The One Paste to Rule Them All

Ten minutes from now you'll have Claude that knows who you are, a workspace that remembers your stuff, and one real task already done.

From Josh Bowman · Updated May 2026 · The current playbook. The only one I send to friends.

Most Claude setup guides want you to watch three videos, read a handbook, and memorize a folder system before you do anything real. Skip all of that.

Paste one prompt. Claude interviews you, drafts your Personal Preferences, creates two files in your folder, and runs your first task. Ten minutes, end to end.

The 10-Minute Setup

Four blocks, two minutes each, two and a half minutes for the last one. Each block ends with one specific action. Do it before moving on.

Minutes 0-2

Open Cowork and pick a folder

Open Claude desktop, click Cowork at the top, and select a folder on your computer. Any folder. A new empty one is fine. The top of the Cowork window should now show that folder's name.

Do this now. Don't read ahead until the folder is selected.

Minutes 2-5

Paste The One Paste, answer the questions

Copy the prompt below, paste it into Claude, hit send. Claude will ask a short interview. Answer like you'd answer a new coworker. Casual, specific, honest.

Triple-click the prompt box below to select the whole thing, then copy.

Minutes 5-7

Paste Personal Preferences into Settings

Claude hands you a short text block. Open Claude Settings, find Personal Preferences, paste the block in, save. From this moment forward every conversation you have with Claude across every folder reads this first.

If you skip this step, the rest doesn't stick. Paste it now.

Minutes 7-10

Approve your two files, run your first task

Claude previews a CLAUDE.md and a MEMORY.md, drops them in your folder after you approve, then offers you a first task. Desktop cleanup is the default because it needs zero connectors and the result is visible.

Pick one task. Let it run. Watch what happens.

Copy & Paste

The One Paste

Hey Claude. I'm setting up my first Claude Cowork workspace and I want you to walk me through it. Here's what I want you to do, step by step: STEP 1. Get to know me. Ask me a short interview, batched into one or two messages. Cover: - My name, role, and what I do day-to-day - The tools I use every day (email, calendar, docs, spreadsheets, anything else) - How I like to be communicated with (casual or formal, direct or verbose, concise or detailed) - One thing about me that would help you give better advice (a hobby, a pain point, a project I'm working on) STEP 2. Draft my Personal Preferences. Based on my answers, write a short Personal Preferences block I can paste into Claude Settings, then Personal Preferences. Show it to me. Tell me exactly where to paste it. Keep it under 15 lines. STEP 3. Create two files in my current folder. - CLAUDE.md with a short summary of who I am, what I do, the tools I use, and how I like to work. Include a "How to work with me" block with my tone preferences. - MEMORY.md with a note at the top that says: "This is working memory. Only add things when I explicitly ask you to remember them." Preview both files to me before creating them. Let me approve or tweak. STEP 4. Offer me my first real task. Once the files are created, offer me one of these as my first thing to try: - Clean up my desktop (default, no extra connectors needed) - Summarize what's on my calendar this week (needs calendar connector) - Triage my unread emails (needs Gmail connector) If I pick desktop cleanup, look at the files on my desktop, group them by type or project, propose a folder structure, and move things with my approval. Nothing gets moved or deleted without me saying yes. Ground rules for how you run this: - Ask questions in batches, not one at a time. - Explain what you're about to do before you do it. - Never create or move a file without showing me a preview first. - Keep the whole thing under 10 minutes of my time. - Plain English. No jargon. Start with Step 1.

The Names You'll See Thrown Around

Three concepts you'll hear constantly. Knowing the names saves you from feeling lost the first time someone says "drop it in your CLAUDE.md."

Personal Preferences = the always-true facts about you

Lives in Claude Settings. Global. Read at the start of every conversation, in every folder, forever. Things like "I'm a PM," "I hate em dashes," "speak to me like a smart friend." Set it once.

CLAUDE.md = the binder for this folder

Lives in your workspace folder. Local. Only read when Claude is working in that folder. Holds context that's only true here, like "this folder is for my LinkedIn content" or "the canonical voice doc is at /context/writing-preferences.md."

MEMORY.md = the post-it wall

Lives in your workspace folder. Things you've asked Claude to remember. Persistent until you say otherwise. Treat it like a real person's working memory, not a database.

If You Want the Full Kit, It's On GitHub

The One Paste gets you set up. If you want the whole system, every paste I use, every template, plus the Research / Plan / Implement / Validate prompts I run for anything bigger than a quick task, the kit is open source on my GitHub.

Open source Free

Claude Starter Kit on GitHub →

Three pastes. Four folders. One index file. Plus a decision guide on when to add an Obsidian or Notion vault on top. Built because I kept copy-pasting setup instructions to friends.

Paste 1: Personal Preferences template. Paste 2: workspace CLAUDE.md template. Paste 3: the RPI prompts. Paste 4 (optional): the validation loop for high-stakes work.

Star the repo if it's useful. Issues and PRs welcome.

First quest Clean Up My Desktop

Everyone's desktop is a landfill. Screenshots from 2022, installers you never ran, three copies of the same PDF. Perfect first task. Result is visible, stakes are low, no connectors required.

If you picked desktop cleanup in Step 4, Claude scans your desktop, proposes a folder structure, shows you what moves where, and asks for a thumbs up before moving a single file. Say "yes to everything" or go file by file. Your call.

If the One Paste skipped this step, paste this instead:

Look at the files on my desktop. Group them by type or project, propose a clean folder structure, and show me what moves where. Don't move anything until I approve. When we're done, tell me how many files we organized.

Five to fifteen minutes for a truly ugly desktop. Expect Claude to ask clarifying questions on the weird stuff. That's the feature.

Where I Learned This

Two creators do a better job teaching this than anyone I've found. If you want more depth or a different voice, start here.

Source

Ruben Hassid: How to AI →

The minute-by-minute setup style I borrowed. His "Claude For Dummies" and "Cowork" posts are the cleanest intros I've read.