Summary  
This chapter covers setting up a standardized project directory and file structure to organize research plans, sources, findings, unresolved questions, and reports.

General domain of usage  
Research project management

A research workspace keeps your sources, notes, questions, and final report organised in one place. In this lab, **Claude** will create a simple project structure that can be reused throughout the course. The workspace should include:

* a research plan;

* a folder for sources;

* a folder for findings;

* a folder for reports;

* a file for unresolved questions;

* a `CLAUDE.md` file with research instructions.

> ### Task
> 
> * Ask Claude to create a structured workspace for a research topic of your choice.
> 
>   > **Create a research workspace for studying how AI is changing customer support. Include files and folders for the research plan, sources, findings, unresolved questions, and final reports. Add a CLAUDE.md file explaining how research should be organised.**

Build a complete AI-powered research system using Claude Code. You will learn how to turn a broad topic into focused research questions, create a structured plan, find and evaluate reliable sources, and organise evidence in a reusable workspace. Through practical AI Lab chapters, you will create source libraries, compare conflicting information, store findings in a research database, and produce clear research briefs with accurate citations. By the end of the course, you will have a repeatable Claude Code workflow that can be used for future research projects.

Learn what makes a research system reliable and how to prepare a structured workspace before collecting information. You will define research questions, set the scope of the project, and create a clear research plan for Claude to follow.

Learn how to find relevant information and judge whether a source is trustworthy. You will remove weak, outdated, and duplicate sources before organising the strongest results into a structured source library.

Turn collected sources into clear and usable evidence. You will extract key findings, compare sources that disagree, and build a research database that keeps claims, evidence, and source details connected.

Use the collected evidence to develop supported conclusions and create a concise research brief. You will review claims and citations for accuracy before turning the complete process into a reusable Claude Code workflow.