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Build your first AI agent with one file

One file, one short conversation, and an AI agent that remembers you: your goals, your work, and the way you like things done. No code and no technical background.

Most people open a new AI chat and start from zero every time. They explain again who they are, what the business does and what they need. This file fixes exactly that.

It is a single instruction file for Claude. Once Claude reads it, it becomes a builder. It interviews you one question at a time, then builds you an agent of your own, with a name, a personality and a memory. A second brain that actually knows you.

One thing to know up front: at this stage the agent does not run tasks or automations. Its whole job is to learn you deeply and remember. That is the foundation everything else is built on.

What you need

Claude Code

The version of Claude that works with folders and files on your computer. Easiest route: the Claude desktop app, Code tab. Available on paid plans.

An empty folder

A new folder on your computer where your agents will live.

The file

CLAUDE.md, ready to download at the bottom of this page.

How it works, step by step

  1. Create a new folder on your computer, for example "My agents".
  2. Download the file and put it inside that folder. Its name has to stay exactly CLAUDE.md.
  3. Open Claude, go to the Code tab and choose the folder you created.
  4. Type "Hi, let's build my agent". Claude reads the file on its own and starts the interview.
  5. Answer the questions. It asks one at a time, and you decide how deep to go.
  6. At the end it builds the agent a folder of its own and a command with its name. From then on, type / and the name, and your agent is back, remembering everything.

What the interview covers

The interview has four stages. After each one there is a checkpoint and you choose: keep going, hand it files, or build now. After stage 1 it already knows enough to start helping.

Stage 0

Bring it to life

What to call it, and how it talks to you: direct and to the point, warm and encouraging, or someone who challenges you.

Stage 1

The basics

Who you are and what you do, your big goal and what is urgent this month, and what you most want its help with.

Stage 2

Make it sharp

Your world: customers, products, a normal week. What great work looks like, what it must always remember, and what it should never do without your approval.

Stage 3

Feed the brain

Anything that helps it know you: files, links, things you have written, a transcribed voice note. Optional, and you can add more later.

What gets created

The agent gets a folder of its own with a few short files. You never have to touch them, but it helps to know what each one does:

SOUL.mdIts character: the mission, how it works, and what it never does.
IDENTITY.mdIts ID card: name, role, personality, and who it works for.
USER.mdWhat it knows about you, and how you like to be spoken to.
MEMORY.mdThe long-term memory: goals, your world, standards, decisions and priorities.
AGENTS.mdIts working rules, including memory and what needs your approval.
CLAUDE.mdA file inside the agent's own folder that loads it automatically when the folder is opened.
memory/A short log of every working session.
/its-nameThe command that calls it from anywhere in the folder.
The secret is memory

A second brain that forgets is just a chatbot.

Every time you tell it something that stays true, a goal, a preference, a decision, it writes it to memory on its own and tells you in one line. You never have to ask.

Safety

Nothing happens without your OK.

The agent never spends money or touches an outside system without your explicit approval. And when it disagrees with you, it says so.

Four tips

  • Use it, do not study it.Give it a real question or a real task from the very first minute.
  • The more you give, the better it gets.Files, messages you have written, brand documents. You can add more at any point.
  • You can build more than one.Open the same folder and ask for a new agent. Each one gets its own folder and its own memory.
  • It grows with you.When you ask for the same task a few times, it offers to turn it into a permanent command.
The file

CLAUDE.md: the agent builder

Download it, drop it into an empty folder, open the folder in Claude Code and say hi. The interview runs in whatever language you write in.

Download the file

One agent. One file. One conversation.

Build your first one today, and give it a real task tomorrow morning.