Build a LegalAI Project in Claude

A Claude Project is a persistent workspace. You set the instructions once and add reference files once, and then every chat inside that Project starts already grounded. For defense work that means the TCDLAi framework, your ethical guardrails, and your fact patterns are always in context, so you spend your time on the matter instead of re-explaining the rules.

These are the general Think with Claude screencasts. The mechanics of Claude are the same for any work; the steps below apply them to defense practice.

1. 1

   Get the files

   Download the LegalAI files as a zip and unzip it. You will use 00-custom-instructions.txt as the Project instructions, and the numbered .txt files as Project knowledge. (They are markdown with a .txt extension so they upload cleanly.)

2. 2

   Create a new Project

   In claude.ai, open Projects from the left sidebar and select New Project. Name it something like LegalAI — Defense, and add a one-line description: Drafting and analysis assistant for Texas criminal defense. Every output is a draft for attorney review.

3. 3

   Set the Project instructions

   Open the Project's instructions (also called custom instructions) and paste the full contents of 00-custom-instructions.txt. This is what makes every chat in the Project draft-for-review, grounded in sources you provide, Texas-first, and careful with confidentiality.

4. 4

   Add Project knowledge

   Upload the numbered files as Project knowledge: the TCDLAi guide (01), the ethics checklist (02), the verification workflow (03), the fact patterns (04), the prompt library (05), the Claude-for-Legal practices (06), and the scenario bank (08). Claude reads these as reference, so it answers from your materials rather than its memory. Claude does not keep uploaded files after your session ends.

5. 5

   Test it with a fictional fact pattern

   Start a chat inside the Project and try one of the built-in scenarios:

   CopyUse fact pattern one from the scenario bank. Build an element chart for the charge, grounded only in the statute text I paste below, and flag any element the sources do not support. End with the three things I must verify. [paste statute text]
6. 6

   Inspect before you rely on it

   Run the verification self-check on anything you might use, then open the real source yourself:

   CopyReview your last answer. For each citation and legal proposition, quote the exact sentence in my provided sources that supports it, or mark it [UNVERIFIED] or [UNSUPPORTED]. Remove anything you cannot support.
7. 7

   Reuse it every matter

   The Project keeps your instructions and knowledge in place, so each new chat starts ready. For a real matter, paste the statute, opinion, or record excerpt you want it to work from, keep client-identifying details out unless the tool has proper data terms, and verify every authority in a real database before it leaves your desk.