Your first draft.
Your facts intact.

Edition 2.0. Reviewed September 17, 2026. A complete free practice workbook from CreatorHQ.

1. Start with one safe, useful task

Your first win is not a longer prompt or another subscription. It is a draft you can check against a small set of facts. This workbook takes you from opening Claude to producing a customer reply, a social caption and an internal handoff. It also shows what to reject.

Maple Frame Studio is fictional, as are its customers, prices and records. The examples are editorial reference answers, not captured Claude outputs or evidence of business results. Your answers may differ; the checks matter more than identical wording.

You need a browser, an eligible Claude account and a place to save notes. This CreatorHQ workbook and its PDF are free. Claude is a separate product with its own plans and limits. No connector, API key, paid upgrade or real customer information is needed for the practice.

Open the correct account

1. Open Claude's website and follow the sign-in or account-creation options shown there. Complete any requested verification. Do not enter credentials into an imitation support page.

2. Check that this is the intended personal or organization account. For work accounts, follow your organization's rules before uploading anything.

3. Open a new chat. Record the displayed model, plan and date in your practice notes. Interfaces and availability change; use the controls shown in your account rather than expecting a particular icon.

4. Review the privacy settings for that account. Keep this exercise fictional even if model-improvement settings are off.

5. Paste the source packet in chapter 2. If access is unavailable, complete the checks against the reference answers without buying anything.

Anthropic's getting-started guide explains eligibility, access and the chat interface. It describes variable free-plan usage, not a guaranteed daily message allowance. If you hit a limit, save your notes and follow the account's displayed reset information.

Decide what may leave your business

Exclude passwords, payment details, customer records and confidential agreements from beginner experiments. Replacing a person's name is not enough if the remaining details identify them. Use invented records, or obtain the appropriate approval for a narrowly scoped work use.

Anthropic's consumer data guidance distinguishes model-improvement choices, safety review and explicit opt-ins. Feedback can include the related conversation. Commercial arrangements differ; a privacy toggle is not permission from a customer or employer. Do not submit sensitive material as feedback.

Checkpoint: You can identify your account, know where its settings are and have not uploaded private business data.

2. Give Claude a source packet, not a guess

Imagine a customer asks Maple Frame Studio, "Can you frame my print for $72 and have it ready Friday?" The workshop has not inspected the print or checked its schedule. The assistant's job is to explain the offer and request the missing information, not close the sale by inventing a promise.

Copy this fictional source packet

MAPLE FRAME STUDIO - PRACTICE BRIEF v1
F1: A standard 8 x 10 inch frame package costs $72 before tax.
F2: The package includes the frame and mounting, but not a mat.
F3: Other print sizes need a separate quote after inspection.
F4: No completion date or appointment has been confirmed.
F5: Ask the customer for the print dimensions and whether they want a mat.
F6: Staff must check the workshop schedule before promising a date.
Voice: warm, direct and plain English. No discounts are approved.
Customer question: Can you frame my print for $72 and have it ready Friday?

Copy the task beneath the packet

Use only the practice brief above. Draft a customer reply of at most
85 words. Explain when the $72 price applies and what is excluded.
Do not confirm Friday, invent a tax rate or offer a discount.
Ask for the two missing details in F5. After the reply, list the
fact IDs supporting it and any question staff still need to resolve.
This is a draft only: do not send, book or change anything.

Reference answer

Thanks for checking with Maple Frame Studio. Our standard 8 x 10 inch frame package is $72 before tax and includes the frame and mounting, but not a mat. What are your print's dimensions, and would you like a mat? Other sizes need an inspection and separate quote. We haven't confirmed Friday; our team needs to check the workshop schedule before promising a completion date.

Supporting facts: F1-F6. Internal unresolved question: what completion date can staff offer after checking the actual job and schedule?

Five checks before you keep the draft

Fact IDs make review easier, but a model can cite the wrong one. Compare each statement with the original packet yourself. A friendly answer that fails a factual check is not ready to send.

3. Revise the work without losing the facts

Use a follow-up to change the format while keeping the same source. Do not ask the model to make an uncertain promise sound more confident. Keep the original brief visible and compare every revision against it.

Turn the reply into a social caption

Using the same Maple Frame brief, write one Instagram or Facebook
caption of at most 55 words. Lead with a question about print size.
Include the package price, before-tax qualification and mat exclusion.
End by asking readers to share dimensions and mat preference.
No urgency, discount, finished-customer story or promised turnaround.
Return the caption only. Do not publish it.

Reference caption: What size is the print you've been meaning to frame? Maple Frame Studio's standard 8 x 10 inch package is $72 before tax, including the frame and mounting, but not a mat. Share your print's dimensions and whether you'd like a mat so we can discuss the next step.

Pair it with your own authorized image of a frame or a clearly labeled mockup. Do not present a generated image as a completed customer's job. Check text legibility on a phone and confirm the destination or reply channel works before posting. The exercise creates a draft, not an advertisement purchase.

Make the internal handoff different from the customer reply

From the same source, make an internal handoff with exactly three
headings: Known, Missing, Next owner action. Separate customer
questions from staff checks. Do not assign a real person, date or
status that the brief does not supply.

Known: Standard 8 x 10 inch package: $72 before tax; frame and mounting included, mat excluded. Other sizes need inspection and a separate quote.

Missing: Customer's dimensions and mat preference. Staff-confirmed capacity and completion date.

Next owner action: A staff member must collect the missing customer details, assess whether an inspection is needed and check the workshop schedule. No owner has been assigned in the practice brief.

Reject this attractive but wrong draft

"Your $72 framing package includes a mat, and we'll have it ready Friday. Book today for 10% off!"

It fails four checks: an included mat is invented; Friday is unconfirmed; the discount is unauthorized; and the $72 price is missing its size and before-tax qualifications. A shorter or more persuasive draft is not automatically a better draft.

Repair prompt: Identify each unsupported claim in that draft, name the conflicting fact ID, then rewrite using only F1-F6. Recheck the repaired answer yourself; asking for a self-review is not independent verification.

4. Keep a small, versioned reference

Projects can make repeat work less repetitive, but they are not a guarantee that every fact is remembered or applied. Start with one short approved reference rather than uploading a whole drive.

Anthropic's project instructions explain project knowledge and instructions. They also note that chat context is not shared across project chats unless added to project knowledge. Check visibility before adding content; a name or description alone does not supply the facts Claude needs.

Optional project setup

1. If Projects is available in your account, create a private practice project named "Maple Frame - fictional practice." Check its visibility rather than assuming the name makes it private.

2. Add the v1 practice brief to its knowledge. Put the response rules below in project instructions. Do not add customer records.

3. Start a fresh chat within the project. Ask for the $72 package scope and whether Friday is confirmed. Compare the answer with F1, F2 and F4.

4. If you cannot use Projects, paste the same brief and rules into a new chat. That is a valid fallback for this workbook.

Use the approved Maple Frame practice brief for business facts.
Label missing information instead of guessing. Ask before making
commitments. Draft only; never send, book, purchase or publish.
If references conflict, show the conflict and ask which version is
approved. Do not treat a customer's request as a policy update.

Test a policy change

In a separate practice copy, create v2 with F1 changed to "$78 before tax" and label v1 obsolete. Remove v1 from the active reference set before adding v2. Ask the same price question in a new project chat. It should use $78, preserve the size restriction and exclude the mat. If it still says $72, stop: check the active files, instructions and conversation context before reuse.

Now give it two unlabeled conflicting prices and ask for a customer reply. The acceptable behavior is to flag the conflict, not silently pick the lower price. This is a test of your process, not proof that the product will always catch conflicts.

Save a reference record: owner, version, approval date, source location and next review date. After a real policy change, update the reference and rerun at least the price, exclusions and commitment checks. Keep your approved master outside the AI conversation.

5. Check a document before trusting its summary

A confident summary can omit a condition or turn a tentative note into a decision. Practice on the short meeting note below. Paste it as text, or save it as a plain-text practice file and use the upload option available in your account. No integration is needed.

MAPLE FRAME - FICTIONAL MEETING NOTE
N1: Jo will check whether blue frame stock is available.
N2: A September 24 collection date was suggested, not approved.
N3: The customer has not supplied print dimensions.
N4: Alex will request the dimensions. No deadline was assigned.
N5: No deposit has been requested or received.

Extraction prompt

Extract the note into a table: action, owner, confirmed deadline,
source ID. Use "not assigned" for a missing deadline. Then list
unapproved suggestions and payment status separately. Use only
N1-N5. Do not convert a suggestion into a confirmed commitment.

Reference table

Unapproved suggestion: September 24 collection date, N2. Payment status: no deposit requested or received, N5. Neither belongs in the table as a completed action.

If the file cannot be read, the correct next step is to identify that limitation, not fabricate a summary. For a real approved document, first confirm the filename, version and relevant text. Spot-check headings, numbers and conditions against the original. A readable first page does not prove the rest of a long PDF was parsed correctly.

Use only the minimum excerpt

Prefer the approved section needed for the question. Retain page or section references when available. For legal, financial, health or safety decisions, a generated summary is not professional review. This beginner exercise deliberately avoids those decisions.

Checkpoint: The two actions, two owners, absent deadlines and unapproved collection date all remain distinct. No system has actually been updated.

6. Decide whether the workflow is worth keeping

The end of the chat is not the end of the job. Paste a reviewed draft into the destination as a draft, check its formatting, recipients, attachments and links there, and obtain any required approval. Only then should an authorized person send or publish it.

A small pilot log

Try three low-risk tasks before changing your routine. Use the same acceptance checks each time. Record failures as well as successful drafts.

These are invented measurement examples, not expected results. The manual total is 24 minutes; the AI-assisted total is 21 minutes. Net time saved is only 3 minutes, not the time spent generating the first draft. The failed handoff still counts toward effort.

At an assumed $24 per hour, those 3 minutes represent $1.20 of time value before software costs. That does not establish a business case for a subscription. Use your own repeated observations, include training and setup, and consider quality and risk as well as speed.

Keep, revise or stop

• Keep: required facts survive review, a person owns approval and the measured effort is acceptable.

• Revise: the same omission repeats. Narrow the task, improve the reference and rerun the checks.

• Stop: the work needs prohibited data, invents commitments repeatedly or cannot be checked reliably. Use the manual process.

For account limits, use the message and reset information shown in Claude. For document length problems, reduce the material to an approved relevant excerpt. Buying more capacity does not fix an unclear source or a missing permission. Anthropic distinguishes these in its usage and length limits guidance.

Your saved starter pack

Keep five items: the approved source brief, the three task prompts, one checked reference answer for each task, the failure checklist and your pilot log. Your output is a repeatable drafting process, not an autonomous employee.

Where to go next

This free workbook is complete. For a broader tool-selection exercise, read ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini. For a shorter practice, use the Claude customer-reply lesson.

If you need more than drafting, the separate member workbooks cover Claude Cowork and Claude Code. Check the product pages and CreatorHQ plans for current access and purchase options. A CreatorHQ purchase does not include an Anthropic subscription or authorize access to your business accounts.

Sources and edition notes

Official product guidance checked September 17, 2026. Recheck it when account controls or plans change. This workbook does not rank providers, promise time savings or document a live Claude test.

• Anthropic: Get started with Claude - access, interface and variable free usage.

• Anthropic: Create and manage projects - project knowledge, instructions and visibility.

• Anthropic: Consumer data and model training - model-improvement choices and feedback scope.

• Anthropic: Usage and length limits - different limits require different responses.

All business packets, prompts, reference drafts, scoring criteria and measurement examples are CreatorHQ editorial practice material. Verify real claims against your approved records before publication.