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Quick answer
Create one project, upload your real documents (prices, policies, service areas, how-tos), and add instructions that it must answer only from those files and say when the answer is not there. Test it with five questions you already know the answers to.
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At a glance
All outcome figures are estimates from cited sources, not independent verification by us.
- What it is allowed to do
- Read-only
Only reads, researches, or summarizes. It never drafts outbound content or changes anything.
- Time saved (estimate)
- About 45 minutes to set up.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Tools needed
- ChatGPT, Claude
- Typical cost
- Claude says projects are available on free accounts. ChatGPT Projects availability varies by plan; prices: Not stated in sources.
Reviewed Nov 2, 2026
Basis (estimate): Estimate only: based on the steps above, not timed.
What does this setup do?
Load your prices, policies and how-tos into one Claude or ChatGPT project so you and your team can ask it questions and get answers from your own documents.
Who is it for?
Owners and small teams who keep answering the same internal questions, or who want a reliable starting point before an AI drafts anything for customers.
How do you set it up?
Tools
- Claude Projects or ChatGPT Projects
- Your documents: price list, policies, service areas, how-tos, FAQs
Steps
- Gather the 5 to 15 documents people ask about most: price list, policies, service areas, warranty, how-tos. Remove anything private you would not want quoted.
- Create a project. Anthropic says projects have their own knowledge base and instructions and are available on free accounts; OpenAI says Projects keep chats, files and instructions together.
- Upload the documents to the project's files or knowledge, not to a single chat, so every new chat can use them.
- Paste the instructions from the prompt below so it answers only from your files and names the file it used.
- Test it with five questions you already know the answers to, including one that is not in the files. It should say it does not know.
- When a price or policy changes, replace the file the same day. Old files are the main source of wrong answers.
Example output
Illustrative. Your results will differ.
- Q: Do you service Middlebury?
- A: Yes. Middlebury is in zone 2, with a $45 trip fee.
- Source: service-areas-2026.pdf
Where to paste this prompt
ChatGPT → Project instructions, or ChatGPT Tasks for scheduled reminders (once a day on Free)
Copy-paste prompt
Adapt bracketed fields to your situation.
Project instructions:
You answer questions about [BUSINESS NAME] using only the files in this project.
Rules:
- Answer in 2 to 5 sentences, then name the file you used.
- If the answer is not in the files, say: Not in our documents. Do not guess.
- Quote prices, dates and policy terms exactly as written.
- If two files disagree, show both and say which is newer.
- Never promise discounts, refunds or deadlines that are not in the files.Newsletter
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What usually goes wrong?
Where agents tend to stall on this job. More patterns in Where AI gets stuck.
- Uploading files to one chat instead of the project, so the next chat cannot see them.
- Old price lists left in the project next to new ones.
- Asking it about something it was never given, and trusting a confident guess.
Which chat tools work with this prompt?
Paste the prompt into any of these assistants (free or paid tiers).
- ChatGPT
- Claude
Common questions
- Can ChatGPT or Claude answer questions from my own documents?
- Yes. Put the documents in a project's files and tell it to answer only from them and to say when the answer is missing.
- Is this free?
- Anthropic says Claude projects are available on free accounts. ChatGPT Projects availability depends on your plan.
- Can customers use it directly?
- Start with you and your team. Once answers are reliable, use it to draft customer replies you approve.
Where should you go next on this site?
What tips make it smoother?
- Name files clearly, like price-list-2026-11.pdf, so the cited file name tells you how current it is.
- Keep one project per business, not one per question.
- Add a one-page cheat sheet of the most common answers; it gets used more than long manuals.
Where do the claims come from?
Summaries use public sources linked below, not independent verification. How setups are picked.
- Read Anthropic’s write-up (support.claude.com)
Anthropic: What are projects: self-contained workspaces with their own knowledge base and instructions, available on free accounts, RAG mode when knowledge grows (read 2026-11-02 from the official help page via search)
- Read OpenAI’s write-up (help.openai.com)
OpenAI: Projects in ChatGPT: keep chats, files and instructions together; owners update instructions and add files (read 2026-11-02 from the official help page via search)
- Read Anthropic’s write-up (support.claude.com)
Anthropic: Upload files to Claude: add files to a chat or to a project's Files section for use across conversations (read 2026-11-02 from the official help page via search)
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- Set guardrails before an AI agent gets access
Write a one-page rulebook for an AI agent before it touches your accounts: what it can read, what it can only draft, what always needs your approval, and what it must never do.