Claude Projects is now a team: a coordinator, threads and a setup that won't burn your limit in a day

Projects is in beta and only on Pro and Max plans, rolling out gradually. It isn't on Team or Enterprise yet. If you see Projects in the left sidebar at claude.ai/code or in the desktop app's Code tab, you have access. If not, join the waitlist at claude.com/form/projects. You can also check on and steer threads from the mobile app.

It lives inside Claude Code, but you don't need to write code. Threads research, write documents, work through files you upload and drop the results in the Library.

What is extra below: the default model setting that burns your limit and how to fix it, an instructions template to copy and fill in, and ready phrases to give the coordinator.

Old Projects was a folder: a few files, instructions and a chat window. The new one works like a team with a manager.

The big shift: you stop managing lots of separate chats. You manage one conversation, and it manages the team. Cloud threads keep working after you close your laptop.

This is where most people go wrong. Don't make a project for one task. Make one for an area that keeps producing new work.

Rule of thumb: if the work outlasts one sitting and keeps creating new tasks, it's a project. Those tasks become threads inside it.

Connect the apps you want threads to use (Notion, Google Drive, Gmail and so on) at claude.ai/customize/connectors. Threads can use connected apps but the coordinator chat itself can't, so it hands that work to a thread.

If the project will work on code, your code needs to be on GitHub with the Claude GitHub App installed on that repo. No code, no need for any of this.

Already have a cloud session doing the work? Choose Continue as project from its menu. Claude proposes a project setup based on what the session was doing.

Instructions are the brief every thread reads before it starts. Write a rule here once and every new thread follows it. This is why you no longer need to sweat over every prompt.

Click the gear icon in the project header and go to Project settings > Memory > Project instructions. You get up to 16,000 characters. Copy this and fill in the brackets:

This project is for [what it's for, e.g. planning and producing my weekly YouTube videos].

About me: [one or two lines on who you are and who your audience is]

How to write: [tone, length, formatting rules, words to avoid]

Where things live: [files in the Library, connected apps like Notion or Google Drive, and what's in each]

Before you call work done: [how to check it, e.g. fact-check every claim and list your sources at the end]

If something you need is missing: say exactly what's missing in your first message and stop. Don't guess or make things up.

Ask me before: [sending emails, publishing anything, deleting anything, spending money]

Instruction changes only reach new threads. A thread that's already running keeps the old instructions.

You can give the coordinator and threads different brains. The setting is in Project settings > General. Effort is how hard the model thinks before answering: better results on hard tasks, but more of your plan.

Keep the coordinator light: it mostly routes work, so low effort is fine. You can pick a smaller model too.

Match thread power to the work. Keep high effort for writing, strategy and anything complex. A smaller model or lower effort is enough for simple jobs like formatting or sorting.

To change it for one task, just add "do this one with a smaller model" to your message.

Don't send ten tasks on day one. Go in this order:

Do your day to day talking in the main project chat. Brief it like a chief of staff: paste in tasks, ideas, updates and loose thoughts. It starts a new thread for new work, sends follow-ups to the thread already on that area, and answers quick questions itself. Unrelated tasks in one message become separate threads.

Claude saves preferences like these to memory and keeps following them. But they're preferences, not hard limits. Even "at most two threads" isn't a real cap; put anything critical in your project instructions too.

Overview sits beside the chat and groups threads by stage. A dot on the Overview button means something is waiting on you. In the desktop app you also get a notification when a thread needs you.

The panel's other tabs: Library for files, Pull requests for code work, Routines for anything on a schedule. The flow: send a batch of work, walk away, come back and go straight to Waiting on you.

Every new thread reads the project's memory when it starts. The more you teach it, the less you repeat yourself.

Remember: the launch moved to Friday.
Remember: never use the word "unlock" in my copy.
Fix this and remember it for next time.
Forget the old pricing decision, it no longer applies.

When you fix a thread's mistake, add "and remember this for next time"; future threads start with the fix. You can read, edit or delete memory in Project settings > Memory.

Upload reference material like brand guides, past examples and research to the Library once and every thread can read it. Finished work from threads lands here too. Add files with Add on the Library tab in Overview.

Projects share the same plan limits as your other Claude Code sessions, they just use them faster. An idle project, with no running threads and no new messages, uses nothing.

Project settings > Usage shows which threads and models are using your plan. Ask the coordinator to run fewer threads and answer small questions itself.

Start fresh threads for new work. Reviving a large thread that's been idle for over an hour re-reads its whole conversation, so it can cost more than starting a new one.

For one quick task, a plain chat is enough. Careful with work that needs files and apps on your own computer: threads run in the cloud and can't see it; upload the files, or ask the coordinator to run that one task on your computer (this needs the desktop app set up). For work that only repeats on a schedule, use a routine. Working as a team doesn't fit yet: a project belongs to one person and can't be shared.