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Configuration and Knowledge Management — practice exercise

Configuration and Knowledge Management — practice exercise

Difficulty: beginner · Estimated duration: 45–60 minutes

You will do this exercise in the Claude app. No code is involved. Steps that need a Team or Enterprise plan, or an owner’s permission (sharing, organization instructions, connectors an owner must enable, and memory controls where memory is off), are written as plans rather than carried out, so every stage works on any plan. One help-center page lists project instructions as a paid-plan feature; if your plan does not offer them, write yours down instead. The scenario is invented for practice: you coordinate volunteers for the Harbour Arts Festival, a three-day community event.

StageWhat you practiceMinutes
1Building and sharing a project12
2Files, retrieval and connectors12
3Writing and testing instructions12
4Maintaining the setup12

Stage 1 — Build and share the project

Skills: CCAOF-U5.T1.LO1.S1, CCAOF-U5.T1.LO1.S2, CCAOF-U5.T1.LO1.S3 Minutes: 12

  1. Create a project called “Festival volunteers”. In its description, write one sentence for people who will see it.

  2. Save this briefing as a text file and add it to the project’s files:

    Volunteers sign in at the Market Square tent 30 minutes before each shift. Shifts run 9:00–13:00 and 13:00–17:00. Lost children are taken to the Lantern Tent. First-aid questions go to the St John volunteer at the Quay Stage.

  3. Sort these six lines into project instructions or ask in a chat, then write the project instructions:

    • a. You help the Harbour Arts Festival’s volunteer team.
    • b. Write in plain, friendly English.
    • c. Draft the rota email for Saturday’s early shift.
    • d. Never include volunteers’ phone numbers in drafts.
    • e. Summarize Friday’s feedback forms.
    • f. Use the festival’s site names: Quay Stage, Lantern Tent, Market Square.

  4. Open a chat in the project and ask where volunteers sign in. Then, in that chat, tell Claude that the sign-in time is now 45 minutes before each shift. Open a second chat and ask for the sign-in time. Record what it says, whether memory and chat search are on for your account, and why.

  5. Plan only (Team or Enterprise): two shift leads should keep the briefing up to date, and twelve stewards should only ask questions. Write down the visibility and permission you would give each group.

Stage 2 — Files, retrieval and connectors

Skills: CCAOF-U5.T1.LO2.S1, CCAOF-U5.T1.LO2.S2, CCAOF-U5.T1.LO2.S3 Minutes: 12

  1. The festival’s site map is a picture inside a Word document. Write down what Claude will read from that document, and add the three most important locations to the project as text instead.
  2. The festival office sends you three files named Doc1.docx (the volunteer code of conduct), scan0032.pdf (last year’s road-closure notice) and notes FINAL (2).txt (first-aid procedures). Write a clear new name for each.
  3. Write the question you would ask to get Claude to answer from the first-aid procedures in particular.
  4. Plan only: you want Claude to draft replies to volunteers’ emails in Gmail, and to read the rota in Google Drive. Write the steps from “not connected” to “reply sent”, noting any that need an owner, and say which of your chats should have each connector switched on.

Stage 3 — Write and test instructions

Skills: CCAOF-U5.T2.LO3.S1, CCAOF-U5.T2.LO3.S2, CCAOF-U5.T2.LO3.S3 Minutes: 12

  1. Decide the level for each rule (account, project or organization):
    • a. “I always want UK spelling.”
    • b. “Use the festival’s site names.”
    • c. “Every staff member’s chats must use the festival’s safeguarding wording.”
  2. Rewrite “Be nice to volunteers” as two concrete instructions, and add them to the project instructions.
  3. Start a new chat in the project and test the instructions with three different kinds of request: an email, a short summary and a list. Record whether each instruction was followed. If your plan does not offer project instructions, paste them at the start of a new chat and test there.
  4. Plan only: the festival’s organization instructions say “Sign off emails ‘The Festival Team’”. Your personal instructions say “Sign off with my first name” and “Use numbered lists for rotas”. Predict how Claude signs off a rota email, and whether the rota uses numbered lists.

Stage 4 — Maintain the setup

Skills: CCAOF-U5.T2.LO4.S1, CCAOF-U5.T2.LO4.S2, CCAOF-U5.T2.LO4.S3 Minutes: 12

Two months later, three things have changed: the Lantern Tent is now called the Harbour Lights Tent; last year’s rota files are no longer used; and the festival is over, though next year’s team may want to look back at the project.

  1. Update the project’s instructions and briefing for the new tent name, and remove the old name. Test the change in a new chat.
  2. Write down what you would do with last year’s rota files, and with the project once the festival is over. Plan only (Team or Enterprise): one steward who has left should lose access; say how.
  3. If memory is available to you, open your memory and look for the old tent name; edit or delete it. If memory is not available, write down how you would do it.
  4. Plan only (Team or Enterprise with memory on): you accidentally asked about your own tax return in a chat inside the project. Write down how to keep it out of the project’s memory.

Acceptance checks

  • Stage 1: the project has the briefing in its files and short instructions; you sorted all six lines; you explained the second chat’s answer; your sharing plan gives each group one permission.
  • Stage 2: you named what Claude reads from the Word document; all three files have descriptive names; your question names a document; your connector steps include signing in, switching on per chat and approval.
  • Stage 3: each rule has a level; the rewrite is concrete; you tested in a new chat with three kinds of request; you predicted both parts.
  • Stage 4: the old name is gone from instructions and briefing; you have a plan for the files, the project and the steward; you have a memory step for each of 3 and 4.

Reference solution

Stage 1. The description is for people only, because Claude does not have access to a project’s name or description.

  • Project instructions: a, b, d and f. They are Claude’s role and guidelines for every chat.
  • Ask in a chat: c and e. They are single tasks, and task-specific instructions belong in the chat itself.
  • With memory and chat search off, the second chat gives the briefing’s 30 minutes, not the 45 you told the first chat: context is not shared across chats in a project unless it is added to the project knowledge. With them on, it may pick up 45, but the briefing file still says 30. Either way, the change belongs in the briefing file, which every chat uses.
  • Sharing plan: keep the project private and invite both groups, the shift leads with “Can edit” and the stewards with “Can view”. Sharing needs a Team or Enterprise plan.

Stage 2.

  • For a non-PDF document such as Word, Claude extracts text only and cannot interpret embedded images. So the map’s locations need writing out, for example: “Market Square tent: volunteer sign-in. Lantern Tent: lost children. Quay Stage: first aid.”
  • File names, for example: “Volunteer code of conduct”, “Road-closure notice, last year” and “First-aid procedures”.
  • The question should name the document: “Using the first-aid procedures document, what should a steward do if…?”
  • Connector plan:
    1. On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner or primary owner enables Gmail and Google Drive for the organization.
    2. You sign in to each yourself, unless the organization uses Enterprise-managed auth (in beta).
    3. You toggle Gmail on only in the chats that handle volunteer email, and Drive only where the rota is needed.
    4. Claude drafts, and by default asks for your approval before each action such as sending. On Team and Enterprise plans, owners decide whether members can allow these actions to run without asking.
    5. Claude can reach only what you can already open.
  • On Team and Enterprise plans, connectors are available only in private projects, so if you had made the project public (“Everyone at” your organization), you would use them in chats outside it; your invite-only project is private, so they are available there, although the Google Workspace page says the Drive files option is disabled for shared projects.

Stage 3.

  • Levels: a is account, since it applies to all your conversations. b is project. c is organization, set by an owner on a Team or Enterprise plan.
  • A good rewrite: “Thank volunteers at the start of each email.” and “Keep emails under 120 words, with the shift time in the first line.”
  • The test counts only in a new conversation, and should cover different types of request.
  • Prediction: the email signs off “The Festival Team”, because organization instructions take precedence and Claude favors them in a direct contradiction (the help center notes that in rare edge cases behavior may vary). The rota uses numbered lists, because your personal instructions still apply where the organization’s are silent.

Stage 4.

  1. Replace “Lantern Tent” in the instructions and briefing, remove the old wording rather than adding a second line (contradictory instructions may not be followed reliably), and test in a new chat.
  2. Remove the unused rota files, and archive the project when the festival is over. Archiving keeps members and sharing, so remove the steward in the project’s sharing settings.
  3. Open the memory topic that mentions the Lantern Tent, and edit or delete it; or tell Claude to forget the old name. Deleting old chats would not remove the memory. On Team and Enterprise plans, memory is off until an owner turns it on.
  4. For Team and Enterprise plans using memory, use “Remove from project” on that chat, so it counts toward your non-project memory instead of the project’s.

Sources

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