The folder anatomy

Lesson 2 of 7 · Module 01 · Set Up Your Command Center

Before Claude can keep track of your work, you have to give your work an address.

Here is the rule the whole system rests on: one project equals one folder. Not one folder with three half-finished things crammed inside. Not the same client living in two places because you forgot you already made it. One project, one folder, every time.

That sounds obvious. Walk through most people's machine and it isn't true. There's a "stuff" folder. There's a client whose work is split between Desktop and Downloads. There's a funnel that lives inside last month's research folder because that's where you happened to be sitting when you started it. Claude can't reason about a mess like that, because it has no reliable place to look and no reliable place to put things. Every session starts from zero.

So everything lives under one roof. Call it your projects root. On most machines that's ~/projects. Inside it, every project gets its own folder, and they all sit at the same level:

~/projects/
  client-acme/
  client-bright-smiles/
  practice-naturals/
  command-center/

Each project folder holds that project's work and one small file called CLAUDE.md. That file is the project's name tag. It tells any Claude session what this project is, what it's for, and which rules it follows. When Claude opens a project, it reads that file first and knows exactly where it landed.

The command-center folder you see in there is the shared brain. It sits at the same level as your projects, not inside any one of them, because it belongs to all of them. We build that in the next lesson. For now, just know it has an address too.

Notice what this is not. It is not a tagging system. It is not a database. It is not something you maintain. It is folders. The reason it works is that it's boring and it doesn't move. Claude always knows where it is and where things go, because the layout never changes.

You don't have to sort this by hand. The Prompts Pack has a prompt that points Claude at your machine, takes inventory of what you already have, and proposes a clean layout before it touches anything. You approve the moves. Claude does the dragging.

Grab prompt 02 from the Prompts Pack and run the inventory. Then come to Lesson 3, where we build the shared brain that lives in that command-center folder.

Jerry

Video script

Target: 60-90 seconds spoken. Talking head, on-screen text in [brackets].

On screen: One project = one folder

Before Claude can keep track of your work, your work needs an address.

The whole system rests on one rule: one project, one folder. Every time. Not one folder with three half-finished things inside it. Not the same client living in two places because you forgot you already made it once.

On screen: ~/projects/ with client-acme, client-bright-smiles, practice-naturals, command-center listed underneath

Everything lives under one roof. Your projects root. On most machines that's a folder called projects. Inside it, every project gets its own folder, all sitting at the same level.

On screen: highlight a single project folder, show "CLAUDE.md" inside it

Each project folder holds that project's work, plus one small file called CLAUDE dot M-D. Think of it as the project's name tag. When Claude opens the project, it reads that file first and knows exactly where it landed and what the rules are.

On screen: highlight command-center folder, sitting beside the projects, not inside one

That command-center folder sitting next to your projects is the shared brain. It lives at the same level because it belongs to all of them. We build that next.

On screen: NOT a database. NOT a tagging system. Just folders.

Here's why this works: it's boring and it doesn't move. No database, no tagging system, nothing to maintain. Claude always knows where it is and where things go, because the layout never changes.

On screen: Prompt 02: inventory your machine

And you don't sort this by hand. Prompt 02 in the Pack points Claude at your machine, takes inventory, and proposes a clean layout before it moves a single thing. You approve. Claude drags.

On screen: Run prompt 02 → then Lesson 3

Run the inventory, then come to Lesson 3 and we'll build the brain.

← Lesson 1: Why structure first (the chaos you're about to walk into)Lesson 3: Build the Command Center (the shared brain) →