Lesson 02 · Perplexity Mastery Pro ~10 min Persistent research

Projects: research that lives somewhere.

A one-off Perplexity search vanishes when you close the tab. Projects 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 Project is the right home. Let's build one.

Update · August 2026

Spaces are now Projects.

On August 4, 2026, Perplexity renamed Spaces to Projects — and every existing Space was migrated automatically, so nothing you built is lost. It's more than a rename: Projects add a persistent file system where you and Perplexity's agents edit the same files, a self-improving Brain memory that carries context between tasks, connectors scoped per project, and the ability to kick off project work from Slack or Teams with a /project command. Everything in this lesson still applies — the workspace just got a bigger engine. If you see "Spaces" in an older screenshot, it's the same feature.

The mental model

One-off search, or a Project?

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 Project.

🔎 One-off search

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

📚 Project

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

Do it · build a Project

Configure a sales-research Project.

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

📚 New Project · setup
1 · Name it
A Project 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 Projects 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 Project. Pick the ones that sharpen a sales-research Project — 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 Project be shared?
Shared, with an owner. Team knowledge that compounds beats individual searches that vanish — but an ownerless Project gets cluttered and stale. Name an owner for hygiene and review it quarterly; archive what's dead.
Before you share

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

Patterns that work

Four ways teams use shared Projects.

Team competitor Project
One per major competitor; every rep contributes. Questions and findings accumulate into shared intel.
Account-specific Project
One per top-tier customer or prospect, shared with that account team.
Project research Project
One per active project — PM, eng, design, marketing all contribute.
Industry intelligence Project
One per market or vertical; product marketing keeps it current.

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

Challenge: build a Project for your most active project

Pick the work topic you research most — a customer, a competitor, an ongoing initiative. Create a Project 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.

What you can do now

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

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