All we're doing here is turning your knowledge and taste into written files, readable to an AI Chief of Staff. You start with one folder, the AI writes the files, and you add to it over time. Each iteration, the system gets better.
You're setting up a learning "vault," all about you: how you work, what's on your plate, your plans and rules for getting things done. The Chief updates it for you and keeps you on task. This is exactly what you'd expect a human chief of staff to do, except a machine needs to read it, literally.
If you have an assistant, or any kind of organizational system, think about what gets written down for it: SOPs, reference information, how you like things done, the decisions already made. What's important there? That's the kind of foundational information we're going to build into your Chief of Staff.
You make one folder, name it Chief, and connect it to a Cowork Project. That folder is the vault: the one place your Chief reads from and writes to, every session. Connecting it as a Project makes it stick, so you never have to wire it up again.
The equivalent is a ChatGPT Project (or Custom GPT) with knowledge files, or a Copilot Agent. One catch: those read files you upload but don't write back to a folder that grows. You'd re-upload. Cowork (and Claude Code) are what make the vault self-maintaining.
Setting up on one of those? Follow the steps for ChatGPT or Copilot.
Web and mobile can't read or write a local folder. You can still do all of this, but you'll copy-paste the files it generates and save them yourself. The self-writing loop (Step 5) needs the Cowork desktop app.
Paste the master Chief prompt below as your first message in the project, then say "Let's build my Chief." That prompt turns Claude into your Chief: it knows how to interview you and write your files, so you never open a text editor. Your whole foundation gets built from one conversation.
It offers two ways to go: Dump (paste a bio, deck, or notes and it organizes them) or Guided (one question at a time). Either way, you watch it capture as you talk, and it ends by drafting the account-instructions text you'll use in the next step.
about-me, business, current-state, plan, rules, inbox, and the operating file (CLAUDE.md) — all at the root of your Chief folder, each explaining itself.Paste the block your Chief drafted in the last step into a setting called Instructions for Claude. The vault only works on this computer, but this setting travels with your login, to every device you're signed into, including your phone. So any Claude chat sounds like you, even on your phone where there's no folder.
This loads into every chat, so keep it to the essentials: who you are (one line), your voice, "draft, never send," and how you like to work. The deep context stays in the vault.
You won't touch everything. These are the big ones.
Run your day with three commands. This is the everyday loop: how your vault grows and how your Chief learns your rules. The payoff is compounding. Correct it once and it sticks, plans persist, and nothing evaporates.
Capture: XDrops a task or note into your inbox the moment it hits you.
What's next?Your Chief reads your plan and gives the single most important next move.
WrapUpdates your plan, clears the inbox, and asks what to remember before you close out.
That's the foundation. Your Chief reads your vault every session, so you never start from zero, and it grows as you work.
Everything your Chief does is in your control. Every file is yours to open, read, and change. You didn't install a product that runs one fixed way. As you get comfortable, you build on it: your own commands, your own skills, your own workflows and routines. The Chief doesn't box you in. It just gets better at capturing where you are, keeping you on task, and being a real partner.
A few things that make it feel effortless:
Once the loop feels natural, connect a tool (email, calendar) or have your Chief build its first repeatable process. That's where the leverage compounds, but the foundation you just built is the thing everything else stands on.