Write down what you sell

You'll finish with: An offers file that stops Claude inventing prices.

The most embarrassing thing an AI setup can do is quote a client a price you never agreed to. This one file prevents it.

Where does the number come from?

No offers file
$4,200
invented — sounds plausible
With offers file
$3–5k
read from offers.md

Without the file it will still give a number. It just makes one up, and it'll sound completely reasonable — which is exactly what makes it dangerous.

Why a separate file

Two reasons. It keeps CLAUDE.md short, and it gives you one file you can lock down so no agent can edit your pricing — you'll do that in the last chapter.

Plain English

"Source of truth" means: if it's not in this file, it doesn't exist. Claude quotes from here or it asks you. It never makes a number up.

What's out matters more than what's in

Everyone lists inclusions. Almost nobody lists exclusions, and that's where scope creep comes from. Write the "not included" list first if you have to.

smith-plumbing/
├── CLAUDE.md
└── business/offers.md
Do this now
  1. Open your project on claude.ai and find Add content (the paperclip, or "Project knowledge").
  2. Add a new text item called Offers. Paste the template below and fill it in for every offer you actually sell.
  3. Write the "what we don't sell" list. This stops proposals being written for work you can't deliver.
  4. Open your Instructions box and add one line: "Never quote a price that isn't in the Offers document."
Plain English

In the browser there are no folders — the "file" is just another piece of project knowledge. It does the same job: one place the prices live, so Claude reads them instead of guessing.

Do this now
  1. In the folder your Cowork project points at, make a folder called business.
  2. Inside it, save a file called offers.md — see the note below if your computer keeps adding .txt.
  3. Paste the template and fill it in for every offer you actually sell, then write the "what we don't sell" list.
  4. Add one line to your project's Instructions: "Never quote a price that isn't in business/offers.md."
Do this now
  1. In your business folder, create a folder called business and a file inside it called offers.md.
  2. Paste the template and fill it in for every offer you actually sell.
  3. Write the "what we don't sell" list. This stops proposals being written for work you can't deliver.
  4. Add one line to your CLAUDE.md: "Never quote a price that isn't in business/offers.md."

Saving a file with the right name. Windows Notepad adds .txt unless you stop it: in the Save dialog set Save as type to All Files, then type offers.md. On a Mac, TextEdit needs Format → Make Plain Text first. A .md file is just a plain text file — nothing special opens it.

How to know it worked

Ask it to quote something you don't sell. It should say it doesn't map to an offer and ask you — not produce a number.

If it invents a price anyway, your CLAUDE.md line is missing or the file is somewhere it can't see.

# Offers

## [Offer name]
Who it's for: [client type and their pain]

Included:
- [item]
- [item]

NOT included:
- [item]

Price: $[low] – $[high]
Top of range when: [conditions]
Typical timeline: [duration]

# What we don't sell
- [thing people ask for that we don't do]

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