connectors for the organisation before members can use them. Access mirrors what each person already holds in the connected service. Connectors can take actions (e.g. send email); by default Claude asks for approval before each action.

Retrieval, Not Cover-to-Cover Reading

Claude searches project knowledge and loads only the most relevant content. Clear, descriptive file names help. Name a specific document in your prompt to focus the search. Curation beats completeness: every document that is never needed dilutes the search space.

Key Concept: Upload-versus-connector items are keyed on how the material changes, never on how important it is.

Exam Traps

• Bringing in the whole shared drive so nothing is missing
• Choosing between upload and connector by how important the material is
• Having a Team-plan user switch on an organisation connector themselves

Practice Scenario

Show cave preservation society is setting up Project knowledge for guide rotas, opening arrangements and volunteer communications. Guide rota and opening times (change with water level) live in a shared Drive folder; constitution, site risk assessments and guide handbook barely change. A trustee suggests bringing in the entire shared drive. Best setup?

Build Exercise: Route a Real Project’s Material by How It Changes (30 min)

CCAO-F Domain 5 · Task 5.3

What You Need to Know

System-level instructions are standing rules written in plain English. They live in one of three places:

Level	Reach	Who sets it
Account-wide	All of your conversations	You (Settings > Your Claude / Instructions for Claude)
Project-level	That Project’s chats only	Project members
Organisation-level	Every conversation across the organisation	Owners / Primary Owners on Team & Enterprise

Where levels overlap, organisation instructions take precedence.

The Placement Question

Place every rule by asking what it is true of:

• True of you across all your work → account-wide
• True of one body of work → that Project’s instructions
• True of everyone in the organisation → organisation instruction (request through workspace Owner)
• Only true of today’s job → part of today’s prompt (Domain 1)

Behaviour, Not Aspiration

A useful instruction is checkable: “Keep each item under ninety seconds when read aloud” can be followed and failed. “Be engaging” cannot. Working test: could a new colleague follow this and produce what you wanted?

Short and Prioritised Beats Long and Exhaustive

Standing instructions should contain only what is true every time. A short prioritised set is followed more reliably than a long exhaustive one. When a set has outgrown what a colleague could hold in their head, group it and prioritise it.

Key Concept: Two questions settle almost every item. What is this rule true of? (level). Could a new colleague follow it and be checked against it? (wording).

Exam Traps

• The aspiration dressed as an instruction (“be professional, be thorough”)
• Writing this week’s requirement into the standing instructions
• Placing one Project’s rules at account level, or setting an organisation-wide rule personally as an ordinary member

Practice Scenario

Easy-read editor at a learning-disability self-advocacy charity is writing Project instructions for easy-read document summaries. Every line must still hold for documents produced years from now. Which instruction set will a volunteer checking the outputs be able to use?

Build Exercise: Pressure-Test and Place a Real Instruction Set (30 min)

CCAO-F Domain 5 · Task 5.4

What You Need to Know

Keeping a configuration right has three duties: inform, maintain and update.

Three Ways a Good Setup Decays

1. Knowledge goes stale — an uploaded file is a snapshot; nothing announces that its source was superseded
2. Instructions go out of date — they apply to every chat whether or not the world they describe still exists
3. Scope creeps — a Project that works attracts neighbouring work; each addition dilutes instructions written for the original job

All three look fine from inside the Project, so maintenance has to be scheduled.

Remove, Do Not Accumulate

When a document is superseded, remove the old version. Do not add the new one alongside it. A working Project needs exactly one answer to which version is current. After swapping a document, also read the instructions for rules written against the old wording.

Informing Is a Human Step

The only documented notification is the email when a project is first shared. None is documented for later edits to knowledge or instructions. Telling collaborators what changed and when is a human step, always. The date matters as much as the change.

The Maintenance Habit

1. A named owner — “Someone should keep this current” means nobody does
2. A review point tied to a real recurring event (quarterly figures, policy refresh, start of the season)
3. Removal treated as an active step of the review

Key Concept: The distractor that keeps both versions feels thorough. The keyed answer removes the superseded version, sweeps the instructions, and tells the people who use the Project.

Exam Traps

• Uploading the revised document while keeping the superseded version (sometimes with a note saying which is current)
• Adding an instruction telling Claude to prefer the newer document
• Assuming the system will tell colleagues the configuration changed

Practice Scenario

Bird observatory trust runs a Project for overnight-stay booking correspondence. Booking terms were revised in March. Letters have started quoting the old cancellation notice period; secretary finds both versions of the terms in the project knowledge. Trust intends to keep the Project as its booking workspace. What should she do?

Build Exercise: The Three-Pass Audit (30 min)