Claude Academy
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Pick the right place for the work

Lesson 510 min
In this lessonBy the end, you’ll be able to
  • Decide where a piece of work goes
  • Explain why public channels are the default place to work with Claude
  • Place four requests where they belong

Deciding where to ask

Because Claude sits in your workspace like any teammate, you can decide where to ask it the same way you would decide where to ask a person. If you would DM a teammate about it, DM Claude. If it is for a specific group, ask in that group's private channel. If anyone on the team could use it, ask in the public channel where that work happens.

Where you ask also decides who else it helps. In a public channel, colleagues can read the answer instead of asking again, and corrections Claude saves there improve its later replies for everyone in the channel. In a DM, both stay with you. So when more than one place would do, choose the public channel.

When more than one place fits, use the public channel

A public channel gives you a few things a DM cannot:

  • Other people can build on the work: a colleague who sees the thread can add context you did not have, correct a detail, or carry the task on while you are away. Claude reads every one of those replies.
  • What Claude learns helps the whole channel: a correction Claude saves in a public channel goes to the channel's notes, which Claude draws on for everyone there.
  • Setup is done once and serves everyone: the tools connected to a channel, its instructions and its routines work for everyone in it. Each addition makes the next request shorter and the result better.

A DM and a private channel are right for work that is only yours or only a group's. Used for everything else, they keep work private that did not need to be.

Decide where one piece of work goes

Start from who the work is for. Hover over a destination to see the path to it.

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To recap

  • In any of the spaces (channels or DMs), Claude can do the basics from lesson 1.
  • What differs by place is who else is in the work, which tools Claude can use, and where it keeps what it learns.
  • Lesson 6 covers that last part: memory, channel instructions, and how to shape both.
  • To check what applies where you are, ask Claude: what can you access from here?

Try it

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Before you move on

Key takeaway: ask Claude where you would ask a teammate; when more than one place fits, choose the public channel.

After practicing: You will have placed four requests where they belong and seen what happens next in each place.