Skip to content
FlintFlintby Torch
← LevelsBuilder · B13

Rules and material

Build-along · ~10 min at your own keyboard

Everything you hand the AI is one of two things. Rules are configured once and hold across every run — how you write, what you never say, the format an output has to land in. Material is what this particular run is about: today's file, this week's numbers, the draft in progress. Put them in one pile and the model has to guess which is which on every call, and it will sometimes get it backwards, taking a phrase it found in last week's draft as a standing rule. Sorting at filing time, by hand, cuts most of that guessing — it doesn't end it. Two limits: an example can be legitimate reference material (a model proposal you want copied in structure) if you label it as an example, and a file in references/ can still be out of date or contain text from someone else that shouldn't be obeyed. Folder placement tells the model your intent; you still check what's in the folder.

The long version: Rules vs material ↗

Do this

0/5

Checkpoints

  • ▸You should now see two folders, references/ and work/.
  • ▸You should now see every file for your workflow sorted into one of them.
  • ▸You should now see one file you nearly sorted wrong, named.
  • ▸You should now see a CLAUDE.md line saying which folder is instruction and which is material.
The three ways this goes wrong
  • Everything ends up in references/. — Ask of each file: would it be identical next week for a different job? If not, it is material.
  • A past example sits in references/ and Claude copies its content. — Either move it to work/, or keep it and label its first line 'EXAMPLE — copy the structure, not the content.'
  • Claude follows a draft as if it were a rule. — Say in CLAUDE.md that work/ is never instruction.

Share what happened

Paste your two columns with real filenames, then either the file you hesitated over (which way you sorted it, and why) or your call on the practice email and why.

Strip API keys, passwords, and tokens before you paste. Swap them for [KEY].

🔒 Don't paste confidential, personal-health, or payment info.