Start a fresh chat when Claude gets dumb, explained by monkey
After a really long chat, Claude starts forgetting what you told it and repeating mistakes you already fixed. The fix is a new chat with a short note. Here's the note to copy, a few versions for everyday jobs, and the one thing to watch for.
Everything in a chat stays in Claude's head: every message, every pasted file, every wrong answer and every correction. In a short chat that's great. In a chat that has gone on all day, it gets crowded, and Claude starts to slip: it forgets something you said near the start, or it says sorry and then makes the same mistake again.
Anthropic says it plainly: as the chat fills up, Claude "may start 'forgetting' earlier instructions or making more mistakes." Their advice when you've corrected Claude more than twice on the same thing is to start fresh with a better first message. In their words, a clean start with a better message "almost always outperforms a long session with accumulated corrections."
The note to copy
Before you leave the old chat, you can ask Claude to write the note for you. Paste this into the old chat:
I'm going to start a new chat. Write me a short note I can paste into it, with: what we're working on, what's already done, what we decided, and what's next. Keep it under 150 words. Leave out anything we tried that didn't work.
Read the note it gives you and fix anything that's wrong. Then open a new chat and paste it in, starting like this:
Here's where we are. Please read this, then help me with the next step. [paste the note here]
Versions for different jobs
- An essay or report: "I'm writing an essay about [topic]. Done so far: the intro and the first two sections. Still to do: the conclusion. Keep the same friendly tone." Then paste the essay so far.
- A trip or event plan: "We're planning a 3-day trip to Lisbon in May. Already booked: flights and the hotel. Still to sort: what to do each day. We like food and walking, not museums."
- A small business job: "I run a bakery. We're writing this month's newsletter. Done: the opening and the new cake section. Next: a short bit about our weekend hours."
- A website or app you're building with Claude: "We're building a simple site for my dog-walking business. Done: the home page and prices. Next: a contact form. Keep the green colours."
- When Claude keeps making one mistake: add a line to the note like "Important: the meeting is on Tuesday, not Monday", so the new chat gets it right from the start.
When it helps
Start fresh when Claude forgets something you told it earlier, when you've corrected the same thing two or three times, or when you switch to a different task. A new task deserves a new chat anyway.
The one gotcha
A new chat remembers nothing from the old one, which is the whole point. So anything Claude needs has to be in your note: names, dates, the style you like, and the mistake it kept making. And don't restart a chat that's going well: if Claude is still sharp and the history is useful, keep going.
Best practices: manage your sessionAnthropic's advice on when to start fresh
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