The Context File

What this is

A text file Claude reads before every chat, so it starts already knowing your business.

• Answers with your real offer, price, and guarantee on the first try.
• Ends the paste-my-context-again ritual at the top of every chat.
• Holds your writing rules and banned words so drafts sound like you.

The problem

→ Every new chat starts blank. It does not know your offer.

→ You paste the same context again. Monday, Friday, this morning.

→ It quotes a price you retired, inside a client-facing draft.

→ Fifteen minutes a day, five days a week. Run that against your own hourly rate.

How it works

• Starter template: a file of labelled blanks, so no block is a guess.
• Seven blocks: who you are, what you sell, pricing rules, who you sell to, writing rules, output standards, things Claude must never do.
• Save as CLAUDE.md: the name is the whole trick. Nothing else changes.
• Upload as project knowledge: it loads itself from then on.
• Every chat reads it first: you never paste context again.

Not a piece of software. Nothing to install, nothing to connect, no code. One file, filled in once, checked once a month.

What you need first

Get the files

Everything sits in one folder on GitHub: https://github.com/gary-chakraborty/gap-build-vault/tree/main/builds/claude-md-starter

You do not need a GitHub account and you do not need any git software. On that page, click the green Code button near the top right, then click Download ZIP. Your browser downloads one zip file. Double click it to unzip, then open the folder called builds, then claude-md-starter.

Build it

Phase 1: Create the file

1. Open CLAUDE-md-starter-template.md in TextEdit, Notepad, or paste it into a blank Google Doc if that is easier to read.
2. You should see seven headed sections, each full of bracketed blanks like [YOUR BUSINESS NAME].
3. Save a copy under a new name so the original template stays clean.

You know this phase worked when: you have your own copy open, still full of brackets, and the original template file untouched.

Phase 2: Fill each block

1. Who I am and what my business does. Two or three sentences, written the way you would say it out loud to a stranger at a bar.
2. My offer and pricing rules. The exact price, the exact guarantee, and the rules around them: what you never discount, what you never quote over email.
3. My ideal customer. Who you sell to and, just as important, who you refuse. A one line refusal rule saves more bad drafts than the whole rest of the file.
4. Writing rules. Three real examples of how you talk: a sentence you would actually send, a word you never use, and a phrase you are tired of seeing from AI tools.
5. Output standards. Format rules you genuinely care about. Length caps, no bullet points inside emails, subject line limits.
6. Things Claude should never do. The section people skip and regret. List the specific mistakes that already reached a client.
7. Delete every bracket you did not fill. An empty bracket is worse than a missing section, because Claude reads it as an instruction to invent something.

You know this phase worked when: you can read the file top to bottom with zero brackets left and zero sentences you would not defend to a client.

Phase 3: Load it into a Claude project

1. Save the file with the exact name CLAUDE.md, capital letters included.
2. Go to claude.ai in your browser.
3. In the left sidebar, click Projects.
4. Click Create project in the top right.
5. Name it after your business and click Create project again to confirm.
6. Inside the project, find the Project knowledge panel on the right.
7. Click Add content, then Upload from device, and choose your CLAUDE.md file.
8. You should see the filename listed under Project knowledge with a size next to it.

You know this phase worked when: your file is listed by name under Project knowledge, and the project shows up in your left sidebar.

Phase 4: Test it against a real task

1. Click New chat from inside the project, not from the sidebar home. The project name should show at the top of the chat.
2. Type a real task you have this week, not a quiz question.
3. Read the answer for three things: your real price, your real guarantee, and your own words.
4. Anything wrong or generic is a missing line in the file, not a Claude problem. Go back, add the line, upload the file again.

You know this phase worked when: an answer comes back you would send with one small edit, on the first try, without you pasting anything.

Run it the first time

Open a new chat inside the project and paste this exactly:

A lead just replied saying our price is too high. Draft the reply I should send.

A working file gives you something shaped like this, in your voice. The business and the numbers below are made up, not a client of ours:

Thanks for being straight with me. The six month program is $7,640, and that price includes the rework guarantee we talked through on the call. Before I try to talk you into anything: is the price the real blocker, or is it the timing? Happy to walk through either. Are you free Thursday at 2pm or Friday at 11am?

Your numbers, your guarantee wording, your call to action. If instead you get a polite paragraph that starts with something like "I completely understand your concern" and never names a price, the file is not being read or the pricing block is empty.

When it breaks

Tell me how it went

I am not asking for your email. There is no list, no sequence, nothing to unsubscribe from.

Two minutes, three things: how you found this, whether it was useful, and what you want me to build next. https://form.jotform.com/262194392563059

The next build comes from those answers.