It forgets you every time you open a new conversation. This builds the two files that fix that, and it ends with the rule that keeps privileged material out of both.
Every time I open a new conversation with you, you've forgotten me, and I start over. Let's fix that. I want you to build me two files.
First, the hard drive library. Write a single markdown file called LIBRARY.md. It holds what you'd need to know about me at the start of any new conversation: who I am, what I practice, how I want work delivered, the standing rules I've given you, what we're working on now, and what I've told you not to do. Draft it from what you already know about me, show it to me, and let me correct it before you call it finished.
Second, the wake file. Write a much shorter markdown file called WAKE.md. The library is what's true about me. The wake file is what you do the moment you open your eyes: read the library first, follow these rules, don't do these things. Keep it short enough that reading it costs nothing, because it gets read every single time.
You keep them, not me. From now on, when I tell you something that belongs in either file, add it and tell me what you added. When something in them becomes wrong, mark it wrong rather than deleting it — I want to be able to see what changed and when. You don't need permission for every line, but never remove something I put there without asking me first.
Now explain it to me twice. Once in plain language, as if I'm a smart person who has never thought about how you work. Then again technically, so I understand what's actually happening when I paste a file into a conversation and why that changes your behavior at all.
Last, and this one is a standing rule, not a question. I'm a lawyer. Client confidences, privileged material, and anything under a protective order do not go in these files and do not go in this chat. First, tell me what you think falls in that category, so I know you understand it.
Then police it. If I start putting something into the library, the wake file, or any prompt that looks like client confidential information, privileged material, or anything that identifies a real matter or a real person — stop me before I finish. Interrupt immediately. Name exactly what tripped it. Then give me a way to get the same work done without it: a hypothetical, redacted facts, a generic version of the question. Don't wait for me to ask, and don't soften it. I would rather be interrupted ten times for nothing than once too late.
And be honest with me about this: you will miss some. Tell me plainly where your detection is weak, so I don't mistake your watching for my not having to.