A fill-in-the-blanks setup for giving Claude Cowork a memory and a folder system it actually follows.
Cowork forgets everything between sessions unless you tell it where to look and where it's allowed to write. Most people never do, so every task starts from zero: Claude guesses which folder something belongs in, asks the same questions twice, and occasionally writes over something it shouldn't.
This pack fixes that. Fill in the blanks below once, paste the result into Cowork's Global Instructions, and every session starts already knowing your folder system and your rules.
This is the companion piece to Make AI Tell You the Truth, that one shapes your AI's personality across every chat. This one gives Cowork specifically a memory and a filing system, so paste it in on top of your personal preferences, not instead of them.
How it works
Your Global Instructions have three jobs:
Tell Cowork what to read before it starts, so it has context instead of guessing.
Tell it exactly where it's allowed to write, so nothing lands in the wrong folder or gets overwritten.
Set your naming and hard rules, so it stops asking questions you've already answered.
Fill in the fields below. As you type, your finished instructions build in the code block below. Then copy them into Cowork's settings. You only do this once.
Fill in your details
Used in the "don't delete without asking" rule below.
Only needed if Cowork's connected folder sits inside other project folders, like Adrian's does. Leave blank if Cowork points straight at a dedicated folder for this system.
Your read-only folders
Claude reads these, never writes to them.
Your identity, voice, and house rules.
One line describing what belongs here.
A second reference folder, e.g. brand assets, design guides, style libraries. Leave blank if you don't need one.
One line describing what belongs here.
Your write folders
The only places Claude delivers work.
If you organise work by project, Claude writes straight into the matching project subfolder instead of one catch-all. Leave blank if you don't.
One line describing what belongs here.
Where Claude writes when there's no clear project or subfolder to use instead.
One line describing what belongs here.
Where superseded files get moved. Leave blank if you don't use one.
One line describing what belongs here.
The format for markdown files Claude produces.
For PDF, Word, Excel, or anything that could reach a client. Leave blank to drop this line entirely.
One rule per line. Added under Operating Rules below.
Your Global Instructions
Anything still in [brackets] hasn't been filled in yet. Fill it, or delete it before you paste.
CLAUDE COWORK · GLOBAL INSTRUCTIONS
How to load it
In Cowork's settings
Go to Settings, then Cowork, then click Edit next to Global Instructions. Paste the block above in as one block, then Save. It now applies to every Cowork session, every project, and every scheduled task.
Then build the folders
Inside whatever folder you connect to Cowork, create the folders you named above, exactly as you named them. Drop your identity notes and house rules into the read-only ones. Leave the write folders empty, that's Cowork's job.
Four things people get wrong
They never grant Claude read and write permissions for the connected folder. That's set in your computer's settings, not Cowork's. Skip it and Cowork can't see or touch the folders you just told it to use, no matter how good the instructions are.
They paste the instructions but never build the folders. Cowork reads what you tell it to read. If the folder's empty or doesn't exist, there's nothing to find.
They stop at one read folder and one write folder. That's a fine starting point, but if you organise work by project, let Claude write straight into project subfolders instead of dumping everything into one catch-all.
They never test it. Start a fresh session, hand it a real task, and check it actually reads the right folder and writes to the right one before you trust it with anything that matters.
Want this built for you, not by you?
We run the whole LinkedIn system, profile, content, lead magnets, outreach, in your real voice. We only take on people we can get results for.