To give AI an "about me" file, keep a short about.md with who you are, what you do, how you want answers written and what to avoid. Paste it at the top of a chat, or attach it as a file, so the AI starts with your context instead of guessing.
Why one file beats re-explaining
A small file about you means any AI works from the real you rather than an average stranger. The context is the same every time, it travels with you to whatever tool you are in, and you write it once instead of rebuilding your background at the top of every new chat.
The easy way: let AI build it for you
A blank template is hard to fill in well, because the parts that matter most are the things you would never think to write down. So let AI pull them out of you. Paste this prompt into Claude or ChatGPT and it interviews you one question at a time, then writes the file up for you to save. It takes about ten minutes, and it works because you are answering, not staring at a form. It leans on how you write, since that is what most people want AI to match, so skip the writing questions if that is not your thing.
You are going to interview me and then write me a short "about me" file. I will save it and paste or attach it to future AI chats, so any AI starts knowing who I am and how I like to work. It has to read well in both Claude and ChatGPT, so keep it plain text. How to run this interview: 1. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer before the next one. Never stack two questions together. 2. Ask like a real person who is genuinely curious about me, not a checklist. Keep each question short. 3. If an answer is vague, ask one sharp follow-up to make it specific. If I say "I work in marketing", ask what the actual unit of work is: campaigns, content, brand. The point is to catch the things I would never think to write down myself. 4. Do not praise my answers or repeat them back. Take them in and move on. 5. If I say skip, skip it. If I want to come back to something, note it and return at the end. 6. Keep the whole thing to about ten minutes. Cover these, one question at a time: 1. What I actually do day to day (the real work, not my job title), and who I do it for. 2. The real jobs I bring AI, with actual examples, not categories. 3. Who my writing is usually for, and what they really want from me, not what they say they want. 4. How I sound. Ask me for a few phrases I have actually used lately, copied straight from a real text or email rather than invented. Then ask about my habits: casual or formal, whether I swear, my punctuation tics, how I open and close a message. 5. My cringe list. Push me for five or more exact phrases I never want an AI to use. Not "corporate speak" in general, the real words, like "touch base", "synergy" or "just checking in". 6. A real sample. Ask me to paste one real thing I wrote, an email, a message or a caption. Tell me one real sample does more for my voice than any rule I could write. 7. How I want AI to work with me: plan first or just do it, ask before assuming or go and let me correct, how long answers should be, and when it should push back on me. 8. What is off limits: what it should never bring up unless I ask, what it must double-check before stating as fact, and the one phrase that, if it turns up in a draft, tells me it ignored everything above. When we are done: 1. Write everything into one clean file called about.md, using my own words, not tidied up or softened. Do not add anything I did not say. 2. Leave sensitive details out: no home address, phone number, financial details or client-confidential information, including anything in the writing sample. 3. Put the whole file in one code block I can copy, then tell me: "Save this as about.md. Paste it at the top of a new chat, or attach it, so any AI starts knowing you. Update it every few months." Then stop, and do not ask if I want changes.
If it fires all the questions at once instead of one at a time, reply "one question at a time please" and it falls back into line.
Prefer to fill it in yourself?
If you would rather just write it, here is the same file as a plain template. Fill in the brackets and cut anything that does not apply. The lines that make AI sound like you are your real phrases, your cringe list and the writing sample, so do not skip those.
# About me Who I am and what I do: [one or two lines, for example: I run a small newsletter about home cooking and write all my own posts.] Who I am usually writing for: [my reader, for example: my newsletter subscribers, or small-business clients, or my team.] What I usually want from AI: [the jobs you actually bring it, for example: draft emails, plan content, explain things simply, tidy up my writing.] How I actually talk: [two or three real phrases you have used this week. Pull them from a real text or message, do not make them up.] Words I never want you to use: [your own cringe list, for example: touch base, synergy, just checking in, leverage, at the end of the day.] A sample of my real writing: [paste one real email, message or caption you wrote. This teaches your voice better than any instruction, so pick one with nothing private in it.] How to write to me: plain UK English, short sentences, no jargon. Get to the point. How I want you to work with me: [for example: show me a short plan before a big task, keep answers tight and scannable, and tell me when you disagree rather than just agreeing.] What to avoid: no em dashes, no exclamation marks, and no long summary at the end. When you are not sure: ask me one question before you assume, and do not make anything up.
How to use it
- Save the finished file. Whichever route you took, keep it somewhere easy to find, pinned in your notes app or on your desktop. If you used the template, swap the brackets for your own details first.
- Paste it at the top of a chat. This is the simplest way and it works in any AI. Drop the file in, then ask your real question underneath.
- Or attach it as a file. You can attach a .md or .txt to a Claude chat, and you can upload a text file to ChatGPT too, which saves pasting.
- For Claude, keep it in a Project. Drop the file into a Claude Project's files and every chat in that Project starts with it already loaded, no pasting at all.
One thing to know so you are not caught out: a plain paste only lasts that one chat. Open a fresh chat and it is a stranger again, so paste the file each time, or use the Project trick above to stop repeating yourself.
File or settings box?
If you mostly use Claude, its built-in custom instructions box does this automatically and is the tidier home for it. ChatGPT has a memory that can hold the same context too. The about.md earns its place when you move around: a fresh ChatGPT, a new tool, a friend's computer. The box is for one AI, the file goes everywhere. Many people keep both, with the same words in each.
The honest bit
- Keep it generic. Anything you paste into a cloud AI is stored on its servers, so leave out your home address, phone number, financial details and anything client-confidential, including in the writing sample you paste.
- Every line should earn its place. Fill the fields that change how it answers you and skip the ones that do not, rather than padding it into a life story.
- Keep it current. When your work changes, update the file, or it will keep feeding the AI things that are no longer true.
Want the deeper version?
One developer cared about this enough to build a whole system for it: a personal context portfolio, a set of markdown files covering your identity, projects, tools and preferences, free and open-source. It is more than most people need, and the single about.md above does the bulk of the job. If you get hooked, that is the rabbit hole.
Make yours now
Copy the template, put one real line in the first field, and paste the file into your next chat. From here on, any AI you open can start already knowing who it is talking to.