🎯 In one sentence: Claude has a toolkit of features beyond basic chat — Projects, Artifacts, Memory, Web Search, Research mode, file uploads, and custom styles. Knowing when to use each one makes a huge difference.

Projects — your persistent workspace

What it is: A dedicated workspace where you upload documents, set instructions, and have multiple conversations that all share the same context.

Why it matters: Without a Project, you'd need to re-upload files and re-explain your situation in every new conversation. With a Project, Claude already knows your context before you type a single word.

How to use it:

  1. Click the + next to "Projects" in the sidebar
  2. Name it something specific ("Q2 Marketing Campaign" not "Stuff")
  3. Upload relevant documents (style guides, codebases, briefs, data)
  4. Set custom instructions (tone, format, constraints, role)
  5. Start conversations inside the Project

💡 Tip: Create separate Projects for each major area of work. Everything you upload is available in every conversation within that Project — no re-uploading.

Available on: Free (up to 5) | Pro/Max (unlimited)

Artifacts — interactive content in a side panel

What it is: When Claude creates something substantial (code, a document, a chart, a diagram, an interactive app), it appears in a side panel called an Artifact. You can preview, edit, iterate on, publish, and download it.

What Artifacts can be: