> Give your workspace, collections and key memos short descriptions and instructions, and tell your repos when to use Fieldwerk, so your AI files well.

# Set up your workspace so AI assistants understand it

Your AI reads your workspace before it acts in Fieldwerk. What it finds there decides whether it files a memo in the right place or guesses. Three things do most of the work: instructions on the workspace, a one-line description and short instructions on each collection and notebook, and a section in each code repo's AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md that says when to use Fieldwerk. Ask your AI to check all three once, then again whenever your structure changes.

## Put each piece of guidance in the smallest place it applies to

Instructions are handed to your AI every time it works there, so every sentence costs attention. Put each rule on the smallest thing it covers.

| Where | What it holds | Ask yourself |
|---|---|---|
| **Workspace instructions** | What is true everywhere: what the workspace is for, how collections are named, house style, and safety rules such as archive rather than delete | Would a new AI behave sensibly anywhere in the workspace? |
| **Collection description and instructions** | What belongs here and what doesn't, whether it's long-lived or a scratch space, and what your AI may do without asking | Would it file and edit correctly in this collection? |
| **Notebook description and instructions** | What one kind of memo looks like: its title pattern and the properties it needs | Could it write a good one from scratch? |
| **Property and view descriptions** | What a value means, who sets it, what a board shows | Can someone tell what each option means without asking? |
| **Memo description** | One line in the memo's front matter saying what it is and when to use it | Could your AI pick the right memo from a list without opening each one? |
| **A memo** | The reasoning, decisions and history behind the rules | Would losing this text matter? |

If several collections repeat the same rule, move it to the workspace instructions. See [Give a collection standing instructions](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/wn60xwy68v/give-a-collection-standing-instructions.md) for where to write each one.

A collection's instructions usually need only three things, in this order:

1. **What belongs, and what doesn't.** A short "not this, it goes there" list stops more misfiling than anything else.

2. **What state it's in.** Long-lived, scratch, or temporary. Without this your AI may tidy away something that hasn't been decided.

3. **What your AI may do unasked.** For example, "only a person moves a memo to Approved".

## Know which properties travel with a memo

A memo can carry two kinds of property, and it helps your AI to know which is which.

- **Memo properties** are part of the memo itself, kept as front matter at the top of its Markdown. They travel with the memo into every collection it's in.

- **Collection properties** belong to one collection. They're what that collection's boards and tables show, they can have types such as dates, options and people, and the same memo can have different values in different collections.

Put facts about the memo itself, like its description, in memo properties. Put the state of the work in one collection, like its status on a board, in collection properties. See [Track work with properties](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/hp1532ap47/track-work-with-properties.md).

## Start loose, then write the pattern down

You don't need to design any of this up front. Start with a collection and a few memos, and let things settle. Once a pattern shows, such as how memos are named or which status each one needs, ask your AI to write it down as the collection's instructions:

```prompt
In Fieldwerk, show me my collections and ask which one to look at. Read its memos and describe the patterns you see in how they're named, structured and tracked. Then draft standing instructions that capture those patterns, show them to me, and only save them once I agree.
```

Rewrite the instructions whenever the pattern changes. Earlier versions are kept.

## Leave these out of instructions

- **Dates and counts.** "Set up in March" or "twelve memos so far" go stale and nobody notices. Put history in a memo.

- **Change notes.** Rewrite the rule in place. Earlier versions of instructions are kept.

- **Reasons and justifications.** State the rule, then link to the memo that explains it.

- **Rules from the level above.** A collection adds to the workspace instructions; it never repeats them.

- **Names of other memos and collections.** They get renamed. Link to them instead.

Rough length limits help: about 400 words for a workspace, 300 for a collection and 150 for a notebook. If a collection's instructions are longer than most of its memos, cut them.

## Tell your code repos about Fieldwerk

Coding tools such as Claude Code and Codex read a file at the root of the repo (AGENTS.md, or CLAUDE.md for Claude Code) before they start. If your plans, specs and decisions live in Fieldwerk, say so there, or your AI will write them into the repo instead. Keep it to a few lines that name where things live and when to use them. For example:

```markdown
## Fieldwerk

Plans, specs and decisions for this project live in Fieldwerk, not in this repo. Use the Fieldwerk connector.

- Before starting a piece of work, search the project's collection for related memos and read the collection's instructions.
- Write proposals and decisions as memos there, never as markdown files in docs/.
- When a piece of work ships, add a short note to its memo with a link to the pull request.
```

Swap in your own collection and conventions. Link to the collection rather than naming it, so a rename doesn't break the instructions.

## Point your AI's projects and skills at a Fieldwerk link

Project instructions in Claude or ChatGPT, and skills, are set up in each tool separately, so copies drift apart. Instead, keep the guidance in a memo or in a collection's instructions, and make the project instructions or skill a short pointer to it, such as "Before you start, read this Fieldwerk memo and follow it" followed by its link. Edit the memo once and every chat that reads it gets the change. See [Bring a memo or collection into any chat](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/ae94aluice/bring-a-memo-or-collection-into.md).

## Lock the memos your AI must not change

Some memos are finished: an agreed policy, a signed-off spec, a guide others rely on. Lock them, and nobody, people or AI, can change them until someone unlocks them. See [Lock, archive or delete a memo](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/0uxsg79ylw/lock-archive-or-delete-a-memo.md).

## Have your AI do it

Ask your AI (see [Connect Claude to Fieldwerk](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/pz1hhc2mwy/connect-claude-to-fieldwerk.md) or [Connect ChatGPT to Fieldwerk](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/exh83fg13f/connect-chatgpt-to-fieldwerk.md)) to check what's missing. This one only reads and suggests:

```prompt
In Fieldwerk, check whether my workspace is set up so an AI can understand it. Read the workspace instructions and every collection and notebook I can see, and tell me which are missing a description or instructions, which instructions repeat a rule from the level above, and which mention dates, counts or names that may be out of date. Don't change anything yet. Suggest fixes, and make only the ones I agree to.
```

In a coding tool, from inside the repo:

```prompt
In Fieldwerk, look at the collections that hold this project's plans and decisions, then read this repo's AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md. Suggest a short Fieldwerk section saying where things live and when to use Fieldwerk instead of files in the repo. Show me the change before you make it. If the repo has neither file, ask me which one to create.
```

A good habit: ask for the check again whenever you add a collection or change how one is used. Instructions that no longer match what's there are worse than none.

## Checklist

- [ ] The workspace has instructions covering what's true everywhere

- [ ] Every collection and notebook has a one-line description

- [ ] Each collection says what belongs, what state it's in, and what your AI may do unasked

- [ ] Select properties and saved views have descriptions

- [ ] Key memos have a one-line description, and finished ones are locked

- [ ] No dates, counts or change notes in any instructions

- [ ] Each code repo's AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md says when to use Fieldwerk