5.1 — Configuring Projects with Instructions and Knowledge Sources

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