How I save caption instructions in my Claude project

My first week with Claude, I kept asking for captions and getting generic ones back. The problem wasn't Claude. I never told it what the caption had to do.

The mistake

I'd type something like "write me a caption" and nothing else. No audience, no goal, no voice. Claude can't guess those, so it gave me something that could belong to anybody.

What I do now

1. Write down what a caption has to do for you. Who it's for, what you want people to do after reading it, how you sound, and what you never say.
2. Save it in your Claude project. Put it in the project's instructions, or add it as a file the project can read.
3. Ask for captions inside that project. Claude reads your instructions first, so you don't have to repeat yourself.
4. Fix the file, not the chat. When a caption is off, ask yourself what rule was missing, and add that rule to the file.

A starter template

Copy this, fill in the brackets, and save it in your project:

CAPTION INSTRUCTIONS

Who I'm writing for:
[one specific person, e.g. a beginner who has never used AI at work]

What each caption should do:
[e.g. make them want to save the post, or comment]

How I sound:
[e.g. conversational, honest, no hype, plain words]

Never use:
[words or phrases you don't want, e.g. "game changer"]

Length and format:
[e.g. 2-3 short lines, then 3-5 hashtags]

Before you write, ask me:
[anything Claude should check first, or leave blank]

What I've tested: this with Claude, on captions for my own posts. I haven't tested it with other AI tools yet, and I'll say so when I do.

If I started today

I'd tell Claude who I am and what the job is before I asked for anything. Same request, much better answer.