This is the starting point for both guides. You do this once. After setup, every conversation you have — whether you are building a claim, preparing for a C&P exam, drafting a secure message, or tracking your health — lives inside one Project that remembers everything.
Do not open either guide until you have completed the steps on this page. The guides assume your Project is already set up and your memory file is already loaded. If that is not done first, Claude starts every session blind — and that defeats the purpose.
Before You Begin — Privacy and Data Notice
This process asks you to share personal and medical information with Claude AI. Before you proceed, understand your three options and choose the one you are comfortable with.
Option 1 — Proceed as-is (most veterans choose this)
Claude.ai processes your conversations and uploaded files on Anthropic's servers. Your data is not shared with other users. First action: turn off training data use before you start. Go to claude.ai → Settings → Data Controls → turn off "Improve Claude for everyone." Once that is off, your sessions and uploads are not used for model training. The practical risk for a veteran using their own records for their own purposes is low — but you are using a third-party cloud service and you should know that.
Option 2 — Redact sensitive identifiers before uploading
Black out Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, and phone numbers before uploading any document. Claude does not need that information. It needs your diagnosis records, treatment notes, service history, and rating decisions. Redacting PII does not reduce the usefulness of this process.
Option 3 — Use without uploading files
Every prompt in both guides works without uploaded documents. You can describe your situation verbally and Claude will work from your answers. Results will be less precise but still strong.
Choose your option and proceed. Review Anthropic's privacy policy at anthropic.com/privacy. See the disclaimer at the bottom of each guide.
The Guides Are Free.
Claude Pro Is What Makes Them Work.
Everything on VeteranUnlocked — the guides, the prompts, the frameworks — is free. You can read them, share them, and use every prompt in a regular Claude.ai chat at no cost. But to use them the way they were designed — with your records uploaded, your memory file persistent across sessions, and Claude reading your full history before every conversation — you need Claude Pro at $20/month.
That $20 is not a subscription to this site. It is a subscription to Anthropic's Claude AI platform, which powers the work. Think of VeteranUnlocked as the instruction manual — Claude Pro is the tool it runs on.
Why This Matters
Why We Built This With AI — and Why It Works for Veterans
The VA claims and care system was not designed to be easy to navigate. Rating decisions reference regulatory codes that take years of experience to interpret. C&P exams are conducted by contractors filling out forms most veterans have never seen. Blue Button reports run hundreds of pages. Lay statements have character limits that are not remotely enough space. And through all of it, the veteran is expected to figure it out alone — often while managing the very conditions they are trying to document.
AI does not replace your VSO, your attorney, or your judgment. What it does is eliminate the parts of this process that grind veterans down before they ever get to the fight.
Without AI
- → Hours reading Blue Button reports manually
- → Guessing which conditions might be connected
- → Writing lay statements from scratch under stress
- → Trying to understand what a DBQ section is actually asking
- → Forgetting what you meant to say in the exam room
- → Re-explaining your entire history every session
With AI + These Guides
- → Claude reads and audits your records for you
- → Secondary connections identified automatically
- → Lay statements drafted in your voice, reviewed with you
- → Exam roadmaps built section by section from the actual DBQ
- → A reference sheet in your hand for the exam room
- → Claude knows your history before every session
The goal is not to do this for you. It is to remove the friction that stops veterans from doing it at all — the hours of reading, the stress of writing, the anxiety of not knowing what to say in the exam room. AI handles the heavy lifting so you can focus on what only you can do: tell your truth accurately.
What AI Cannot Do
Claude cannot file your claim. It cannot appear at your hearing. It cannot guarantee a rating outcome. It does not know your records unless you upload them, and it can make mistakes — which is why every document it produces needs your review before it goes anywhere.
These guides are designed around that reality. Every prompt asks you to verify the facts before finalizing. Every roadmap tells you what the examiner is required to document — not what Claude thinks they will say. The AI is the tool. You are the veteran. Your VSO or attorney is the advocate who files. All three working together is what moves the needle.
You take control. The VA system is designed to be navigated passively — most veterans wait to be told what they qualify for. VeteranUnlocked is built around the opposite approach: you understand what your records say, you know what the examiner is required to document, you walk into appointments prepared, and you advocate for yourself with accurate evidence in hand. AI makes that possible for veterans who do not have law degrees or 20 years of claims experience.
1
Go to claude.ai and create an account
Sign up with your email address. If you already have an account, log in.
2
Upgrade to Claude Pro ($20/month) — strongly recommended
You will be working with large documents — service records, Blue Button reports, rating letters — across many sessions over months or years. The free tier has message limits that will cut you off mid-session. Claude Pro removes those limits and gives you access to the full model. This is not optional if you plan to use these guides seriously.
3
Turn off training data use — do this before anything else
Go to Settings → Data Controls → turn off "Improve Claude for everyone." This prevents your conversations and uploaded files from being used to train Anthropic's AI models. Do this before you type a single word about your medical history or claims.
A Project is fundamentally different from a regular Claude chat. Understanding this difference is the most important thing on this page.
Regular chat vs. Project — what actually changes.
In a regular chat, Claude remembers nothing once you close the window. Every new chat is a blank slate. Claude does not know your name, your conditions, your rating history, your stressors, your doctors, or anything you told it before. You would have to re-explain your entire situation every single time you open Claude. That is unusable for a process that takes months or years.
In a Project, everything persists. Your uploaded documents — service records, Blue Button report, rating letters, private medical records — stay in the Project and are available in every conversation you open inside it. Your memory file, which you build in Step 3 below, is read at the start of every session. Claude knows who you are, what you are dealing with, and where you left off before you type a word.
One Project. Both guides. Everything in one place. You do not need a separate Project for the Claims Guide and a separate one for the Care Guide. All of your records, your memory file, and your work go into a single Project. Whether you are working on a lay statement or drafting a secure message to your doctor, Claude has the full picture every time.
1
In the left sidebar, click "Projects"
Then click "New Project."
2
Name your Project
Use your last name: [Last Name] VA — for example, "Ferguson VA." Keep it simple. You will be coming back to this for a long time.
3
Do not add any files yet
You will upload files in Step 4. First, run the Memory Builder in Step 3 so Claude knows your situation before it reads anything.
What goes in your Project
✓
Your memory file (.md)
Built in Step 3. The foundation of everything. Claude reads this at the start of every session.
✓
VA rating decision letters
Every decision — grants, denials, proposed reductions. PDF or photo.
✓
DD-214
Your certificate of release. Scan or photo of the original.
✓
Service Treatment Records
Your complete military medical file. PDF when received from NPRC. Often the largest file you will upload — see the file size note below.
✓
VA Blue Button Report (.txt)
Download as text file, not PDF. Update before every major filing or exam. Can get large with years of records — see the file size note below.
+
Private medical records
Any records from non-VA providers — especially imaging and specialist notes.
+
Prior claim submissions
Any evidence packets, lay statements, or forms you previously filed.
+
Nexus letters and DBQs
Private physician letters connecting conditions to service. Add as you get them.
+
Health journal exports
Copy and paste your tracking journal into the Project periodically so it is part of the permanent record.
✓ = Priority 1 — get these first. + = Add when available. Start uploading whatever you already have. You do not need everything before you begin.
⚠ Claude has a 30MB file size limit per upload
Service Treatment Records and Blue Button reports are the two files most likely to hit this limit, especially if you have many years of service or VA care. If a file is too large to upload, do not give up on it — split it into smaller pieces instead. Here is how:
For PDFs (STRs, MEB/PEB records, decision letter packets): Use a free PDF splitter — Adobe Acrobat (if you have it), SmallPDF.com, or ILovePDF.com all work and do not require an account for basic splitting. Break a large file into 2–4 smaller PDFs by date range or by section (for example, "STRs Part 1 of 3," "STRs Part 2 of 3"). Upload each part separately into your Project — Claude can read across multiple files just as well as one large one.
For your Blue Button report (.txt file): A plain text file is easy to split using any text editor. Open it, find a natural break point (for example, by year), copy half into a new file, and save both halves separately — "Blue Button Part 1," "Blue Button Part 2." Most text editors handle files this large without trouble even when the upload limit will not.
Name each piece clearly when you upload it so both you and Claude can tell what is in each one. There is no limit on how many files you upload to a Project — only on the size of each individual file.
Open a new conversation inside your Project and paste the prompt below. Claude will ask you questions one at a time — about your service, your ratings, your conditions, your functional limitations, your family, and your goals. At the end, it produces a completed memory file in a format you save and upload back to the Project.
This is the most important thing you will do in this entire setup. After the memory file is in your Project, Claude knows who you are before you type a single word in any future session. The guides, the prompts, the exam preparation, the secure messages — all of it becomes more accurate and more personalized because of what is in this file.
After Claude finishes: Copy the entire memory file output. Save it as a plain text file with a .md extension — for example, Ferguson_VA_Memory.md. Upload it to your Project. That file is now the foundation of every future session.
Memory Builder — Paste This Into Your Project and Run It First
I am a veteran setting up a Claude Project to help me with my VA disability claims and VA healthcare. I need to build my memory file so you know my full situation before we do anything else.
Please interview me to build my memory file. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer before moving to the next. Do not ask multiple questions at once. If I give a short answer, ask a follow-up before moving on — I need this file to be thorough.
Cover these areas in order:
1. My full name, date of birth, and contact information
2. My military service — branch, service dates, MOS or AFSC and what that job actually involved physically, key units and duty stations, whether I deployed and where, and exactly how my service ended
3. My current VA ratings — every rated condition and its percentage, effective dates if I know them, anything that has been denied, and any claims currently pending
4. Any proposed rating reductions I have received — what conditions, what the proposed reduction is, and the response deadline
5. My medical conditions — both service-connected and anything else that may be related to service or to a rated condition, including secondary conditions
6. My current medications — name, dose, and what condition each one is for
7. My current VA and private providers — primary care, specialists, mental health, anyone treating my service-connected conditions
8. My functional limitations — what I cannot do or have significant difficulty doing because of my conditions. Be specific: I need frequency, duration, and severity, not general descriptions.
9. Key in-service events — specific injuries, incidents, exposures, or experiences that form the basis of my claims. Include approximate dates and locations where known.
10. My dependents — whether I am married, my spouse's full name and date of birth, and the full names and dates of birth of any dependent children. This directly affects my monthly VA compensation amount.
11. My VSO, accredited claims agent, or attorney — name, organization, and contact information if I have representation
12. My goals — what I am trying to achieve with my VA claims and care, in priority order
After we finish all 12 areas, produce my completed memory file in markdown format. Begin the file with this instruction block exactly as written:
---
CLAUDE INSTRUCTIONS — READ BEFORE EVERY SESSION:
This veteran is using the VA Claims Builder and VA Care Guide to manage their VA disability claims and healthcare. Apply the following rules to every response in this Project:
1. Do not sugarcoat assessments. Be direct and honest even when the answer is not what the veteran wants to hear. If a claim is weak, say it is weak. If a rating goal is not realistic, say so clearly. False hope wastes time and delays getting the veteran what they can actually win.
2. Every claim assessment must include a realistic rating range based on the actual 38 CFR Part 4 criteria — not what the veteran hopes for.
3. Every document produced — lay statements, roadmaps, reference sheets, secure messages — must be reviewed by the veteran for accuracy before submission. Claude can make mistakes. Flag anything uncertain rather than guessing.
4. When the veteran describes symptoms or functional limitations, apply the push-crash pattern understanding: increased activity causes worsened function afterward. Document both the activity and the subsequent crash when building records.
5. If the veteran describes anything that sounds like a mental health crisis, provide the Veterans Crisis Line (988, press 1) before anything else.
---
Be specific when Claude asks about functional limitations. "My back hurts" produces a weak memory file. "I cannot sit for more than 20 minutes, I drop things with my right hand multiple times a day, and I have had 2 episodes in the past year where I could not get out of bed for 4 to 5 days" produces a file that Claude can actually use. The more specific you are here, the less you have to repeat yourself later.
With your memory file uploaded, start adding your records. Use the checklist below. Check off each item as you upload it. You do not need everything before you begin using the guides — upload what you have now and add more as you get it.
Heads up: Claude allows files up to 30MB each. STRs and Blue Button reports are the most likely to exceed that. If one does not upload, split it into smaller files and upload each piece — see the full instructions above in Step 2's "What goes in your Project" section.
Priority 1 — Get These First
-
VA Rating Decision Letters — every decision letter you have received, including proposed reductions.
Get them: VA.gov → My VA → Letters and Documents. Or ask your VSO to pull them.
-
DD-214 — certificate of release or discharge from active duty.
Get it: milConnect.dmdc.osd.mil → Correspondence/Documentation → Request Documents. Online request is fastest — often within days. Or Standard Form 180 to NPRC.
-
Service Treatment Records (STRs) — your complete military medical file.
Get them: VA.gov → Records → Request military service records. Or SF-180 to NPRC specifically requesting STRs. If you had a MEB or PEB, request those records separately. Ask Claude: "Help me request my STRs and any MEB/PEB records — help me fill out the forms."
-
VA Blue Button Report (.txt format) — your complete VA medical history including C&P exam results and DBQ findings.
Get it: VA.gov → Health → Download My Data (Blue Button) → Select all data → Download as text file. Update this before every major filing or C&P exam.
Priority 2 — Add When Available
- Private doctor or specialist records — any non-VA provider who has treated your service-connected conditions
- Private imaging reports — MRIs, X-rays, CT scans, EMGs, sleep studies from private facilities
- Prior claim submissions and evidence packets — anything you previously filed or gave to your VSO
- Nexus letters — physician letters connecting conditions to service or to rated conditions
- Buddy statements or lay witness letters — from fellow service members or family members
- Employer records — if pursuing TDIU: termination letters, accommodation agreements, HR documentation
Records Request Prompt — Run If You Need Help Getting Your Records
I need help requesting my VA and military records. Based on my memory file, walk me through what I need to request and help me do it.
For each record type I have not yet obtained:
1. Tell me exactly where to go and what to do to request it
2. Help me fill out any required forms or write any required letters
3. Tell me what to ask for specifically — including MEB/PEB records, STRs, imaging, and anything else in my file
4. Tell me what timeline to expect and what to do if I do not receive it within that window
Start with whatever is most urgent based on my situation — if I have a C&P exam or claim deadline coming up, prioritize accordingly.
Before you open either guide, confirm the following:
- Training data use is turned off in Settings → Data Controls
- Your Project is created and named
- You ran the Memory Builder and saved the output
- Your memory file (.md) is uploaded to the Project
- At least your Priority 1 records are uploaded (or you have a plan to get them)
One quick test: Open a new conversation inside your Project and type: "What do you know about me?" Claude should be able to summarize your service history, your conditions, your ratings, and your goals from the memory file. If it cannot, the memory file may not have uploaded correctly — re-upload it and try again.
Updating Your Memory File Over Time
Your situation changes. New ratings come in. New conditions develop. Proposed reductions arrive. Exams happen. Your memory file should reflect your current situation, not your situation from the day you set this up.
| When this happens | Update your memory file to include |
|---|
| New rating decision received |
Updated ratings, effective dates, any new conditions granted or denied |
| Proposed reduction received |
What conditions, proposed percentage, response deadline |
| New condition diagnosed |
Condition name, diagnosing provider, date, and connection to service if known |
| New medication started |
Medication name, dose, and what condition it treats |
| New provider added |
Name, specialty, and location |
| Change in dependents |
Marriage, divorce, new child, child aging out — all affect monthly compensation |
| Goals change |
Updated priorities, completed objectives, new filing targets |
Memory Update Prompt — Run When Something Significant Changes
I need to update my memory file. Here is what has changed since the last version:
[DESCRIBE WHAT CHANGED — new rating, new condition, proposed reduction, new provider, change in dependents, anything else]
Review my current memory file and produce an updated version that incorporates these changes. Keep everything that has not changed. Mark the date of this update at the top of the file.
After producing the updated file, tell me:
- Whether any of these changes affect my current claims strategy
- Whether any of these changes create a time-sensitive action I need to take
- Whether I need to update my Blue Button report or any other uploaded documents to reflect these changes
Replace [DESCRIBE WHAT CHANGED] before running.
Your Project is set up. Your memory file is loaded. Your records are uploaded or in progress. Claude knows who you are.
Open the guide that matches what you need to do right now:
| Guide | Use it for |
|---|
| VA Claims Builder |
Building and filing disability claims, preparing for C&P exams, writing lay statements, defending against reductions, long-term claims strategy |
| VA Care Guide |
Secure messaging, appointment preparation, specialist referrals, mental health access, health tracking journal, VA benefits you may not be using |
If you are not sure where to start, open the VA Claims Builder and run the Get Back on Track prompt. It will assess where you are and tell you exactly what to do next.
About VeteranUnlocked — Read Before You Begin
VeteranUnlocked does not collect, store, or retain any of your personal information. We do not ask for your name, your Social Security number, your VA file number, your medical records, or any other identifying information. We never will. There is no account. There is no database. Nothing you do on this site is saved here.
The information you share goes directly into your Claude AI session — between you and Anthropic's platform — and stays there. VeteranUnlocked has no access to it. Review Anthropic's privacy policy at anthropic.com/privacy.
These guides are free. The prompts are free. The frameworks are free. They are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC). No one is permitted to charge veterans for access to this content. If someone is selling these guides or the prompts inside them, they are in violation of the license.
This is not legal advice. This is not medical advice. VeteranUnlocked is an educational resource built by a veteran to help other veterans navigate the VA system using AI tools. VA claims decisions are made by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Medical decisions are made between you and your providers.
Claude can make mistakes. Every document it produces should be reviewed by you for accuracy before you submit it to the VA, share it with your VSO or attorney, or send it to a provider. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you file.
VeteranUnlocked is not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Anthropic, or any VSO or claims organization. What we are is a veteran who figured this out and decided to share it. Use it, verify it, work with your VSO, and get what you earned.