Internal cheat sheet · steal this

Which Claude do I use?
And how do I make it know my business?

The one-pager we give every client. Four models, one effort dial, three ways to load your business in. Save it, share it, argue with it. Updated 22 Jul 2026.

01 · The four models

Haiku 4.5"the sprinter"SPEED ●●●● · COST ●○○○

Near-instant and the cheapest. Use it when the task is mechanical and volume is high.

Sorting & tagging anything
Pulling data out of emails/PDFs
Meeting notes → summary
Quick lookups & drafts

Sonnet 5"the workhorse"SPEED ●●●○ · COST ●●○○

The everyday default. Best smarts-per-dollar for 80% of real work.

Client emails & documents
Everyday coding
Research & analysis
Website & marketing copy

Opus 4.8"the heavy lifter"SPEED ●●○○ (FAST MODE) · COST ●●●○

Deep work on big material. Reads entire codebases and contract stacks (1M-token context).

Complex code & refactors
Long documents, many files
Proposals that must land
Judgment calls with nuance

Fable 5"the frontier"SPEED ●●○○ · COST ●●●●

The newest flagship family. Hardest reasoning, longest agent runs, best taste.

Strategy & pricing decisions
Agents that run for hours
Gnarly multi-step problems
"This really matters" work

House rule: start on Sonnet. Drop to Haiku the moment the task feels mechanical. Escalate to Opus or Fable when being wrong is expensive, a lost client, a broken deploy, a mispriced deal.

02 · The effort dial (most people never touch it)

Every model also has a thinking / effort setting: how long it reasons before answering. Low = instant answer. High = it works the problem first. This changes results more than most model swaps.

Effort	When	Feels like
LOW	Lookups, rewrites, formatting, anything you'll check yourself	A fast colleague answering from memory
MEDIUM / HIGH	Debugging, planning, maths, anything multi-step	Someone taking a walk to think it through first
MAX	The genuinely hard stuff, let it grind	A specialist locking the door for an afternoon

Cheat: a mid model on high effort often beats a big model on low effort for puzzles and debugging. But for taste, writing, strategy, judgment, the bigger model wins even on low. Puzzle → effort. Taste → model.
Where it lives: claude.ai → model picker ▾ → Extended thinking · Claude Code → type /model → pick model + effort

03 · Teach it your business (this is the unlock)

STEP 1Make a Project, load your goldIn claude.ai: sidebar → Projects → new. Upload your website copy, your 2–3 best proposals, 5 real customer emails. Then set instructions: "Write like these examples. This is our tone, our offer, our prices." Every chat in the project now knows your business.

📁 Projects+ Add to project knowledge⚙ Set custom instructions

STEP 2Connect your real toolsSettings → Connectors. Plug in Gmail, Drive, Calendar (and any MCP tool your systems expose). Now it answers from your actual emails and files: "Summarise every open quote from this month's email."

🔌 ConnectorsConnected: Gmail🔍 Search & tools

STEP 3Show, don't describeThe 3-example rule: paste two or three gold-standard outputs before you ask for a new one. Models copy patterns far better than they follow adjectives. "Professional but friendly" loses to three real examples, every time.

Here are 3 quotes we actually sent and won. Match their structure, tone and length. Now write one for: [new client details]

04 · When to use what, pin this bit

The task	Model	Effort	Plus
Label / sort / extract from 1,000 things	Haiku 4.5	LOW	Clear format example
Reply to a customer email	Sonnet 5	LOW	3 past replies as examples
Write a proposal or quote	Opus 4.8	MEDIUM	Project with your winners loaded
Debug code / fix a spreadsheet formula	Sonnet 5 → Opus 4.8	HIGH	Paste the error, not a description
Read a 100-page contract / whole codebase	Opus 4.8	MEDIUM	1M context, give it everything
Pricing, strategy, "what should we do?"	Fable 5	MAX	Real numbers in, always
An agent that works for hours unattended	Fable 5 / Opus 4.8	HIGH	Connectors + tight instructions
Meeting → summary → action list	Haiku 4.5	LOW	Your action-list template

Which Claude do I use?And how do I make it know my business?

Which Claude do I use?
And how do I make it know my business?