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Flow for experts with a custom GPT or a Claude Project: your method as files you own

You put your method into a custom GPT or a Claude Project so clients could use it. A Flow Playbook holds the same method as plain Markdown files you own. It is published to GitHub, and each update reaches readers as a change they review.

Written by
Manav Sehgal
Last updated
Reading time
3 min

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Start one Flow Playbook

Start with a folder for your method, its sources, and a worked example. Use the AI Consulting Playbook below as a guide. To publish your folder to GitHub from Flow, you need Flow Pro and the Publish add-on.

macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon or Intel. Markdown editing stays free. Try Pro with 10 Pro Days. Flow Pro costs $10 a month or $96 a year.

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Side by side

TopicCustom GPTs and Claude ProjectsFlow
What it is for A custom GPT is a version of ChatGPT with its own instructions and files. A Claude Project is a workspace with its own chats and a knowledge base of files you upload.Source: Claude Help: What are projects?, checked 2026-10-27 A Flow Playbook is a folder of plain Markdown files that carries your method. It holds what you know, its sources, worked examples and tools. You build it in Flow with the AI you already use.
Where your method lives Your instructions and files live inside ChatGPT or Claude, next to the chats that use them.Source: Claude Help: What are projects?, checked 2026-10-27 AI Consulting is six Markdown files, 75 KB, in a folder on the author's Mac. The same files sit on GitHub, where anyone can read every one.
Sharing it An existing custom GPT can be shared by link, with a workspace, or in the GPT Store. Personal ChatGPT accounts (Free, Go, Plus and Pro) can no longer make or publish new GPTs. A Claude Project can be shared only inside a Team or Enterprise organization.Source: OpenAI Help: Sharing and publishing GPTs, checked 2026-10-27 Publish ▸ GitHub Repository sends the folder to GitHub. In our walk, 6 files were sent and nothing else in the repository changed. A reader brings it in with File ▸ New from GitHub… and the folder's address.
When you improve it People a Claude Project is shared with see the live project, so a change reaches them at once. A custom GPT keeps a version history its creator can restore from.Source: Claude Help: Create and manage projects, checked 2026-10-27 When you publish an update, the reader's copy shows a blue dot. The sheet lists which files changed and checks each one against the reader's copy. The reader picks what comes in.
What is changing OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs on December 11, 2026. A GPT can move to a ChatGPT plugin. Its instructions become a skill and its files carry over. The plugin starts private, and the GPT's users do not get it automatically.Source: OpenAI Help: Custom GPT retirement and migration FAQ, checked 2026-10-27 A Playbook is plain files. If you stop using Flow, they still open in any text app, and the copy on GitHub stays where you put it.
What it costs Claude Projects come with every Claude plan, and free accounts can make five. Claude Pro is $17 a month paid yearly, or $20 monthly.Source: Claude pricing, checked 2026-10-27 Publishing a Playbook needs Flow Pro and the Publish add-on, $10 a month each. There is no fee per Playbook. Bringing one in is free on Base; Chat on it needs Flow Pro.
Where your clients use it Clients use a custom GPT or a Claude Project inside ChatGPT or Claude, on the web, on desktop and on their phones.Source: Claude Help: What are projects?, checked 2026-10-27 A reader works with a Playbook in Flow on a Mac. The same folder can also go out as a web page, PDF, Word or EPUB for reading. Chat on the Playbook stays in Flow.

What changes

The job. Say you serve clients with a method of your own. It might be the way you review a plan, write a proposal, or run a launch. You want it in a form your clients can use with AI, not only in your head. Many experts build a custom GPT or a Claude Project for this, and both are quick to set up.

The moment. Then you learn something new from a client, and the method changes. Every client who has a copy now has an old one. The next client signs on next week and needs the current one.

Your choices. If you already have a custom GPT, you can keep sharing it until it retires, then move it to a ChatGPT plugin. On a personal ChatGPT plan you can no longer make a new one. You can keep it in a Claude Project and share it inside your organization. You can send a PDF. Or you can build it as a Flow Playbook, a folder of files you publish and update. If your GPT or Project serves your clients well, keep it.

What breaks. The method lives inside one AI service, in that service’s format. A Claude Project can be shared only inside a Team or Enterprise organization, not with a client outside it. And formats change: OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs on December 11, 2026 and moving them to plugins. A moved plugin starts private, so each client has to be given access again.

What Flow adds

The first change is where the method lives. A Playbook is a folder of plain Markdown files. Markdown is simple text with a few marks for headings and lists. Any text app can open it. The folder carries its author, a version and a licence.

The second change is how it reaches people. You publish the folder to GitHub, and a reader brings it into their own Flow with its address. When you publish an update, the reader sees which files changed and picks what comes in. Nothing is replaced without their yes.

The third change is how it is made. You write the Playbook in Flow with the AI you already use, and every AI change waits for your review. In our walk, every model run went on a Claude subscription, with $0 in API spend.

Moving your work

Flow has no importer for a custom GPT or a Claude Project. The way over is by hand.

  1. Copy your GPT’s instructions, or your Project’s instructions, into a Markdown file in a new Flow folder.
  2. Add the files you uploaded as knowledge. Flow can import Word, PDF and other files into Markdown.
  3. Shape the folder into a path. Give it a front page, a few documents in order, and a worked example. AI Consulting is one model to follow.

We have not yet moved a real GPT or Project into Flow. Keep the original until you have checked the new folder against it.

The Playbook to start with

Read how AI Consulting was built. Manav Sehgal turned nine years of Amazon mechanisms into six documents in about three hours of hands-on work. He published them to GitHub. A reader brought them in with one address and got the next update as a change to review.

Publishing a Playbook needs Flow Pro and the Publish add-on. Bringing one in is free on Base, and Chat on it needs Flow Pro. There is no fee per Playbook. Your 10 Pro Days cover them while you try.

What Flow is not

  • A Playbook is not a chatbot your clients open in a browser. To use Chat on a Playbook, a reader needs Flow on a Mac.
  • Flow has no importer for a custom GPT or a Claude Project. You bring your instructions and files over yourself, as Markdown.
  • Flow does not find you clients. Publishing a Playbook does not bring customers on its own. You set the offer, the price and the terms.
  • Flow is a Mac app only. Publishing needs Flow Pro and the Publish add-on. Bringing a Playbook in is free on Base; Chat on it needs Flow Pro.

Sources