Build a research project that keeps growing across months of sessions

Set up a project folder, write a master instructions note, and Anara works with your growing document collection across every session. New papers drop in, old chats compress, and your project context stays intact. For researchers managing a large or long-running project where continuity across sessions matters as much as the individual answers.

1. Describe the task

You started uploading documents in September. It is now March, and the project has three sub-folders, a hundred and forty papers, a stack of notes, and a naming convention you invented yourself. Every new chat session, you have to re-explain the project before you can ask a question.

There is a way to build continuity. A master instructions note in your project folder holds your project context permanently: what the project is, how your folders are organized, what citation style you use, what Anara should never do in this project. You reference that note at the start of each session, and the project picks up where it left off.

This is not a feature Anara builds for you automatically. It is a pattern you set up once, and it changes how every subsequent session runs. The users who have done it longest carry months of accumulated research into each new chat with a single message.

Here a legal researcher in London has been building an antitrust analysis across 1,600 documents over fourteen months, with new documents arriving each week as the case evolves.

New session. I am continuing the antitrust analysis project. My master instructions note is in the "Antitrust Project" folder, please read it before we begin.

Today I have three tasks: (1) Find anything in my library about predatory pricing in digital platform markets that I may not have reviewed yet. (2) Summarize the three new documents I uploaded this morning, they are in the "New Uploads" sub-folder. (3) Draft a two-paragraph synthesis on how the most recent EU Digital Markets Act guidance compares to what my earlier papers say about structural separation remedies.

2. Give Anara context

Required context

• A project folder containing your documents, organized into sub-folders if needed.
• A note titled something like “MASTER INSTRUCTIONS” in the root of that folder. Write your project description, folder structure, naming conventions, citation preferences, and any standing instructions in it.

Optional context

• A “New Uploads” sub-folder for documents you have not reviewed yet. Referencing this at the start of each session lets Anara process new material without mixing it with already-reviewed documents.
• Notes from previous sessions where you recorded key findings or decisions. Tag them in the project folder so Anara can pull them alongside the papers.

3. What Anara creates

Answers, summaries, and drafts drawn from a project Anara already understands. The master instructions note re-establishes context so you can open a session with a task rather than an explanation. Over months, the project grows; the note stays the same or gets updated when your conventions change.

4. Follow-up prompts

Update the master instructions note

When your project has changed and the standing context needs revision.

Open my MASTER INSTRUCTIONS note and add the following: I have started a new sub-folder called "Counter-Evidence" for documents that complicate the central argument. When I reference this folder, treat documents in it with the same weight as primary sources but note explicitly when a counter-evidence document is being cited.

Find gaps in the coverage

When you want to know what the project library is missing.

Based on the documents in my Antitrust Project folder, what major arguments or sub-topics appear to be missing? What would a reviewer of this analysis likely say is insufficiently evidenced given what I have uploaded so far?

Triage new uploads

When a batch of new documents has arrived and you want a fast read of what is worth deep attention.

Summarize each of the five documents in my New Uploads sub-folder in two sentences: what it covers and whether it appears directly relevant to the predatory pricing thread I have been developing. Flag any that look central enough to add to the main folder.

5. Tricks, tips, and troubleshooting

How you word your prompt shapes what you get

The master instructions note is only useful if you reference it at the start of each session. Write a one-line opener you use every time: “New session. Read the MASTER INSTRUCTIONS note in [Folder] before we start.” The note should include folder structure, priorities, and citation constraints. Update it when the project changes.

Check the output against your own understanding

Anara does not remember previous sessions unless you uploaded the outputs as notes. A synthesis in session forty draws from documents in your library, not from earlier session conclusions. Record important decisions in the master instructions note or a project decisions note. Project continuity is yours to maintain; Anara provides the research capability within each session.

What to do with the output next

Save session outputs as named notes in your project folder. A consistent naming convention (“Session Summary, 2026-03-11”) lets Anara find and incorporate them when you ask. For large projects, tidy the folder every few months. Move archived documents to an “Archive” sub-folder so the working folder stays navigable.