II · Talk · 7 min
Lesson 07
Files, projects, and memory
What the model can see this turn, this project, and next week.
There are three different “memories.” Mixing them up is how people leak files or lose the brief.
- This turn
- What you just typed, plus any files attached to this message. Always in the window.
- This thread
- Prior turns, until the context window fills. Not a filing cabinet.
- Saved setup
- Project files, custom instructions, skills, memory features. Survive new chats only if the product says so — and only within that product.
A project (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, and others use slightly different names) is a bounded workspace: source files, a standing brief, and revisions in one place. That is usually better than a wandering chat with twelve PDFs pasted at 11 p.m.
Custom instructions and skills tell the model how to behave. They do not fetch live email. Uploaded files are snapshots. Connectors are live. If the handbook changed this morning, a file you uploaded in March is stale.
Check
You want the model to always write “not stated” instead of guessing, in every new chat about this project. Where does that rule belong?
Choose an answer to see why.