One Claude.

Claude Cowork is gone:

I mean, technically, it’s two: Claude and Claude Code. But the experienced users (like myself, ahem) can already predict the future. The Chat is now coding, spawning agents, is so capable there is virtually no difference with Claude Code.

So this is it. Claude is now one.

Not only is Claude now one (and I will show you how to turn it on), but you must delete most of your setup. The files, the folders, the long prompts.

Its own engineer, the guy behind Claude Code, said:

“Every 6 months, delete your Claude MD. Delete your skills. Delete your hooks. See what the model does, and it might surprise you.” Boris Cherny

Claude’s team did it first:

Thariq Shihipar builds Claude Code with him, and also said: “we were over-constraining Claude Code, both through our system prompt and in our CLAUDE.md files and skills.” His prediction: “Claude.md goes away.”

Anthropic’s own prompting guide says skills written for older models “can degrade output quality.” Less is more, guys. This newsletter is about the “less”, and making sure we all delete the “too much”.

Since September 16, Chat and Cowork are one box. It lives in the cloud. It writes code. It finds what it needs about you on its own. So you only bring one thing: a clear goal.

This article sets it all up in 15 minutes. You will know:

What changed in Claude.
What to delete (and where it hides).
How to write one clear goal.
Why HTML is the new black.
And the one line to add at the end of every prompt.

Two things before we start:

Save this guide. Spend 15 minutes this week to do it with me.
Send it to the friend who still has a “Claude” folder on their desktop.

PS: This newsletter grows from your shares. And I keep hitting 1,000+ shares! It’s my weekly north star. Sharing is free & helps me stay laser focused on mastering AI for you.

1. One Claude.

As I keep repeating: technology must be invisible. We shouldn’t choose the mode (Chat? Cowork? Code). We shouldn’t choose the model or how much effort it takes (Opus-Medium, or Sonnet-Extra?).

Technology must be invisible.

Kind of like your phone’s camera. Photo and Video used to feel like two apps. Now it’s one button.

So let’s turn the new one Claude on for you:

Step 1: Check that you have it.

Go to Settings → Organization Settings → Capabilities.

Step 2: Pick Auto.

In the message box, switch Manual to Auto. Claude works without stopping to ask you at every step.

Everything you had carries over: your chats, your tasks, your projects, your connectors, and your skills.

And it all runs in the cloud. Your laptop only matters when Claude needs your local files, your browser, or your screen.

So what does the chat do in the cloud?

It writes code (without you noticing).

2. Chat writes code.

Any chat writes code now. Because everything is code. A slide. A chart. A web page. A form. An image. A video. So when Claude can write code, it builds the thing instead of describing it.

Before, you asked Claude for “an outline for my deck.”

→ Now you ask for the deck.

Claude even made it easier for you to do it:

So if Claude builds what it needs in the cloud, why are you still building folders and markdown files for Claude on your laptop?

Well, you shouldn’t. Delete your setup.

3. Delete your setup.

In March, my Cowork guide said:

“With Cowork, the game is text files.”

A parent folder. 4 subfolders. An about-me.md. An anti-AI writing file. A folder protocol pasted into your instructions.

That was good at the time, with past models. Now it’s context bloat.

Technically, I already wrote in July to stop doing it:

Let me try to explain “context bloat”.

It’s kind of like briefing a consultant with your whole CV before every single meeting. They stop thinking about the problem. They can’t stop thinking about you. Claude feels forced to remind you it read your skills and md files before answering (like a good student who’s trying too hard).

So delete it. Delete everything.

It hides in 3 places:

Settings → Account → “Instructions for Claude”. Empty the box.

Customize → Skills. Remove anything you uploaded about yourself or your writing.

Your Projects. This is arguably the only place you can keep everything. But do not upload too many files, instructions, and constraints. Try one day to start a clean Claude chat, from scratch, and see if it isn’t better.

Your Memory. This one isn’t obvious. Sometimes I turn it off, sometimes I turn it on. My take: leave it on, and on some chats you can turn it off.

First, how to always have it on:

I keep Memory off for tasks where I don’t need Claude to know me or my situation. Believe it or not, it happens quite often. I guess it’s because I have a “““creative””” job? I want no context bloat.

Anyway, that was a lot. We removed most things.

So what do you give Claude instead?

One clear goal.

I run Claude live workshops every week for my paid community. Upgrade today.

4. One clear goal.

Prompting is sharing your goal.

Claude figures out the how. It can’t guess what you want (and why).

I could be a crook and sell you a giant library of prompts. But it’s October 2026, so you only really need one prompt:

Goal: [what you want, and what it's for]
Context: [who it's for, what you already have, what good looks like]
Before you start, restate in your own words what you think my goals are and the problem I'm trying to solve. If you need more context, ask me questions.

That last line is a recent test I enjoyed: Claude repeats your goal back before it does anything. If it got you wrong, you see quickly, not after a 30-min “Recombobulating” session. You can stop it before it’s too late with this:

For example, here’s the prompt behind this guide’s cheat sheet:

Goal: a one-page cheat sheet for my newsletter readers on how to use the new Claude without folders, about-me files or long instructions. I want them to delete files, folders and stop it with Cowork, which is a shocker. They should be able to follow it in 10 minutes. Context: my readers are non-technical, mostly on the $20 plan. Perfect = 1080x1350px. Dense. Step by step. 

Before you start, restate in your own words what you think my goals are and the problem I'm trying to solve. If you need more, ask me questions.

Claude restated the goal, then asked 4 questions: how readers spot the new Claude, where the old setup hides, the exact restate line, and which colors to use.

I am a content creator, so I need such an infographic.

You probably need more of Excel, PDFs, and docx. But let me try to change your mind on this: HTML is the new blank.

5. Ask for HTML.

Stop asking for a Word file, a PowerPoint or a PDF.

Try asking for an HTML. Add this line to your prompt:

Make it an HTML page.

Claude builds it as an Artifact: a web page that lives in your Claude account.

A file is frozen. It sits in your Downloads as report_v3_FINAL.docx. A page lives in the cloud. It opens on your phone. You share it as a link. And Claude keeps editing it when you ask.

It starts private (“Only you”). Open the page’s Share menu to send it as a link.

Even the people building Claude are using HTML:

Alright. A little recap so far:

You know what changed.
You know what to delete.
You have the one prompt.
You try HTML & Artifacts.

But your old folder is still sitting on your desktop.

Let’s empty it together.

6. How to switch.

Step 1: Open your old folder.

Open the Claude desktop app and select your old folder (mine was called CLAUDE COWORK). It’s the last time Claude reads it.

Step 2: Paste this prompt.

Go to Claude, and paste this:

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