Claude Glossary
30 terms you will see when working with Claude. Plain English, no hype, no assumed knowledge. Bookmark this page and come back when something does not make sense.
Pair this with the Claude Foundations Guide to get Claude working for your business in under 10 minutes.
The Basics
Prompt
The message you type into Claude. It can be a question, an instruction, or a request. The better the prompt, the better the output. Think of it as a brief to a very fast colleague.
Opus
Claude's most capable model. Slower, more expensive, but best for complex reasoning, long documents, and work that requires deep thought. The one you use when the answer really matters.
Sonnet
Claude's everyday model. Fast, capable, good at most business tasks. The one you will use 90% of the time for emails, drafts, analysis, and general work.
Haiku
Claude's fastest, lightest model. Great for quick lookups, simple formatting, and high-volume tasks where speed matters more than depth.
Extended Thinking
A mode where Claude works through a problem step by step before giving you the answer. Like asking someone to show their working. Useful for complex reasoning, calculations, or multi-step problems.
How You Access Claude
Chat
The standard interface at claude.ai. You type, Claude responds. Simple back and forth. Where most people start and where most business work happens.
Cowork
Claude's desktop mode. It can see your screen, work with files on your computer, and complete multi-step tasks while you do other things. Like having an assistant who can use your tools.
Claude Code
A command-line tool for developers. Claude reads your codebase, writes code, runs tests, and creates pull requests. Not relevant for most business users unless you have a development team.
Claude Design
Claude's image generation capability. It can create diagrams, charts, social media graphics, and visual content from a text description.
Claude in Chrome
A browser extension that lets Claude see and interact with web pages. It can read what is on your screen, fill in forms, navigate sites, and extract information from web applications.
Organising Your Work
Projects
A workspace inside Claude where you upload files, set instructions, and have conversations in context. Everything uploaded to a project is available to Claude in every conversation within that project. This is where your foundation files live.
Artifacts
When Claude generates something substantial (a document, a code file, a table, a diagram), it appears as an artifact beside the conversation. You can copy, download, or iterate on artifacts without losing them in the chat history.
Memory
Claude remembers key facts about you across conversations. Your preferences, your role, your recurring projects. Memory builds up over time as you work together, so Claude gets more useful the more you use it.
Research
A mode where Claude searches the web, reads multiple sources, and synthesises findings before giving you an answer. Useful for market research, competitor analysis, and questions where you need current information.
Customisation
Skills
Pre-built workflows that Claude can follow. A skill might generate a specific type of document, run an audit, or produce a report in a set format. Skills give Claude a repeatable process rather than starting from scratch each time.
Plugins
Bundles of skills, tools, and connectors that extend what Claude can do. You install a plugin and it adds new capabilities to your Claude setup. Think of them like apps for Claude.
Connectors
Links between Claude and your other tools. A Gmail connector lets Claude read and draft emails. A Calendar connector lets it check your schedule. Connectors give Claude access to your real working environment.
Computer Use
Claude's ability to control your desktop. It can click buttons, type into applications, take screenshots, and navigate software just like a person sitting at your computer. Part of Cowork mode.
Dispatch
Claude's task management layer. When you give Claude a complex job, Dispatch breaks it into sub-tasks and runs them. You can check back later for results. Works even from your phone.
Scheduled Tasks
Things you set Claude to do on a regular schedule. 'Every Monday morning, check my inbox and summarise the key actions.' Once set up, they run automatically without you asking each time.
Settings and Instructions
Global Instructions
Rules that apply to every Claude conversation you have, regardless of which project you are in. Your writing style preferences, your role, your default tone. Set once, applied everywhere.
Custom Instructions
Instructions set at the project level. They tell Claude how to behave within a specific project. Different from Global Instructions, which apply everywhere. Use Custom Instructions when a project has specific rules.
Styles
Pre-set writing styles you can switch between. You might have a 'client email' style (formal, concise) and a 'team update' style (casual, detailed). Styles let you change Claude's tone without rewriting instructions every time.
Markdown
A simple formatting language. Headings, bullet points, bold text, links. Claude reads and writes markdown naturally. Your foundation files are written in markdown because it is clean, portable, and works everywhere.
Files That Matter
SKILL.md
The file that defines a skill. It contains instructions Claude follows to produce a specific type of output. If you have custom skills built for your business, each one has a SKILL.md that governs how it works.
CLAUDE.md
A configuration file that sits in a project or folder. It tells Claude about the codebase, the business context, or the working rules for that specific workspace. Similar to project instructions but lives as a file rather than in the settings panel.
Building with AI
Vibe Coding
Using AI to build software by describing what you want in plain English rather than writing code manually. Fast for prototypes and simple apps, but requires proper governance for production systems. Authentication, hosting, security, error handling, and database management still need human oversight.
AskUserQuestion
A feature where Claude asks you a clarifying question before starting work. Rather than guessing what you mean, it checks. Useful for ambiguous requests where getting the brief right matters more than speed.
Ready to set up your foundation files?
The glossary gives you the vocabulary. The Foundations Guide gives you the setup. Three files, ten minutes, and Claude works for you from day one.