Claude Setup Guide — Baseworks Voice System

Created 2026-02-28

Updated 2026-02-28

Status active

Tags setupclaudevoicereference

This guide explains what was built during the Patrick + Claude Code session on 2026-02-28, and how Ksenia (Asia) can replicate the same setup on her machine. It covers the voice guide system, how Claude loads it, and what to do when we move to a full agentic workflow.

What Was Built

The problem this solves

Before this session, Claude had no persistent memory of how Baseworks writing should sound. Every session started from scratch. Feedback on tone, metaphors, framing, and terminology had to be given repeatedly.

This setup gives Claude a stable reference it can load at the start of any writing task — so the voice is consistent across sessions, across people, and across contexts.

What was created

Voice guide files (in this folder, 03-resources/voice-guides/):

File	What it does
`VOICE-GUIDE-UNIFIED.md`	Core Baseworks voice — applies to all writing, all contexts, both people
`VOICE-GUIDE-PATRICK.md`	Patrick’s personal voice — tone, email style, copy voice, session summary voice
`VOICE-GUIDE-KSENIA-ASIA.md`	Asia’s personal voice — draft v0.1, needs review and confirmation by Asia
`VOICE-GUIDE-GOVERNANCE.md`	How changes to guides are proposed, confirmed, and applied
`README.md`	Index of all files and loading instructions
`CLAUDE-SETUP-GUIDE.md`	This file — full setup documentation

WIP notes in agent folders:

03-resources/agent-system/crewai/_WIP-DO-NOT-REFERENCE.md — CrewAI is paused, not production-ready
03-resources/agent-system/n8n-workflows/_WIP-DO-NOT-REFERENCE.md — all N8N workflows deactivated, under review

Updated in baseworks-changelog repo (~/Documents/baseworks-changelog/):

CLAUDE-INSTRUCTIONS.md — now includes a Voice & Writing section so any changelog session auto-references the guides

Created on Patrick’s machine:

~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — global Claude Code file that loads automatically on every terminal session. See note below about this file and the future agentic workflow.

How It Works

Claude Code (the terminal tool, claude) automatically reads two types of files at the start of every session:

~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — a global file on the machine, loaded for every session regardless of what folder you’re in
CLAUDE.md in the project folder — a project-specific file, loaded when you open Claude Code inside that folder

Patrick’s ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md tells Claude to read the voice guides before any writing task. This means:

Any terminal session → voice guides are referenced
No need to remember to load them manually

Claude Desktop works differently — it doesn’t auto-load files. For Claude Desktop sessions, you either paste in a system prompt or tell Claude at the start of the session to read the guides.

Setup Instructions for Asia (Ksenia)

Step 1 — Confirm the Obsidian vault path

The vault should be synced via Obsidian Sync. Check where it lives on your machine:

ls ~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain/03-resources/voice-guides/

If the files are there, the vault is synced and you’re ready. If not, open Obsidian and wait for the sync to complete.

Adjust the path in all steps below if your Obsidian vault lives somewhere other than ~/Obsidian/.

Step 2 — Create `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` on your machine

This is the global file that Claude Code (terminal) reads automatically. Create it at:

~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

Paste in the following content, adjusting the Obsidian path if needed:

# Claude Code — Global Instructions (Asia / Baseworks)

---

## Voice & Writing

For **any copy, messaging, or communication task**, read the following voice guides before writing:

\`\`\`
~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain/03-resources/voice-guides/VOICE-GUIDE-UNIFIED.md
~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain/03-resources/voice-guides/VOICE-GUIDE-KSENIA-ASIA.md
\`\`\`

Load the appropriate personal guide based on who is being written for:
- Writing as Asia → `VOICE-GUIDE-KSENIA-ASIA.md` (already listed above)
- Writing as Patrick → `VOICE-GUIDE-PATRICK.md` instead
- Proposing a change to any guide → read `VOICE-GUIDE-GOVERNANCE.md` first

All guides live in:
`~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain/03-resources/voice-guides/`

**Key principles (quick reference — full guidance is in the guides):**
- Describe what something IS — not what it isn't
- No metaphors, no negative framing, no sales language
- Simple language, not simplified ideas
- Two versions for significant copy: accessible (landing pages) and formal (proposals/research)
- No exclamation marks in professional contexts
- "Physical Intelligence" is b-roll — not a hero/heading term
- Practice Platform is gated — not open enrollment; copy must reflect this

---

## Baseworks Ecosystem

| Site | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| baseworks.com | Portfolio + payment portal |
| practice.baseworks.com | Learning app + community |
| staging.baseworks.com | Staging/testing environment |
| kb.baseworks.com | Knowledge base (Astro + Starlight → Cloudflare Pages) |

For any session involving site work, also read:
`~/Documents/baseworks-changelog/CLAUDE-INSTRUCTIONS.md`

---

## Git Repositories

| Repo | Local path | GitHub |
|------|-----------|--------|
| baseworks-changelog | `~/Documents/baseworks-changelog/` | `p-oancia/baseworks-changelog` |
| baseworks-kb-shared-brain | `~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain/` | `p-oancia/baseworks-kb-shared-brain` |

Always `git pull` at the start of any session that modifies these repos. Push at the end.

---

## Record Keeping

After any significant session:
1. Add a changelog entry to `~/Documents/baseworks-changelog/CHANGELOG.md`
2. Update the relevant Obsidian vault note with session notes
3. Commit and push both repos

Note: The path ~/Documents/baseworks-changelog/ assumes the changelog repo is cloned there on your machine. Adjust if yours is somewhere else.

Step 3 — Review and confirm your voice guide

VOICE-GUIDE-KSENIA-ASIA.md is a draft (v0.1). It was written by Claude based on inference from Asia’s written work in the knowledge base. It needs to be reviewed and corrected by Asia before it’s treated as confirmed.

To do this:

Open a Claude Code session (terminal): claude
Say: “Read the voice guides in ~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain/03-resources/voice-guides/ and then show me the content of VOICE-GUIDE-KSENIA-ASIA.md.”
Read through it. Tell Claude what to correct or add.
Claude will apply the changes and update the Version History to mark it confirmed by you.
Commit and push: the guide lives in the shared git repo so Patrick will see your confirmed version.

Step 4 — Claude Desktop sessions

Claude Desktop does not auto-load files. For writing sessions in Claude Desktop:

Tell Claude at the start of the session:

“Before we work on any copy, please read the voice guides in ~/Obsidian/baseworks-kb-shared-brain/03-resources/voice-guides/ — start with VOICE-GUIDE-UNIFIED.md and VOICE-GUIDE-KSENIA-ASIA.md.”

Or, if the Claude Desktop app supports system prompts in your version, paste the content of ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md as your system prompt for Baseworks sessions.

Step 5 — Baseworks changelog sessions

When working on the changelog repo (~/Documents/baseworks-changelog/), tell Claude to read CLAUDE-INSTRUCTIONS.md at the start. It already includes a Voice & Writing section pointing to these guides.

“Read ~/Documents/baseworks-changelog/CLAUDE-INSTRUCTIONS.md”

What Each Voice Guide Contains

`VOICE-GUIDE-UNIFIED.md`

The baseline for all Baseworks writing. Both people load this. It includes:

8 core principles (describe what something IS; no metaphors; no sales language; simple language; etc.)
The two-version principle: every significant piece of copy should exist in accessible and formal versions
How to handle recurring topics: cross-domain transfer, “Physical Intelligence,” Practice Platform gating, differentiating from other modalities
Context-specific guidelines: website, email, session summaries, forum
Word lists: use / avoid
A Good vs. Needs Revision table with 8 annotated examples

`VOICE-GUIDE-PATRICK.md`

Patrick’s personal voice layer. Loaded for anything written in his name. Covers:

Tone: direct, warm, precise; conviction without hedging
Sentence structure: short standalone sentences for emphasis
Warmth style: specific, not generic
Team language: “we” even when signing personally
Qualifiers as precision tools
Preferred terminology (“shifts,” “practitioners,” etc.)
Email voice: no apologetic openers, address the point directly
Tone escalation ladder (light → direct → firm) for follow-up communications
Session summary voice: extract-not-invent, specific, methodologically grounded

`VOICE-GUIDE-KSENIA-ASIA.md` (draft — needs Asia’s review)

Asia’s personal voice layer. Loaded for anything written in her name. Draft v0.1 — inferred, not yet confirmed by Asia. The guide includes a clear note about this and instructions for reviewing it.

`VOICE-GUIDE-GOVERNANCE.md`

How updates to any guide are proposed and confirmed. Key points:

Unified guide changes require both people to confirm
Personal guide changes only require the relevant person to confirm
Claude flags when something from a session should go in the guide
No formal review schedule — guides are updated when sessions surface new patterns

Important: `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` and the Future Agentic Workflow

When Baseworks moves to a proper agentic setup — where dedicated agents handle specific tasks (writing, research, forum responses, etc.) — ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md should be removed from both machines.

Here is why:

The global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is a temporary measure. It works well for now because Patrick (and soon Asia) is doing most Baseworks work directly in Claude Code sessions. The global file ensures the voice guides are always available without having to remember to load them.

But in a proper agentic workflow:

Each agent will have the voice guides built into its own system prompt or initialization instructions
The agent knows its role and loads what it needs — a writing agent loads the voice guides, a research agent loads methodology documents, etc.
A global file that loads for every session — including sessions that have nothing to do with writing — adds unnecessary noise to the context
It also creates a redundancy problem: the agent has already loaded the guides; the global file loads them again

The transition: When the agentic workflow is ready, the step will be simple — delete ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md on both machines (or rename it so it’s not auto-loaded). The agents take over from there.

Until then, the global file is the right approach. It costs very little (a small amount of context per session) and ensures nothing falls through the cracks while the agentic setup is being built.

Version History

Version	Date	Change	Confirmed by
1.0	2026-02-28	Initial creation — documents the full 2026-02-28 session setup	Patrick