Make your project folder

Your app will live in one project folder. Everything Claude makes goes in there, and nowhere else. This step makes the folder in the right place, copies your plan file into it, and opens it in the Code tab.

Where it goes, and why

The folder goes in a folder named Projects directly inside your user folder, the one named after you under C:\Users\. Not on the Desktop, and not in Documents. Here is why:

• Many PCs keep the Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders in OneDrive, so a copy of every file goes to Microsoft's servers (the step "Files and folders in File Explorer" in Part 1). Building tools make thousands of small files, and the syncing fights with them: slow saves, files that come back after Claude deleted them, warnings about files in use. A folder directly in your user folder is never in OneDrive. To see which folders OneDrive has: click the OneDrive cloud icon near the clock, then the gear (Help & Settings), then Settings, then Sync and backup, then Manage backup.
• A temporary folder is worse. Windows cleans those out on its own. Weeks of work can vanish that way.
• Keep the path short, with no spaces. Windows can refuse very long file paths, and building tools nest folders deep.

Windows has no set place for building projects, the way a Mac has its Developer folder. This guide's choice is a Projects folder at C:\Users\YourName\Projects, with your own name in place of YourName.

Make the folders

1. Open File Explorer: click the yellow folder on the taskbar, or hold Windows and press E.
2. Click in the address bar at the top of the window, the long box that shows where you are. Its text turns blue.
3. Type %USERPROFILE% exactly, with both percent signs, and press Enter. The window jumps to your user folder. You see Desktop, Documents, Downloads and, on many PCs, a OneDrive folder.
4. Right-click an empty spot in the main area, click New, then Folder. (On Windows 11 you can instead click New at the top-left of the window, then Folder.)
5. Type Projects and press Enter.
6. Double-click Projects to go inside.
7. Right-click an empty spot, click New, then Folder, type your working name with no spaces, for example Binder, and press Enter.

Now check it isn't in OneDrive: click in the address bar again. It reads C:\Users\, then your name, then \Projects\Binder, and the word OneDrive appears nowhere in it. Press Esc to leave the address bar.

The practice folder named Binder on your Desktop from Part 1 was only for practice. Right-click it and click Delete (the bin icon on Windows 11), so there is one Binder folder on your PC. Keep anything in it you still want first.

Put your plan file in

Copy and paste works for files too, the same keys as for words (the step "Copy, paste and undo" in Part 1).

1. In the File Explorer sidebar, click Documents. If it shows as OneDrive, then Documents, that is the same folder.
2. Click binder-plan.txt (with your app's name instead) once, so it is highlighted.
3. Press Ctrl + C.
4. Click in the address bar, type %USERPROFILE%\Projects\Binder, and press Enter. The window is empty.
5. Press Ctrl + V. A copy of the plan file appears.

Then do the same with your sketches folder from Part 3, if you made one: click it in Documents, press Ctrl + C, go back into Binder, and press Ctrl + V. Claude can now open your sketches when it builds each screen.

The originals stay in Documents. They can stay or go; from now on Claude uses the copies in the project folder.

Open it in the Code tab

1. Go back to the Claude app, in the Code tab.
2. Under the message box, click the folder control, next to the first control.
3. Click Open folder…. A window for choosing a folder opens.
4. Click in its address bar at the top, type %USERPROFILE%\Projects, and press Enter. Then click Binder once. (Or click through This PC, Windows (C:), Users, your name, Projects.)
5. Click Select Folder (on some versions: Open). The folder name now shows in the control.

Send Claude a first message to prove it can see the folder:

Claude reads the folder and names your plan file. It may ask to allow something first; click yes. Step 4 explains those questions properly.