Setting Up a Deal Project

This is where a real CIM, live financials, and NDA-bound diligence actually go. A deal project is the workbench layer from the two-layer system: one project, one live opportunity, fully siloed. This page walks through standing one up properly, using Project Atlas, a mid-market field-service software target, as the worked example.

Standing up the Atlas project

1. Create one dedicated project for the opportunity

   Open Projects, choose New project, and name it for this opportunity alone, for example Project Atlas. One opportunity, one project. Never reuse an existing deal project for a different target, and never combine two opportunities in one place.

2. Confirm what is permitted before anything goes in

   Before uploading a single file, check that the opportunity’s NDA and your firm’s data-handling rules allow it into Claude; if a document is not cleared, it does not go in. The checks to run are in Your Account & Confidential Data.

3. Add the cleared data room files

   Upload the permitted materials into the project’s knowledge base: the CIM, the financials, the management deck, and any cleared diligence documents. These become the shared context every chat in the project can read, so you never re-attach them.

4. Write deal-specific instructions

   Set custom instructions tailored to this opportunity: name the target, state the stage you are at, and reinforce the rules that matter on live material (cite sources, do not invent figures, flag gaps). The template below is a ready-to-paste starting point.

5. Keep everything inside this project

   All Atlas work happens in the Atlas project. Do not paste Atlas figures into a chat in another project, and do not pull another opportunity’s files in here. The silo only holds if you respect it in daily use.

6. Archive or delete on close

   When the opportunity closes, completes, or dies, archive or delete the project according to your firm’s retention rules. A deal project is temporary by design.

What the finished project looks like

The custom instructions to start with

Paste this into the Atlas project’s custom instructions and adapt the target name and stage to your opportunity.

You are assisting a private equity team working on Project Atlas, a mid-market field-service software target. We are currently at the diligence stage.
Scope:

Work only from the documents in this project’s knowledge base. These are the cleared data room materials for Atlas.
Do not bring in outside assumptions or figures from any other opportunity.
How to answer:

Cite the source document (and page where visible) for every figure or claim you report.
Never invent or estimate a number. If something is not in the data room, say so explicitly.
Flag clearly anything the materials leave unclear, contradict, or omit.
When you draft (memo sections, question lists, summaries), keep the tone precise and investment-grade.
Reminder: this is live, confidential material. Treat every figure as something I will verify against the source before it reaches the investment committee.

After the opportunity closes

A deal project is not meant to outlive its opportunity. Once Atlas closes or is passed on, archive or delete the project in line with your firm’s retention policy. The methodology you used lives safely in your reusable function projects, so nothing of lasting value is lost by clearing down the workbench.

To see this deal project carried through a full opportunity, from first screen to investment committee, follow the Project Atlas walkthrough.