CRAFT Tutorials · Getting Started · 3 of 12
A CRAFT session is just a working chat in your project — one that loads your memory before you begin. Starting one is the same simple move every time, and Claude picks up right where you left off.
Before you start: this assumes you already have a CRAFT project. If you don’t yet, see the previous post, Start your first CRAFT project, then come back.
The two steps
- Open your project folder in Cowork.
- Say:
Initialize a CRAFT session.
That’s the whole thing. Behind that one sentence, Claude:
- reads your project’s memory file (
CLAUDE.md), - picks up your last handoff, if there is one, and
- tells you where you left off and a suggested next step.
✓ You’ll know it worked when Claude replies with a short “here’s where we are” summary instead of a blank greeting. On a brand-new project it simply confirms a fresh start; on one you’ve worked in before, this is the moment your past work comes back — Claude resumes instead of starting cold.
You don’t need a magic phrase. Initialize a CRAFT session is the clearest way to ask, but Claude also understands “start a CRAFT session,” “let’s pick up where we left off,” and similar. The point is to let Claude read the project’s memory before you dive in.
Why start this way every time?
It takes two seconds, and it’s what makes everything else work. Initializing tells Claude to load the project’s memory before you give it work — so it already knows your project, your preferences, and your history the moment you begin. Skip it and Claude starts cold; do it and Claude starts caught up.
That’s how every session begins. Next up: how to stop cleanly so the next session resumes just as smoothly — End a CRAFT session, the next post in this series.