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The two files Family Manager needs.

Family Manager is a working Project shell, but it doesn't know anything about your family yet. Today we add the two reference files that change that — files Cowork reads at the start of every conversation in this Project, so you never have to re-explain who's in your house.

The two files

Family Factsheet — the facts. Who lives in your house, ages, allergies, schools, schedules, important dates. The information you'd hand to a babysitter or a new pediatrician.
Mom Profile — about you. Your tone, what you want help with, what you don't, the kind of advice that lands and the kind that doesn't.

You're not going to type either of these from scratch. You'll tell Cowork to interview you and write them for you.

One thing to keep in mind throughout this lesson: don't put sensitive information in these files. Names, ages, schools, and allergies are fine. Account numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, full addresses, medical record numbers — those don't go here. We'll cover privacy more in Phase 4 modules where it gets relevant; for now, the rule is "would I be okay if a babysitter saw this?" If yes, fine. If no, leave it out.

Build your Family Factsheet.

Open Family Manager (Projects → Family Manager in the Cowork sidebar), start a new chat, and send this:

Family Factsheet interview

I want to create a Family Factsheet — a reference file that lives in this Project and tells you the basics about my family. Please interview me one section at a time. Cover: who's in our house (names, ages, relationship to me), each kid's school and grade, anyone's allergies or medical notes I'd want a babysitter to know, our typical weekly schedule (who has what when), and any recurring important dates (birthdays, anniversaries). Ask one section at a time, wait for my answer before moving on, and at the end save the result as Family-Factsheet.md in this Project's folder.

Cowork will ask one question, wait for your answer, ask the next, and so on. You can be brief or detailed — both work. If a question doesn't apply (no kids in school, no recurring health issues), just say so and move on.

What you'll see when it's done.

Cowork will save Family-Factsheet.md in your Family Manager folder. Open Finder (or File Explorer) and confirm it's there. Open the file and read it — it should sound like a clean version of what you said in the interview. If anything is wrong, tell Cowork in the same chat and ask it to revise the file.

This file is now Cowork's reference for who your family is. From this point forward, you can ask Family Manager about kid stuff, schedule stuff, school stuff, and it'll know what you're talking about without you having to re-explain.

Build your Mom Profile.

Same pattern, different topic. The Mom Profile is about you — how you want Cowork to talk to you, what kinds of help land, what kinds don't. Without this, Cowork's default tone tends toward generic helpful-assistant territory. With it, the tone matches you.

Still in Family Manager, send this:

Mom Profile interview

Now I want to create a Mom Profile — a reference file that tells you about me, so you can match how I want to be talked to. Interview me one section at a time. Cover: how I prefer to be addressed (formal, casual, name, no name); my general tone preferences (direct, warm, no fluff, etc.); what kinds of help I actually want (budgeting, meal planning, lesson planning, drafting emails, organizing, scheduling, brain dumps — give me examples and let me add my own); what kinds of help I don't want (toxic positivity, prescriptive advice, anything else I want to call out); how strongly I want you to default to doing things FOR me rather than explaining how to do them myself (this matters — most of what I want from you is action, not instructions); how to handle it when you'd do something differently than I'm asking (push back, suggest a better way, point out what I might be missing, or default to agreement — I want to set this on purpose because the default is "agreeable" and that's not always what I want); and anything else you should know about how to be most useful to me. Ask one section at a time, and at the end save the result as Mom-Profile.md in this Project's folder.

Take your time with this one. The Mom Profile is what makes Cowork feel like it's working for you rather than for some generic mom. Specific examples land better than abstract preferences — "tell me what to do about [thing]" lands different from "be direct."

Things worth being specific about

If you don't want emojis, say so.
If you want short answers by default, say so.
If you've ever read advice that made you roll your eyes (toxic positivity, "just take a deep breath," anything else), say so. Cowork will avoid that pattern.
If you have a particular voice you'd want a friend to use (warm but no-nonsense, dry humor, etc.), describe it.
Tell Cowork to default to doing things FOR you, not explaining how to do them. This bakes the ask-Claude-first habit into Family Manager itself — every chat in this Project starts from "what can you do for me right now" instead of "let me explain how to do this."
Tell Cowork to push back when it would do something differently. The default behavior is to be agreeable — which is fine for casual chat, but not what you want when you're getting things done. If you ask Cowork to do something a way that has a better alternative, you want Cowork to say so before just going along. Write this into your profile so it's a standing expectation, not a request you have to make every conversation.

When the interview's done, Cowork saves Mom-Profile.md in your Family Manager folder alongside the Family Factsheet.

What's there now.

Two files in your Family Manager folder. Cowork reads both at the start of every conversation in this Project. You don't have to mention them, paste them, or remind Cowork of anything.

Update them whenever you want.

Both files are normal markdown files in your Family Manager folder. You can edit them by hand if you want, or — easier — tell Cowork what changed and ask it to update the file. Examples:

"Add to my Family Factsheet that Liam started kindergarten this fall."
"Update my Mom Profile — I'd like even shorter answers by default. Two sentences when possible."

Cowork edits the file and saves it. Next conversation in Family Manager, the new info is loaded automatically.

Next: Custom Instructions.

Reference files tell Cowork about your family and you. Custom Instructions tell Cowork how to behave inside this Project — the standing rules, the defaults, the format. We do that next.

Continue to Custom Instructions →