A chat is an episode. A project is the shop the episodes belong to. If everything lives in one scrolling window, you do not have a method. You have a junk drawer.
Why this matters
The 10-prompt library from B1 dies in a thread named “New conversation” that also contains a joke, a recipe, and last month’s invoice. Grok will blend them. You will then say the model is inconsistent.
Power users lose work two ways. They start a fresh chat for every follow-up and drop a constraint. Or they never start a new chat, and one window holds three clients and a PDF from a different site. Both produce folklore.
grok.com will hold a job if you give it a home. As of August 2026 that home may be labeled Projects or Workspaces, or it may still be a named thread you treat as a project. Buttons move. The contract does not: one job family, a standing brief, files that belong there, episodes that do not wander.
Teach
A project is a container, not a vibe. It has a name a colleague would recognize (Hughes corridor deliverable, Period 3 labs, Shop Saturday hours) — not Grok stuff and not today’s date. Inside it you keep:
- Standing brief — who this is for, what “done” looks like, must-nots that never change.
- Sources — the files and links that belong to this family (B3 is how you use them).
- Episodes — one thread or one turn-set per artifact: the Friday notice, the Monday refile, the parent email.
If grok.com shows Projects or Workspaces, create one for this job family. Put the standing brief in the project instructions or the first message. Start new conversations inside it for each episode. If you have no Projects control, use a named thread, paste the standing brief at the top, and give a second job family a second thread. Do not pretend you created a Project you cannot see.
Standing brief vs episode brief. Standing brief: still true in three weeks — reader, units, off-limits, definition of done. Episode brief: ICC for this artifact. Episode facts in the standing brief rot the project. No standing brief means you re-teach Grok every time.
A standing brief that fits on one screen:
Project: [name a colleague would recognize]
Job family: [one line]
Reader who can reject the work:
Always:
Never:
Units / templates:
Sources that count:
Off-limits (people, files, topics):
Done looks like:
One family per container. Two clients is two projects. Work and personal is two projects. Mixing them is how a client name leaks into a Saturday script.
New episode (thread inside the project): artifact changed, files changed, or the last thread is three screens of “no, the other one.” Recap from the old thread; do not recap from memory.
New project: the reader or off-limits changed, or you would not keep these files in the same folder on disk. Restarting a chat is not a new project.
Not a project: Grok Build, Grok on X, Custom Instructions (B4), or Memory. Do not store a client brief in Memory “so you never type it.” Type it in the project.
Desk order: name it → paste standing brief once → attach only this family’s files → one episode → stop. Next artifact is the next episode. If you cannot tell a colleague what the window is for, you have a chat.
Worked example
A shop has three live jobs: Saturday voicemail hours, a late invoice, and a parts order. Wrong desk: one chat called “Grok,” the invoice PDF, and a joke about Mondays. Tuesday’s follow-up invents a Saturday hour from the joke.
Better desk: three projects — Shop hours public, Invoice 4417, Parts August. Only 4417 gets the PDF and the never-list (no threats, no home address, no other customers). Monday’s episode is a chase email. Wednesday’s is a call script. Both see the same standing brief.
She does not put the contractor’s phone into Custom Instructions or Memory. When 4417 is paid, she stops using that project. If grok.com has no Projects button, she still makes three named threads. The critic who says “you dumped three jobs in one scroll” is right.
Your turn
Open grok.com. You will create a real home for one job family you will still have in two weeks — not a demo, not “my Grok playground,” not the millings notice from B1 unless that family is truly yours.
Look at the sidebar. If you can create a Project or Workspace, do that and start the first conversation inside it. If you cannot, start a new named thread and say so in the first message. Either path can pass. Lying about a Project you did not create cannot.
You will make Grok interview you, then write a Project Charter. You cannot produce the charter without Grok, and Grok cannot write it without answers you give in this session.
Exercise b2-l01-e1
| Field | Value |
|---|
| whereToDo | grok.com |
| time | 18 min |
Copy-ready prompts
Message 1:
I am in Grok Mastery (Russell Tech), Pathway B, lesson B2 — projects, not chats.
First line of your reply: "Container: Project" or "Container: named thread" — ask me which I actually created. Do not guess.
Then interview me, one question at a time (five questions):
1) Project name a colleague would recognize
2) Job family in one line
3) Reader who can reject the work
4) Always / Never (at least two of each)
5) One episode I will run in the next seven days (artifact + stop)
After I answer, wait. Do not write the charter until I say CHARTER.
Create the Project or name the thread before you finish the interview, so your answer to “which I actually created” is true.
Message 2:
CHARTER
Write a Project Charter with exactly these labeled lines:
- Container (Project / named thread / I do not have Projects):
- Name:
- Job family:
- Reader who rejects:
- Always:
- Never:
- Sources that belong here:
- Sources that must never land here:
- This week's episode (artifact + stop):
- Next episode trigger (when I open a new thread inside this home):
- Why this is not a junk drawer (one line):
- Session stamp: today's date and "This charter was written by Grok in this thread."
Use only my answers. If I skipped a line, write "not given."
Then write a 6-line standing brief I can paste at the top of the next episode.
Message 3 — run the week’s episode in this same container (same project or same named thread). Fill the brackets:
Episode 1. Standing brief still applies.
Intent: [artifact + who]
Context: [what is true this week]
Constraints: [length, format, must, must-not]
Stop: I can use this after one edit.
Write only the artifact. Then a 4-line Episode Log:
- Stayed inside the charter's job family? (yes/no + proof)
- What I reused from the standing brief:
- What was episode-only:
- Session stamp: today's date and "Episode log written by Grok in this thread."
Artifact to paste
- The Project Charter (all lines, stamp).
- The 6-line standing brief.
- The episode artifact and Episode Log.
- One sentence from you: the exact name visible in the grok.com sidebar (Project name or thread title).
Rubric
- Pass: Charter is Grok-authored and stamped. Container line matches what you actually created. Always/Never are specific (not “be professional”). Episode is the same job family. Your sidebar name is a real job, not
New conversation. No second client in the episode.
- Fail: Charter you wrote offline. “Grok stuff” as the name. Three job families in one window. You claimed Project and the charter says named thread (or the reverse) with no correction. No episode, only a plan to “use it later.” No stamp.
Common failure
The common failure is the patriotic junk drawer. You name it Work and feel organized. Work is not a job family. It is a second inbox. Split until a name would make sense as a folder on disk.
The other failure is re-briefing your life every episode, or using a public share link as the home. Shareable conversations are not a filing system.
What’s next
The container is empty until sources live in it. Next: files, PDFs, screenshots, and Canvas — how a project reads evidence and edits a long artifact without inventing the page.
