Lesson 02 · Perplexity Mastery Pro ~10 min Persistent research

Spaces: research that lives somewhere.

A one-off Perplexity search vanishes when you close the tab. Spaces are persistent workspaces — they hold sources, custom instructions, and conversation history, and they can be shared with a team. For any research that runs longer than a single question, a Space is the right home. Let's build one.

The mental model

One-off search, or a Space?

The dividing line is whether the research continues. If you'll only ask once, stay in regular Perplexity. If it'll run over days, involve teammates, or benefit from accumulated context, make a Space.

🔎 One-off search

A single fact or question you'll ask once. No persistence needed — and don't make a Space for anything sensitive you don't want kept on record.

📚 Space

Multi-session research, shared findings, uploaded reference docs, custom instructions. Context compounds instead of vanishing.

Do it · build a Space

Configure a sales-research Space.

You research competitors before every sales call. That's exactly the kind of recurring work a Space is for. Set it up in three moves.

📚 New Space · setup

1 · Name it

A Space you'll reuse needs a name future-you and teammates understand at a glance. Pick one:

Specific wins. "Competitor analysis: Acme Inc" tells anyone what's inside and keeps Spaces findable. "Research" and "stuff for work" become indistinguishable the moment you have three of them.

2 · Focus it with custom instructions

Custom instructions change how Perplexity answers inside this Space. Pick the ones that sharpen a sales-research Space — and leave out the noise. Aim for a focused set, not everything.

Select the instructions to include, then lock it in.

0 selected

3 · Share it

Your whole sales team researches the same competitors. How should this Space be shared?

Shared, with an owner. Team knowledge that compounds beats individual searches that vanish — but an ownerless Space gets cluttered and stale. Name an owner for hygiene and review it quarterly; archive what's dead.

Before you share

A shared Space is visible to everyone you share it with. Don't drop confidential customer data, contracts, or anything sensitive into a shared Space without thinking about who can see it — keep that research in a private Space.

Patterns that work

Four ways teams use shared Spaces.

Team competitor Space

One per major competitor; every rep contributes. Questions and findings accumulate into shared intel.

Account-specific Space

One per top-tier customer or prospect, shared with that account team.

Project research Space

One per active project — PM, eng, design, marketing all contribute.

Industry intelligence Space

One per market or vertical; product marketing keeps it current.

One Space per distinct topic. Don't pile every session into one — they clutter fast, and clutter degrades the search.

Challenge: build a Space for your most active project

Pick the work topic you research most — a customer, a competitor, an ongoing initiative. Create a Space for it. Name it clearly, upload key docs, write 3–5 focused custom instructions, set the right sharing. Use it for a week and notice how much faster follow-up questions get when the context is already there.

Try a research prompt in the playground → Back to Perplexity Mastery

What you can do now

Make a Space only for research that extends beyond a single session
Name Spaces clearly so they stay findable
Write 3–5 focused custom instructions — not a wall of them
Give shared Spaces a named owner and a quarterly review
Keep anything sensitive in a private Space

Pro

Up next in Perplexity Mastery

Lesson 03 · Deep Research — when you need a 20-source briefing

Perplexity's long-running research agent. Triggering it correctly, refining the prompt, evaluating multi-source output, and exporting it. Start lesson 03 →