CRAFT Tutorials · Getting Started · 2 of 12
Two small moves and you’re running CRAFT: make a project folder, then put CRAFT inside it. By the end of this post you’ll have a CRAFT project Claude can work in and remember.
Before you start: this assumes Claude Cowork is already installed and turned on. If it isn’t, see the previous post, Install and turn on Claude Cowork, then come back.
First, a quick word on the word “project,” because it means two slightly different things here:
A Cowork project is just a folder on your computer that Claude works in and remembers. A CRAFT project is that same folder with CRAFT’s files inside it. So “starting a CRAFT project” really means: make a Cowork project, and point it at CRAFT’s files. That’s the whole idea — and the good news is the CRAFT download is already a ready-to-use project folder, so this is mostly pointing, not building.
The one path to follow
There are a few ways to do this, but here’s the single simplest one for a first-timer — do these three things in order:
- Download CRAFT and unzip it. Get the current free release from the CRAFT downloads page and unzip the file. You’ll have a folder containing
CLAUDE.mdand theframework/,personas/, andproject/folders (you don’t need to open any of these). - Create a Cowork project from that folder. In Cowork, find Projects in the left navigation, click “+”, and choose “Use an existing folder on your computer.” Select the unzipped CRAFT folder, give the project a name, and click Create.
- Initialize CRAFT. Open the project and, in the chat, say:
Initialize a CRAFT session.
✓ You’ll know it worked when Claude reads the project’s CLAUDE.md, recognizes it as a fresh CRAFT project, and responds with a short orientation — telling you where you are and what you can do next. That’s a live CRAFT project.
📎 Official Anthropic guide
Creating and connecting a project folder is Cowork’s own standard process — the same for every Cowork project, with or without CRAFT. For the exact clicks and screenshots, see Organize your tasks with projects in Claude Cowork (use “Use an existing folder on your computer”).
A couple of good-to-knows
Even simpler: you can just start working inside the CRAFT folder itself — it’s already a complete CRAFT project. Creating a separate project folder is only for keeping each of your projects cleanly separate, which becomes the tidier habit once you have more than one.
Prefer an empty start? You can also create a project with a fresh empty folder and then ask Claude, “Copy the CRAFT files into this folder for me” — but the three steps above are the quickest way in.
Why two parts? The folder is plumbing — Cowork’s job. CRAFT is what goes in the folder to give the project a memory and a method. Keeping them separate means you can add CRAFT to any Cowork folder, any time.
You now have a CRAFT project. Next up: how to actually work in it day to day — starting with Start a chat, the next post in this series.
Claude Cowork is built and maintained by Anthropic — always check their guide for the latest details, since Cowork updates regularly.