I’ve watched people spend whole weekends building the perfect Claude setup, with skills, memory, global instructions, and folders inside folders. So this post stopped me mid-scroll. The author makes content about AI for a living, admits it might sound weird coming from a “guy making content” who should be selling you difficult setups, and then says it anyway: the best Claude setup is no setup.
What I love is how practical it gets. This LinkedIn creator doesn’t just tell you to simplify. They walk through exactly what to click, what to delete, and what to type next. There’s also a twist: they tell you to delete this setup again in 5 months, because the tools keep moving.
Before you touch any settings
The author starts with three basics. If any of these describes you, fix it first:
- Not using Claude with a personal account.
- Not using Claude without its desktop app.
- Not using Claude without trying Claude Code.
With those covered, you can move on to the actual setup. It’s seven steps, and each one has a clear reason behind it.
The 7-step reset
- Check that you have one Claude. Go to Claude Settings → Organization Settings → Capabilities. This gives you one quick look at what’s actually switched on before you change anything else.
- Pick “Auto” in Claude Chat. In the message box, switch Manual to Auto. Claude then works without stopping to ask you at every step. The author’s default is Opus 5.5 + High + Auto.
- Let Claude Chat write code. The expert’s reasoning is simple: everything is code. A slide. An image. A video. When Claude can write code, it builds the thing instead of describing it. To try it, go to the left menu bar, pick Design, then pick Slides. Write a prompt of exactly what you want, keep prompting until you like what you see, and upload references if you have them.
- Delete your old Claude setup. This is the scary one, and it gets its own checklist below. Old instructions were often written for older models, so they can get in the way of what Claude does well today.
- Set one clear goal. As the author puts it, prompting is sharing your goal. Claude figures out the how, but it can’t guess what you want or why you want it. Start all your new chats with the template below.
- Ask for an HTML page. Stop asking for a Word file, a PowerPoint, or a PDF. Ask for HTML instead, and Claude builds it as an Artifact: a web page that lives in your Claude account. Just add this to your prompt: “Make it an HTML page.”
- Switch from your old folders. Open the Claude desktop app and select your old folder (the author’s was called CLAUDE COWORK). It’s the last time Claude reads it, so use this moment to clean it out aggressively and move on.
The delete list for step 4
Here’s everything the original poster clears out. It’s a short list, but it takes some nerve:
- Instructions: Account → “Instructions for Claude.” Empty.
- Skills: Claude Customize → Skills. Remove.
- Writing skills: Skills → Yours → Search “writing” → Turn off.
- Memory: Claude Settings → Memory → Turn it off.
- Folders: Any over-organised folder you maintain.
- Global instructions: Delete them. The author’s take is that Claude ignores them anyway.
My suggestion: if you’ve spent months on those instructions, paste them into a plain note before you wipe anything. That way, you can test the clean setup with no pressure, and you’ll have a copy if you miss something specific.
The prompt template for step 5
Once the old setup is gone, this prompt does the heavy lifting. The creator recommends starting every new chat with it:
“Goal: [what you want, and what it’s for] Context: [who it’s for, what you already have, what good looks like] Before you start, restate in your own words what you think my goals are and the problem I’m trying to solve. If you need more context, ask me questions.”
The restating part is my favorite. Claude has to show you how it understood the task before it does the work, so you can catch a wrong assumption early instead of finding it in the finished result. Say you need a client report. You’d fill in what the report is for, who’s reading it, what you already have, and what a good one looks like. Then you check Claude’s summary, correct anything that’s off, and let it build.
Why start from scratch at all?
The author plans to make this same post again in the next 5 months, telling everyone to delete their (then) old setup and start over. That might sound like a joke, but they aren’t alone. Even Anthropic’s team is doing it, and the post closes with this quote:
“Every 6 months, delete your Claude MD. Delete your skills. Delete your hooks. See what the model does, and it might surprise you.” – Boris Cherny (the guy who built Claude code)
That quote changed how I read the whole post. A setup isn’t something you finish. Lots of those rules start as workarounds for what a model couldn’t do at the time, and when the model improves, they can stick around long after you need them.
How to try this today
You don’t need a free weekend for this. Here’s an easy way to test the idea:
- Pick one real task: Choose something you already need this week, like a slide deck or a short report.
- Use the template: Open a new chat, fill in the goal and context, and read Claude’s restatement before it starts.
- Ask for HTML: Add “Make it an HTML page.” to your prompt and see how the Artifact compares with your usual file.
- Set a reminder: Put a note on your calendar for 5 months from now to review your setup again.
I think the real lesson here is about where your effort goes. Time spent tweaking a setup is time you’re not spending on explaining what you actually want. The author’s approach moves all of that effort into one clear goal, and that’s a habit you can keep no matter which model comes next.
Check out the full LinkedIn post to see the expert’s complete walkthrough in their own words, then pick one step and try it today.