Styles and Personalization

Claude's custom instructions are called Instructions for Claude, set under Settings > Your Claude and applied to every chat; projects add their own instructions, and skills handle tone and format. Claude's older Styles menu is no longer documented as of Nov 6, 2026.

Claude's custom instructions live under Settings > Your Claude > Instructions ("Instructions for Claude", formerly "personal preferences"), and whatever you write there applies to every conversation; for narrower needs, Projects carry their own instructions and Skills handle tone and format on demand (Understanding Claude's personalization features, read Nov 6, 2026). The account-wide instructions are on every plan (listed as "User preferences"). Claude's older Styles feature, which let you pick a preset or custom writing style per chat, is no longer described in Anthropic's help pages: its help article returned a 404 error on Nov 6, 2026.

Quick facts

Account-wide	Settings > Your Claude > Instructions, all plans (as of Nov 6, 2026)
One project	Project instructions, inside the project
Tone and format	Skills, turned on when needed
Old name	"Personal preferences"
Styles	Help article gone (404) on Nov 6, 2026

How do I set custom instructions in Claude?

Click your initials in the lower left corner and open Settings.
Open "Your Claude" ("Account" in the older Settings layout).
Under "Instructions" ("Instructions for Claude" in the older layout), write what Claude should always know or do.
Save. The instructions apply from your next message, in every chat.

(Understanding Claude's personalization features)

Good instructions are short and concrete: your role, the level of detail you want, formats you like or dislike ("no bullet lists unless I ask", "use metric units", "I write in American English"). Long rule lists cost context in every chat; Prompting Claude covers what works.

1:40 If you used Cowork's "Global instructions", they became part of Instructions for Claude when your account moved to the new Claude experience, so check that the two did not end up repeating or contradicting each other.

Project instructions

2:02 Project instructions apply only to the chats inside one project, such as "you are reviewing contracts for a UK client, cite clause numbers". They sit alongside the account-wide instructions rather than replacing them. The same Help Center page both says Free accounts can create projects and lists project instructions as "paid plans only"; it does not resolve that conflict, so a Free account may find the field missing (Understanding Claude's personalization features).

Skills for tone and format

Anthropic now points people who want a consistent tone, a house format or their own way of writing to Skills: a skill is turned on when a task needs it, rather than shaping every chat. A "brand voice" skill, for example, can hold your style guide and example paragraphs, and Claude loads it only for writing tasks (Understanding Claude's personalization features). How to Build a Claude Skill walks through making one.

What happened to Claude styles?

Styles let you choose how Claude wrote for a chat: the presets were Normal (the default), Concise, Explanatory and Formal, and a custom style could be made from a sample of your own writing. On Nov 6, 2026, the personalization article no longer mentions styles, the styles help article (support.claude.com/en/articles/10181068) and Anthropic's styles announcement both return 404 errors, while the incognito article still says Claude uses your "custom styles and preferences" in incognito chats (Use incognito chats). Whether the Styles menu survives in the new Claude experience could not be confirmed from Anthropic's pages that day. If your account still shows it, the presets work as before; if not, put the same guidance into Instructions or a skill.

How the pieces differ

	Applies to	Set in	Best for
Instructions for Claude	Every chat	Settings > Your Claude	Who you are, lasting preferences
Project instructions	One project's chats	The project	A client, a codebase, a course
Skills	Tasks that call for them	Customize > Skills	Tone, formats, procedures
Memory	Every chat (learned)	Settings > Your Claude	Facts Claude picks up as you talk

Instructions are what you tell Claude; memory is what Claude notices. If Claude keeps doing something you dislike, an instruction is the reliable fix, since memory topics are Claude's own notes and can be edited or deleted.

Personalization in incognito chats

Incognito Chats are not saved to history or memory, but Claude still applies your profile instructions (and, per the Help Center, custom styles) inside them (Use incognito chats).

Team and Enterprise

Organizations can add org-wide instructions and deploy skills to everyone (Plans and pricing). Members' own instructions still apply on top.

Frequently asked questions

Does Claude have custom instructions? Yes. Claude's custom instructions are called Instructions for Claude and are set in Settings > Your Claude; they apply to every conversation on every plan.

Where are Claude's personal preferences? Claude renamed personal preferences to Instructions for Claude; find them under Settings > Your Claude, or Settings > Account in the older layout.

Are Claude styles gone? Anthropic's help pages stopped describing Claude styles by Nov 6, 2026, and the styles article returns a 404; Anthropic suggests skills for tone and format instead.

What is the difference between Claude instructions and memory? Claude instructions are rules you write that always apply; Claude memory is what Claude saves on its own from your chats, which you can review and edit.

Can I give Claude different instructions for different work? Yes. Use a Claude project for each kind of work and give it project instructions, or make a skill for each format you use.