Getting Started With Claude.ai in the Browser: Conversations, Projects, Files
Getting Started With Claude.ai in the Browser: Conversations, Projects, Files
~6 Min. Lesezeit Zuletzt aktualisiert am August 8, 2026
Before chapter 3 moves on to Claude Code, it's worth taking a short, practical look at Claude.ai in the browser first - because many of the concepts you'll meet here (having a conversation, giving context, uploading files) show up again in a similar form later in Claude Code.
Starting a conversation
After signing in at claude.ai, you'll see a simple input field. Type your question or task in plain language and send it - that's all it takes to get going. Claude answers, and you can build directly on that: ask a follow-up question, request more detail, or take things in a different direction. Every new message within the same conversation automatically sees the whole conversation so far, so you don't need to repeat earlier information.
A single conversation is often called a "chat" or a "session". For a new, unrelated topic it's usually worth starting a fresh conversation instead of mixing everything into one endlessly long chat - that keeps answers focused and easier to find again later.
Projects: bundling multiple conversations
A project in Claude.ai is a kind of folder for a recurring topic, like "My Thesis" or "Blog Editorial 2026". Inside a project you can hold as many individual conversations as you like, and you can give the project persistent background information and files, which are then automatically available in every new conversation inside that project.
That's especially handy when you keep referring back to the same foundations - for example style guides, product information, or a set of rules that should apply to every new request. Instead of pasting it in every time, you store it once in the project.
- Click "Projects" in the sidebar, then "New project".
- Give the project a meaningful name.
- Optionally add background knowledge that should apply to every conversation in this project.
- Optionally upload files that belong to the project (see the next section).
- Start one or more new conversations inside the project.
Uploading and discussing files
You can upload files to Claude.ai and talk about them directly - a PDF, a text document, a spreadsheet, or an image, for example. Claude reads the content and can summarise it, answer questions about it, find errors in it, or suggest revisions. This works both directly in a single conversation and persistently inside a project.
Tipp: The more specific your question about an uploaded file is, the more useful the answer. "What does this document say?" gets you a rough summary - "Which three points in this document affect our delivery deadlines?" gets you a targeted, directly usable answer. More on this principle in chapter 5.
When Claude.ai, when Claude Code?
As a rough rule of thumb: Claude.ai is great for anything that can be worked out purely through language and documents - writing, research, ideas, evaluating individual files. But as soon as it's about a real software project, where many files work together, code needs to run, and changes need to land directly in the project folder, Claude Code is the far better tool - and that's exactly where the rest of this series picks up.