In short Two tools that turn Claude from a "one-off chat" into a workspace. A project is a folder with standing context (files + instructions), so you don't explain the same thing every time. An artifact is a finished result (a document, table, page, mini-app) that Claude builds right in the chat and that you can edit.
The problem they solve
An ordinary chat forgets context between conversations (working memory and context): each dialogue starts from zero, you dump the background again. And an ordinary chat's answer is text in a feed, awkward to turn into a document. Projects solve the first, artifacts the second.
Projects
A project is a container holding: files and knowledge (uploaded documents Claude leans on across all the project's conversations), instructions (standing directions — tone, names, report format) and the conversation history on the topic.
The point is to give Claude standing context once, so in every new chat inside the project it's already "up to speed." This is what development calls persistent memory and Cowork calls global instructions.
Analogy: a working folder with a client dossier. Sit down to it and you needn't re-explain who the client is. When to make one: any recurring topic — client, product, studies, book.
Artifacts
An artifact is a separate "canvas" beside the chat where Claude creates a finished object you can edit iteratively: a document, plan, article; a table, checklist; a web page, diagram; a working mini-app.
Unlike an ordinary answer, an artifact lives apart from the feed, is easy to refine ("make the button bigger," "add a column"), save and share. You see the whole result rather than fishing it out of the thread. Analogy: Claude doesn't tell you how to make a table — it puts the table in front of you. When to ask: when you need a result-object, not an explanation.
How they work together
A project gives the input (context and rules), an artifact the output (a finished object), and skills (Claude skills) set the process (exactly how to do it). Together that's "Claude as a workspace," not a one-off Q&A.
Related
The source is the Claude 101 course. Related: Claude skills, working memory and context.