The One Folder That Runs Your Business: My Layout and the Setup Prompt
If you use AI as an app off to the side, every chat starts from zero. This is the folder layout I use, and a prompt that has Claude Code set yours up with you, so AI sits in the middle of everything you do.
A lot of people are plugging AI in at the wrong layer.
They use it like an app off to the side. Open a chat, explain the business again, get a generic answer. Every chat starts from zero.
An AI operating system flips that. It's one folder on your computer that holds your whole business. Then you put Claude Code on top of that folder. Now AI sits in the middle of everything you do.
The layout I use
My whole business lives on one drive. Every part of it has its own folder: business, content, courses, skills, apps, websites, and an archive for old stuff.
At the top are the files that matter most:
- A file that tells Claude who I am and how I work. Claude Code reads it every time I start. It's called CLAUDE.md.
- A file with my voice. My stories, how I talk, and the words I'd never say.
- A file with everything that's decided right now. I call it LOCKED.md. Claude reads it first, every session. When I decide something new, it goes in there, and the old version moves out.
So when I ask for a reel script, I don't explain anything. It already knows my voice, my rules and my real numbers.
Your version
You don't need a whole drive to start. One folder does it.
These are examples from my own folders. Your business isn't mine, so change them to fit how you work. Add a folder for your podcast. Drop clients if you keep those somewhere else. The prompt below starts from this layout and asks you what to change:
my-business/ CLAUDE.md who you are, how you work, and which file to read for which job LOCKED.md what's decided right now: your offers, prices, real numbers, and this month's focus voice.md your voice, your stories, and the words you'd never say customers.md who your customers are, and their questions in their own words content/ posts, scripts and emails offers/ what you sell, sales pages, launches clients/ client and student notes team/ onboarding docs and how-tos for anyone you hire archive/ old versions and finished work, out of the way
Step 1. Let Claude Code set it up with you
Make a new folder called my-business on your computer. Open the Claude desktop app, switch from Chat to Code at the top, and pick that folder. Then paste this:
Set up my business folder with me. This folder is going to hold my whole business, so you know it without me explaining it again. Interview me first, in 4 short rounds. Ask one round at a time, then wait for my answers. Round 1, me: who I am, what I do, and how I want you to work with me. Round 2, what's decided: my offers and prices, my real numbers and results, and what I'm working on this month. Round 3, my customers: who they are, what they struggle with, and the questions they ask me most, in their own words. Round 4, my voice: ask me to paste 3 to 5 things I wrote myself, any stories I tell a lot, and the words I'd never say. Then show me the layout you plan to build, starting from the example below. It's an example from someone else's business, so suggest changes that fit mine: folders to add, rename or drop. Wait for my OK. Then build the layout I OK'd. The example: - CLAUDE.md: under 40 lines. Who I am in 2 lines, how to work with me, and these rules: - "Read LOCKED.md first, every session." - Which file to read for which job: voice.md and customers.md before writing anything public, LOCKED.md for offers, prices and numbers, and the right folder for each part of the business. - "Every number, price or result comes from LOCKED.md. If it's not there, ask me. Never guess." - "When I correct you, ask me if you should save the fix in the right file, so you don't make the same mistake again." - LOCKED.md: my offers and prices, my real numbers and results, this month's focus, and a list of things already decided so you stop asking. Put the date at the top. - voice.md: how I sound, my stories, the words I use, the words I'd never say, and my samples word for word. - customers.md: who they are, what they struggle with, and their questions word for word. - Folders: content, offers, clients, team and archive, changed to what I OK'd. Put a one-line README.md in each that says what goes there. Rules: - Use only what I tell you. If something is missing, write [ask me]. Never invent numbers, results, stories or quotes. - Plain words. Keep every file short. When you're done, show me the layout and CLAUDE.md. Then tell me how to test it: start a new chat in this folder and ask for something real, like an onboarding doc for someone I might hire.
Claude Code asks before it saves each file. Say yes.
Step 2. Test it with a real job
Start a new chat in the same folder. Ask for something that needs your whole business to get right. The best test is the one from my reel: an onboarding doc for a new hire.
Without the folder, you spend two hours writing it. With it, you ask, and it pulls from everything it already knows.
I'm hiring [who: a VA, an editor, a coach on my team] to handle [the job]. Write their onboarding doc and save it in the team folder. Use what's in this folder: my offers, my customers, my voice and what's decided. Put in what they need to do the job in their first week. If you need something that isn't in the folder, ask me instead of guessing.
If it uses your real offers, your customers' real questions and sounds like you, the folder is working.
Step 3. Make it better every week
It gets better every week, because every correction goes back into the folder. That's where the gains snowball.
Once a week, paste this and fill it in:
Weekly folder update. Here is what changed this week: [new decisions, new prices or offers, new numbers or results, new customer questions, and anything you got wrong that I corrected] Put each thing in the right file. If it replaces something in LOCKED.md, move the old line to a dated file in archive/ and write the new one, so LOCKED.md only holds what's true today. Update the date at the top of LOCKED.md. Then show me exactly what you changed, file by file.
The limits, honestly
- You don't need it perfect on day one. You need to start it now and improve it over time.
- The folder only knows what you put in it. If LOCKED.md is out of date, Claude works from old facts. The weekly update is what keeps it true.
- Claude Code reads the folder you open it in. Open it somewhere else and it won't see your files.
- Keep it short. A file stuffed with every idea you've ever had makes the answers worse, not better.
- Keep private client details you don't need out of the folder, and never put passwords or keys in it.