Projects and Artifacts, the two claude.ai primitives that get you out of the throwaway conversation.
Two bricks worth separating. Projects is a persistent workspace where Claude keeps your docs, briefs, and connectors in memory. Artifacts is a rendered output inside the chat: code, markdown, an SVG, a small React app you can actually poke at.
Who it's for
If you keep coming back to the same topics, you need Projects. A recurring client, a book in progress, a legal case dragging on for six months, a codebase you maintain. Every time you paste the same context at the top of a conversation, you're burning time.
And if you want Claude to ship something usable (a diagram, a dashboard, an interactive tool) rather than a wall of text, you need Artifacts.
What you can do
Projects, persistent workspaces. You load documents, URLs, a brief, system instructions. Claude keeps all of it for the whole life of the project. Open the project, ask your question, it answers with the full context already loaded. Concrete example: a Project called "Client Acme" where you drop the master contract, the brand guide, the last three meeting notes. Every new brief starts with the right constraints baked in, no history to re-paste.
Artifacts, rendered outputs. Anything Claude produces during the conversation that you can see, manipulate, export. Code, rendered markdown, SVG diagrams, small interactive React apps. It shows up in a side panel. You iterate on it ("make the chart cleaner", "add a column"), reuse it, export it, share it through a public link. Concrete example: you paste your monthly sales numbers, Claude ships an interactive React dashboard with regional filters. You open it, click around, send it to your partner.
Connectors, plugged-in sources. GitHub, Google Drive, Notion, and Slack hook straight into a Project. Claude reads the source instead of you uploading files by hand. Handy for a project that lives elsewhere and you just want to query.
How much it costs
Included in the Pro plan ($20/month) and above. The free plan gives you a few projects to try it out.
When to use it vs something else
Projects is for keeping a persistent context without leaving claude.ai. If you want Claude to touch your local files or your codebase, move to Claude Code (chapter 6).
Artifacts is for a deliverable rendered inside the chat and iterated by voice. If you want a real web page, a real deployed app, also move to Claude Code. Artifacts are for prototyping, visualizing, and quick sharing.
Create a Project for your recurring client. Load their contracts, your pricing, past briefs. Each new brief takes 5 min instead of 30.