How to Set Up Claude Projects for a Team

Set up one Claude Project per client, initiative or recurring body of work, with short project instructions and only the files specific to that work. Share projects with the colleagues who need them. Keep company-wide facts, such as product details and brand voice, in one maintained source rather than copying them into every project.

What are Claude Projects?

Claude Projects are workspaces that give Claude persistent context for a body of work. Each project has a knowledge base of files and a set of instructions, and both apply to every chat inside it. That means you set up a client's brief and background once, rather than re-explaining it in every conversation.

According to Anthropic's help centre, files in a project's knowledge base are used across all chats in that project, and project instructions apply to every chat within it. On paid plans, when project knowledge grows large, Claude switches to retrieving the relevant parts rather than loading everything.

Memory is also project-scoped. According to Anthropic, Claude creates a separate memory for each project, so what it learns working on one client stays with that client.

How should a team organise Claude Projects?

Organise projects around bodies of work that need their own context: one per client account, major initiative or recurring workstream. Give each a clear name, an owner and short instructions. Avoid one giant project for everything, which mixes contexts, and avoid a project per person, which recreates personal silos.

A simple structure for a services business:

The owner keeps the project's files current and decides who has access. Without one, projects fill with outdated drafts and conflicting versions.

What goes in project knowledge, and what does not?

Project knowledge should hold what is specific to that work: a client's brief, their history, their preferences, relevant past outputs. It should not hold company-wide facts such as your product details, pricing rules or brand voice. Those change, and copies inside dozens of projects drift apart.

Here is the trap. A team creates twenty client projects and uploads the product fact sheet to each. Three months later, pricing changes. Now twenty projects quote the old price, and nobody remembers which have been updated.

The fix is to keep company facts in one maintained place that every project and every person's AI draws on. That is what a company brain holds. Projects then add only what is specific.

Methods follow a similar rule. Anthropic's own guidance says: "If you find yourself copying the same instructions across multiple Projects, that's a signal to create a skill instead." A skill holds a method once and works in every project.

How do sharing and permissions work in Claude Projects?

On Team and Enterprise plans, project owners can share projects with members of their organisation. According to Anthropic's help centre, members can be given "Can view" access, to see contents and chat, or "Can edit" access, to change instructions and knowledge. Personal plans do not support sharing with colleagues.

Two practical points follow. First, anyone with access can read every file in the project, so keep sensitive material out of widely shared projects. Second, limit edit access to the people responsible for keeping the project accurate, so instructions and files do not change without the owner knowing.

Sharing is also one of the strongest reasons to put a team on a business plan rather than personal accounts. The comparison of Team, Enterprise and Pro covers which plans include it.

How do projects fit with skills and shared knowledge?

They do different jobs. Projects hold the context for a specific body of work. Skills hold methods for repeatable tasks, usable in any project. Shared company knowledge holds facts every project needs. Used together, a report skill running inside a client project, reading shared product facts, produces consistent work for every client.

The comparison of skills, Projects and GPTs goes deeper into when to use each.

People notice when this works. According to Atlassian's 2026 Pulse survey, only 12% of workers say their AI understands their organisation like a tenured senior colleague. Good project structure, on top of shared knowledge, closes much of that gap.

Skein sets up projects, skills and the shared knowledge layer together for growing teams. That suits a business with several clients or initiatives running in parallel. A small team with one main body of work may need only one or two projects.

Frequently asked questions

What are Claude Projects used for?

Claude Projects give Claude persistent background knowledge and instructions for one body of work, such as a client account or initiative. Files and instructions in the project apply to every chat inside it, so the context is set up once rather than repeated in each conversation.

Can you share Claude Projects with a team?

Yes, on Team and Enterprise plans. According to Anthropic's help centre, project owners can share with organisation members, giving "Can view" access to see contents and chat, or "Can edit" access to change instructions and knowledge. Personal plans do not support sharing with colleagues.

What should go in a Claude Project?

Put in what is specific to that work: the client's brief, history, preferences and relevant past outputs, plus short instructions. Keep company-wide facts such as product details, pricing and brand voice in one shared source instead, so they do not drift across many projects.

How many Claude Projects should a team have?

One per body of work that needs its own context, such as each client account, major initiative or recurring workstream. Avoid one project for everything, which mixes contexts, and avoid one per person, which recreates individual silos. Give every project an owner.

What is the difference between a Claude Project and a skill?

A project holds context for a specific body of work. A skill holds a method for a repeatable task and works across all projects. Anthropic suggests that if you copy the same instructions into several projects, you should turn them into a skill instead.

Related reading