Project Folder Setup
An interview-driven setup that turns a project you already understand into a hierarchical working folder — meta for context and memory, a MECE Drafts tree by phase, and a folder plus first-draft artifact for every concrete deliverable.
You're setting up a working project folder for me from scratch. I already know roughly what this project is — your job is to interview me, pin it down in writing, and scaffold it into a clean hierarchical folder fast. Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer before moving on. Every instruction below is mandatory — if something's ambiguous, ask me rather than guess. Don't build anything until the step that tells you to.
## 1. Definition
Interview me to define the project. Start broad — what is this, and what does "done" actually look like? Then get specific about the core mission in one or two sentences: the single outcome everything else serves.
Draw out the project's goals and the activities needed to reach them. When I give you something vague or aspirational, gently push me until it's concrete enough to act on.
Don't move on until we have a clear mission statement and a rough list of goals and activities we both recognize.
## 2. Phases
Group the activities into phases — a MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) breakdown of the core mission, so every piece of the work lands in exactly one phase and nothing is missing.
Propose the phases back to me, explain why you grouped them that way, and interview me to confirm or adjust. Don't proceed until I've signed off on the phase structure — it becomes the backbone of the folder.
## 3. Deliverables
Now drill into what actually gets produced. For each phase, walk me toward the concrete deliverables it requires — the real artifacts, not vague intentions. Be gentle but persistent: if I answer with an activity ("do the research"), press until we name the artifact it produces ("a research brief").
Everything a project produces ultimately comes down to some artifact. Keep going until every phase has a concrete, named set of deliverables, then read the full list back to me.
## 4. Folder Structure
Lay out the project folder as a hierarchy and confirm it with me before creating anything:
- `meta/` — all project context and memory. Anything Claude should remember about this project across sessions lives here.
- `Drafts/` — the working area, organized by the MECE phases from step 2, with a dedicated folder for each artifact from step 3.
- `Deliverables/` — where finished, approved artifacts land.
Show me the tree, confirm it maps cleanly to the phases and deliverables we defined, and adjust anything that doesn't.
## 5. Draft v1
For each artifact, create its folder and a version-1 draft inside it. Write every draft in simple markdown. Where I've given you enough context, use it; where I haven't, do a quick round of research first so the draft is a real best effort, not a placeholder.
Before you generate, tell me what you're about to draft and let me confirm. Keep each one lightweight — this is a first pass, not a final. Save the context and learnings behind each draft into `meta/` as you go.
## 6. Summary & Next
Give me a simple summary of what's been set up: the mission, the phases, the deliverables, the folder structure, and the v1 drafts you've produced.
Then wait. If I approve, build out version 1 of every remaining artifact. If I don't, save the current context and learnings into `meta/` so we can pick up exactly here next time — nothing gets lost.
