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Phase 2 · Your Family Manager

Build Your Family Manager

4 screens · do this on your computer

What you're about to build.

Family Manager is the Cowork Project that's going to know your family — your kids, your schedule, your routines, your voice. Most of what you do for the rest of the course connects back to it. Meal planning, school papers, brain dumps, your dashboard — they all run through Family Manager.

This lesson just creates the shell. We'll add the family information in the next lesson, and the custom instructions (your tone, your rules) in the one after that. Today you're laying the foundation.

What you'll have at the end of this lesson

  • A Cowork Project named Family Manager
  • Connected to a folder on your computer at ~/Documents/Claude/Projects/Family Manager/
  • One quick test that confirms Cowork can read and write inside it

Create the Project shell.

Creating the Project itself is one of the few moments in this course where you'll actually click through Cowork's interface. Once the Project exists, everything you do inside it goes back to the tell-Cowork pattern.

  1. Open Claude Desktop and click the Cowork tab

    Top of the app, between Chat and Code. You should land in Cowork's Tasks view.

  2. Click Projects in the left sidebar

    Then click the + button to start a new Project.

  3. Pick "Start from scratch"

    The other two options are for cases we don't need today. Start from scratch is the path the course teaches.

  4. Name it Family Manager

    Exactly that — title case, no abbreviations. We'll reference this exact name throughout the course.

  5. Set the save location to ~/Documents/Claude/Projects/Family Manager/

    This is the folder pattern from the last lesson. If you already have a Projects folder there, Cowork will create a new Family Manager folder inside it. If you don't have a Projects folder yet, Cowork will create that too.

  6. Skip the instructions and files fields for now

    The form lets you add starter instructions and starter files at this step. Leave both empty — we're building those properly in the next two lessons. Cleaner that way.

  7. Click Create

    Cowork creates the Project, creates the folder on your computer, and opens the new Project for you.

What you should see now.

You're inside your new Family Manager Project. The interface should show: a chat area in the middle, a Files panel (likely empty), and references to the connected folder. If you open Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows) and navigate to Documents → Claude → Projects → Family Manager, you'll see a real folder sitting there. That's the one Cowork is connected to.

Test it — your first message inside the Project.

The Project exists. Now let's confirm Cowork can actually read and write inside it. This is also the first time you'll practice the ask-Claude-first habit inside a Project, which is where you'll spend most of the rest of the course.

In your new Family Manager Project's chat, send this:

Your first Family Manager message
Hi! This is the first thing I'm asking inside my new Family Manager Project. To make sure everything is connected properly, please do three things: confirm you can see this Project's connected folder on my computer, list whatever files are currently inside it, and create a small note called PROJECT-NOTES.md that says "Family Manager started on [today's date]." Then tell me what you did.

Cowork will work through the three pieces. If you're in Ask Before Acting mode (recommended from the last lesson), Cowork will pause and ask permission before creating the file. Click Allow.

What to look for.

  • Cowork's response should mention the folder path (~/Documents/Claude/Projects/Family Manager/) — confirming the connection.
  • The current file list should be empty (or close to it) since you just created the Project.
  • After Cowork finishes, open Finder / File Explorer and look inside the Family Manager folder. You should see PROJECT-NOTES.md sitting there.

If all three check out, the Project is fully wired up. If something looks off, ask Cowork what went wrong — that's also the ask-Claude-first habit at work.

Done — what's next.

You now have a real, working Cowork Project. It's empty — no family information, no custom instructions yet — but the plumbing is in place. From here forward, we add the substance.

The next two lessons

  • What to Upload — the reference files that go in the Project's Files panel: your family factsheet (kids, ages, allergies, schools), your mom profile (your tone, what you do and don't want help with). These load every time you talk to Family Manager.
  • Custom Instructions — the standing rules you give Cowork about how to behave inside this Project. Tone, format, what to default to, what to avoid.

Together, these two lessons turn the empty shell you just built into something that actually knows your family.

Next: what to upload.

Two short reference files, one Files panel, and Family Manager starts knowing who you are.

Continue to What to Upload →