Your first AI hire.

Lab 1 of 6, about 8 minutes. Works in any browser.

Give it a briefing.

You'll have: a Project where Claude already knows who you are, what you do, and how you like to work.

1. In Claude's sidebar, click Projects, then New project. Name it My AI hire.
2. Start a chat inside the project and paste this:

   Interview me so you can write a one-page briefing about me that any AI assistant could use to help me at work.
   
   Ask one question at a time, six in total. Cover my role and company, who I serve, my biggest recurring tasks, how I like to communicate, and what I'm focused on this quarter. Push for specifics and real examples.
   
   When we're done, write the briefing in the second person ("You are helping a...") under clear headings. Keep it under 400 words.

3. Answer the six questions. Typing is fine. If you'd rather talk, the Claude desktop app has a microphone button in the message box, and you speak about three times faster than you type.
4. Copy the briefing Claude writes. In the project, open Instructions (sometimes "Set project instructions"), paste it in, and save.
5. Start a new chat in the project and test it:

   Based on what you know about me, what's one piece of work I could hand to you every week? Be specific to my job, not generic.

Lab 2 of 6, about 7 minutes. Works in any browser.

Give it the keys.

You'll have: Claude connected to your Google Calendar, Gmail, and Drive, so it can see your actual week.

1. In the sidebar, open Customize, then Connectors, then click +.
2. Add Google Calendar. Sign in with Google and approve. Repeat for Gmail and Google Drive.
3. Go back to your My AI hire project and start a new chat. Click + in the message box, hover over Connectors, and make sure all three are on.
4. Paste this:

   Look at my calendar for the next five days and my email from the last three days. Using what you know about me, tell me:
   
   1. What am I forgetting or about to drop?
   2. Which meeting needs the most prep, and what should I bring?
   3. Which one email should I answer first, and why?
   
   Read only. Don't send, change, or delete anything.

Lab 3 of 6, about 10 minutes. Works in any browser.

Give it playbooks.

You'll have: a ready-made morning-brief skill, and one skill you wrote for your own job.

A skill is a recipe card: a text file with a name, a one-line description of when to use it, and the steps. Claude scans the descriptions of all your skills and pulls out the full recipe only when your request matches, so you don't have to remember it exists.

1. Check that Code execution and file creation is on in Settings, Capabilities. Skills don't work without it.
2. In Claude, open Customize, then Skills. Click +, then Create skill, then Upload a skill. Choose morning-brief.zip from the starter kit's skills/zips folder. Upload the ZIP file, not the folder.
3. Now write your own. Pick something you do every week, then paste this and fill in the blank:

   Help me create a skill for ______ (something I do every week, like writing my weekly update, prepping for one-on-ones, or comparing vendor quotes).
   
   Ask me three questions, one at a time: how I do it today, what a great result looks like, and the mistakes to avoid. Then write the skill and package it as a ZIP file I can upload.

4. Download the ZIP Claude makes, upload it the same way as step 2, and try it once.

Lab 4 of 6, about 5 minutes. Works in any browser.

Give it a schedule.

You'll have: a morning brief that writes itself every weekday at 7, before you sit down.

1. Click Scheduled in the sidebar, then New task, then Set up manually. Name it Morning brief.

   On the new combined Claude, there may be no Scheduled button. Describe the task in any chat instead ("Every weekday at 7 a.m., run my morning brief"), paste the prompt below, and click Schedule when it offers.

2. Paste this as the prompt, then paste your briefing from Lab 1 at the bottom:

   Use my morning-brief skill to write today's brief from my Google Calendar and Gmail.
   
   Read only. Don't send, archive, or delete anything.
   
   Here's who I am:
   [paste your briefing here]

3. Set it for weekdays at 7:00 a.m. If there's a model choice, pick Sonnet 5.5. Leave the folder empty, so it runs in the cloud even when your laptop is closed.
4. Save it, then click run now. If it asks for approval to read your calendar or email, approve it.

Every weekday, search the web for news from the last 24 hours about my industry, my company, and my biggest competitors. Give me the five items that matter most to someone in my role, one line each, with why it matters and a link.

Here's who I am:
[paste your briefing here]

Lab 5 of 6, about 8 minutes. Needs the Claude desktop app, with a chat version below.

Give it a desk.

You'll have: a messy folder cleaned up, an expense spreadsheet, and a to-do list, made by Claude working directly on your files.

The practice-files/messy-folder in the starter kit holds 16 files from a made-up business trip to Denver: receipts, two versions of a vendor quote, phone notes, and a duplicate. Nothing in it is real.

1. Open the Claude desktop app and check the model is Sonnet 5.5. If you see a Cowork option, choose it. On the new combined Claude, just start a new task in the main box.
2. Give it the folder: click Add folder in the row under the message box (or drag the folder in), and choose practice-files/messy-folder.
3. Paste this:

   This folder is a mess from a business trip. Please:
   
   1. Find duplicate files and move them into a folder called "Duplicates."
   2. Sort everything else into folders: Receipts, Quotes, Notes, Other.
   3. Rename each file so the name says what it is and the date, like "2026-09-15 Lyft airport to hotel.txt."
   4. Build a spreadsheet of what the traveler personally paid for the Denver trip, September 15 to 17, with a total.
   5. Write a short to-do list from the notes, most urgent first.
   
   Show me your plan before you start. Don't delete anything.

4. Read the plan. If it looks right, tell it to go.
5. Open the spreadsheet and check the total. Then ask:

   Compare the two strap quotes. Which should I accept, how much does it save, and are they still valid?

Lab 6 of 6, about 15 minutes. Best in the desktop app, with a browser-only path below.

Give it a workbench.

You'll have: a working piece of software you described in plain English, open in your browser. See a finished example.

Pick one project

Each folder has a file called CLAUDE.md. It's the briefing for your coding hire: it tells Claude you're new, to keep things simple, to work offline, and to interview you first.

Path A: the Code tab in the desktop app

1. In the Claude desktop app, switch to Code, with Sonnet 5.5 as the model.
2. Choose your project folder from the starter kit as the folder to work in. The folder picker is in the row under the message box.
3. Paste the starter prompt for your project (below). Answer Claude's questions. Say yes when it asks to create files.
4. When it's done, double-click the file it made (index.html, dashboard.html, or tool.html) to open it in your browser. If it opens in a text editor, right-click it and choose Open With, then your browser.
5. Ask for two changes. Refresh your browser to see each one.

Starter prompts

One-page website

Read CLAUDE.md, then help me build a one-page website. Interview me first.

Dashboard

Read CLAUDE.md and sample-sales.csv, then build me a dashboard. Start by telling me what's in the data.

Team tool

Read CLAUDE.md, then help me build a small tool for my team. Interview me first.

Publish it (optional)

1. Open a chat in Claude and drag in the file you built.
2. Type: "Show this as an artifact."
3. Click Share on the artifact and turn on the public link. Anyone with the link can open it.

Don't publish anything with customer or company data. The sample data is fine to share. Prefer a website host? Netlify Drop takes a dragged folder, but the link stays password-protected until you claim it with a free account.