The BRIEF Framework™
Project instructions that actually work.
BRIEF is the framework Nicole uses with every client to write Claude project instructions and prompts. Five elements, in order: Behavior, Role, Intel, Edges, Format. The same structure that turns a blank Project into one that knows your business.
Behavior
How Claude should act, beyond its defaults.
The behavioral rules that make Claude useful for your specific work. Tone, register, pushback level, what to challenge, what to take at face value. This is the difference between a Claude that agrees with everything and one that actually makes you sharper.
Example
Push back on weak reasoning. Question my assumptions before answering. If I'm about to make a decision based on incomplete information, flag what's missing before you respond.
Role
What Claude is, in this Project.
The persona and seniority. Strategic advisor, M&A triager, junior copywriter, board observer. The Role sets the level of judgment Claude operates from. A Role of 'strategic advisor' produces different outputs than a Role of 'meeting notetaker' — even with the same data.
Example
You are my strategic advisor. You have the perspective of a Chief of Staff who has worked alongside three other founders before me. You know what burns time, what saves it, and what's worth fighting about.
Intel
The context Claude has access to.
What Claude knows about your world before you type anything. Operating priorities, decision frames, ICP, current quarter goals, recent decisions, the names of the people you work with. Intel is the difference between answers that fit your business and answers that fit a generic business.
Example
My company is a 50-person Claude training and advisory practice. Our buyer is a VP of Ops or CEO at a 5–50 person company already paying for Claude Teams. Q2 priority is shipping the Adoption Framework as a named asset and signing 3 Clarity Sessions.
Edges
What Claude should not do.
The constraints. What's out of scope, what to refuse, what to escalate to you. Most people write what Claude should do and never write what it should not. The Edges are where most bad outputs come from — Claude wandering into territory you didn't sanction.
Example
Do not draft legal language or contractual commitments. Do not invent statistics or sources — if you don't have a real citation, say so. Do not propose options when I asked for a recommendation.
Format
How outputs should be shaped.
The structural rules for what Claude returns. Length, structure, headings, when to use prose vs lists, what every output of a given type should look like. Format is where you bake in consistency so you stop redoing layout work yourself.
Example
Memos: 1 page max, structured as Question, Options, Criteria, Recommendation, Open Questions, Reversibility. Briefs: 1 page, Top 3 + replies drafted + heads-up. Never use em dashes. Markdown-formatted for Cmd+Shift+V paste into Google Docs.
All five, in one Project
A complete BRIEF in action
This is a full BRIEF for a strategic advisor Project — the kind of setup most CEOs and founders end up running every day. Paste into a new Claude Project, replace the Intel section with your business, adjust the Edges to your taste.
# BEHAVIOR Push back on weak reasoning. Question my assumptions before answering. If I'm about to decide on incomplete information, flag what's missing first. # ROLE You are my strategic advisor. You have the perspective of a Chief of Staff who has worked alongside three other founders. You know what burns time, what saves it, and what's worth fighting about. # INTEL 50-person Claude training and advisory practice. Buyer: VP Ops / CEO at 5–50 person company already paying for Claude Teams. Q2 priority: ship the Adoption Framework as a named asset, sign 3 Clarity Sessions, keep delivery quality high while expanding pipeline. # EDGES Do not draft legal language or contractual commitments. Do not invent statistics or sources. Do not propose options when I asked for a recommendation. Do not summarize what I just said back to me. # FORMAT Memos: 1 page max — Question, Options, Criteria, Recommendation, Open Questions, Reversibility. Briefs: 1 page — Top 3, replies drafted, heads-up. Markdown-formatted for Cmd+Shift+V paste into Google Docs.
Where BRIEF fits in the four-level instructions hierarchy
BRIEF is for Level 3 — Project Instructions. Each Claude Project gets its own BRIEF. Global instructions (Level 1 org-wide or Level 2 individual) are different and live in their own place. If you haven't read the four-level guide yet, read that first — it explains what belongs in each location.
Skip the blank page.
The free BRIEF Generator asks 8 questions about your business, then writes a full BRIEF for you — ready to paste into a new Claude Project. Three minutes, no email required.
The BRIEF Framework™ is a service mark of Elevate Online. See all of Nicole's frameworks →