Setup for two

The setup has four pieces: a shared folder, a shared sheet, a Claude project each, and the same instructions in both projects. It takes about an hour, most of it filling in the brief in chapter 4.

Can't we just share one project?

Only on some plans. Sharing a project with other people is a Team or Enterprise feature, with "Can view" and "Can edit" permissions. Most couples have personal accounts (Free, Pro or Max), and those don't offer project sharing.

If you do happen to be on a Team plan together, share the project with "Can edit" and skip the mirroring below. Everyone else, read on. The setup below works on any plan, and it has a side benefit: nothing important lives inside Claude. It all lives in files you both own.

1. A shared folder

Make one folder in Google Drive (or whatever you both use) and share it with each other. Put in it:

• The planning sheet. Start from the free workbook in chapter 3.
• A brief. A short doc with the details from chapter 4: date range, place, guest count, budget, priorities, deal-breakers.
• The project instructions, as a doc. This is the master copy. When you change the instructions, change them here first, then paste into both projects, so they never drift apart.
• A contracts folder for signed contracts and quotes as PDFs.
• An inspiration folder for photos you like.

2. A project each

Each of you makes a project in Claude called the same thing, say "Our wedding". Then in each one:

1. Open Set project instructions and paste the instructions below.
2. Add the stable files to the project's knowledge: the brief, and later the signed contracts. Use the + on the project page.
3. Connect Google Drive (and later Gmail and Calendar, if you want them).

Projects work on the web, the desktop app and the phone apps, so either of you can check in from anywhere.

3. Which files go where

There's a trap here. Files you add to project knowledge are copies. If you upload the planning sheet, Claude sees the sheet as it was the day you uploaded it. Two weeks later it's out of date, and Claude will answer from the old numbers without knowing.

So split them:

Project knowledge takes PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT and more, plus images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP). Each file can be up to 30 MB. Excel files work too, but only if code execution and file creation is turned on in your settings. There's no fixed count of files, but it all has to fit in what Claude can hold in mind at once. On paid plans, a project that gets close to that limit switches to searching its files instead, which stretches its capacity a long way.

4. Connectors

The Google Drive, Gmail and Google Calendar connectors are available on all plans. Each of you connects your own Google account in your own Claude.

• Google Drive lets Claude find and read the shared sheet and docs. It reads text only, so photos embedded in a doc are skipped. There's also a Sheets connector that can edit a sheet live in a pane next to the chat, on the web in Chrome or in the desktop app. Chapter 3 covers how to use that carefully.
• Gmail lets Claude search and read your email, and write drafts. It can also send, reply and forward, and by default it asks you before each of those. It can't open attachments, only see that they're there.
• Google Calendar lets Claude see your calendars and create events, which is handy for venue visits and tastings.

On a Team or Enterprise plan, an owner has to turn these on for your organization first.

5. Keeping two projects in step

Two projects means two sets of chats that can't see each other. Three habits keep them in step:

• The sheet is the handover. If Sam's chat produced a decision, it goes in the Decisions tab. Riley's Claude reads it from there.
• Share a chat when the reasoning matters. You can share a chat as a link. Anyone with the link sees a snapshot of the chat up to the moment you shared it, artifacts included. Files you attached aren't. (On Team and Enterprise, links work only inside your organization.)
• Same instructions, same files. When one of you changes the instructions doc, the other pastes the new version the same day.

The project instructions

Paste this into both projects, then edit the names and the details. Keep it short enough that you'll actually read it again.

You're helping Sam and Riley plan their wedding. Treat this as a long-running project with two people who share one plan.

Source of truth
- Our planning sheet in Google Drive, "Wedding planning", is the source of truth. Read it before you answer anything about status, budget, guests or vendors. If the sheet and a chat disagree, the sheet wins. Tell us when you spot a conflict.
- The brief in project knowledge has our date range, place, guest count, budget, priorities and deal-breakers. Work within it. If an idea breaks the brief, say so plainly.

How to change things
- Never assume a change. When something should change in the sheet, give us the exact edits as a short list (tab, row, column, old value, new value). We make the edit, or tell you to.
- Dates as YYYY-MM-DD. Money as plain numbers. Every vendor keeps the same Vendor ID across tabs.

Email and contact
- You draft. We send. Never send, reply to or forward an email, and never contact a vendor, guest or family member. When you write an email, put it in a code block, or save it as a Gmail draft if we ask you to.
- Write as us, plainly and briefly, in first person. No flattery, no exclamation marks. Every draft ends with a clear question or next step.
- Leave out our home address, account numbers and anything about family matters unless we put it in the draft ourselves.

Facts
- Never make up a price, a capacity, an availability or a review. If you don't know, say so and say how we can find out.
- For anything you found online, give the link and say how sure you are. Treat a vendor's own site as the source for their facts, and tell us to confirm with them.

Hand back to us
- Flag these with "FOR YOU:" at the top and stop there: anything involving payment, signing, a deposit, a contract term, a family or guest-list conflict, or a final choice between vendors. Lay out the options and the trade-offs. We decide.

Contracts
- You can explain a contract and flag clauses to ask about. You aren't a lawyer and shouldn't say a contract is fine to sign.

Style
- Short answers. Tables when comparing. Ask one question at a time when you need information from us.