A complete walkthrough for setting up your AI working stack — from first account to deployed app. This is how you go from zero to building, shipping, and managing with AI doing 80% of the execution.
You stop being the person who does the work. You become the person who directs, reviews, and decides. The same things you'd tell a human assistant — your preferences, your file structure, your clients — you tell Claude. Then it gets on with it.
Your AI workspace. Claude has three modes: Chat for conversations and quick tasks, Co-work for productivity and document generation connected to your tools, and Code for building apps and websites. Get a Pro plan minimum — Max if you're a heavy user.
Required — Pro or Max planThink of it as Dropbox for code. A "repo" is just a folder. A "commit" is a saved change. A "branch" is a version. A "pull request" is asking to merge changes back in — like track changes in Google Docs. GitHub lets Claude Code make surgical edits to existing projects instead of rewriting everything.
Required — Free tier is fineYour hosting platform — where websites go live. Connects directly to GitHub, so pushing code automatically deploys it. You can buy domains, manage analytics, set up firewalls, and point custom URLs. Sign into Vercel with your GitHub account. Vercel also maintains Next.js, the React framework that gives Claude pre-built components to work with.
Required — Free hobby tier to startCreate your GitHub account first, then sign into Vercel using your GitHub credentials. This links them automatically — when you push code to GitHub, Vercel picks it up and deploys it.
The preferred IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for building with Claude Code. An IDE lets you see all your project files, make targeted one-word edits, and run the terminal alongside your code. Best for enhanced projects and fine-grained changes. Based on VS Code.
Recommended for buildersGoogle's free cloud IDE — no installation needed. Sign in with your Google account and start building. A solid free alternative to Cursor for running Claude Code in the browser without any local setup.
Free alternativeVoice-to-text AI that works in any application. Speak your prompts instead of typing them — dramatically faster for longer instructions. Set it up on Mac with the Globe key, or assign a key combination like Control + Option for external keyboards.
RecommendedGives Claude the ability to see and interact with your browser. Enables Claude in Chrome for browsing tasks, and the Control Chrome connector for automation. Essential for Co-work sessions that need to read web content or fill in forms.
RequiredA component library where you can browse pre-built UI elements — shimmering text, animated cards, interactive forms. Copy the code prompt for any component and paste it into Claude Code to instantly add it to your project. Like a design catalogue for vibe coders.
Optional — great for polishThe Mac/Windows desktop application for Claude. Includes Claude Code built in — for most projects, this is all you need. Also gives you Co-work mode with Excel and PowerPoint integration, Dispatch for remote monitoring, and project batching.
RequiredSettings → Customize → Connectors.Beyond connectors, enable Plugins (packages of skills) in Settings → Customize → Add Personal Plugins. Recommended: Brand Voice, Operations, Finance, Marketing, Productivity. Also enable Artifacts, AI Powered Artifacts, and Visualisations in your capabilities settings. Skills are pre-defined mega-prompts that handle complex workflows — like generating a brand voice guide or writing a full proposal — in a single command.
The Gmail connector can only draft emails — it cannot send them unless you explicitly grant permission each time. Calendar has full create/delete/update access. Google Drive is read-only — Claude can organise and annotate but not delete or create files in Drive directly.
Go to Settings → General → Personal Preferences. Write out how you like to work — your communication style, formatting preferences, things to avoid. This is your global instruction set for every conversation.
Under capabilities, turn on Artifacts, AI Powered Artifacts, and Visualisations. These let Claude generate interactive previews, charts, and documents inline.
Browse the plugin marketplace under Customize. Install Brand Voice, Operations, Finance, Marketing, and Productivity plugins. Each brings its own skills — specialised prompts for complex workflows.
Wire up your connectors one at a time. Start with GitHub and Gmail, then add Google Calendar, Drive, and Notion. Be cautious with permissions — you can always expand access later.
Simple tasks and conversations. Ask questions, draft emails, brainstorm ideas. Get comfortable with prompting and understand what Claude can do. No connectors needed — just you and the AI.
Connect your knowledge stores and do real work. Claude reads your email, calendar, Notion, and Drive. Tasks like "check my schedule, find the relevant docs, and draft a brief" become one prompt. This is where productivity transforms.
Build applications, landing pages, custom tools, and visual interfaces for your data. Start with the desktop app, graduate to an IDE for larger projects. Deploy via GitHub → Vercel pipeline.
When starting a new build in Claude Code, enable Plan Mode and switch to the Opus model for planning. Then, instead of writing a complete specification, describe what you want and end with one critical instruction — ask the AI to interview you before it starts building.
Claude will then ask you targeted questions about features, edge cases, design preferences, and technical requirements that you hadn't considered. Answer them, then let it build the plan. This produces dramatically better results than a single-shot prompt.
Building with AI is iterative. Claude will do a lot of work but won't finish everything perfectly — much like a developer who needs regular check-ins. The process is: build → review → fix what it missed → ask what's still incomplete → repeat. Think of it like managing a fast but occasionally distracted junior developer.
Three options: the desktop app (easiest, best for most projects), an IDE like Cursor (see files, make targeted one-word edits, see the terminal), or the terminal directly (advanced). Start with the desktop app. Move to an IDE when you want to make fine-tuned edits or work on larger projects.
Ask Claude Co-work to tackle your Desktop, Downloads, and Screenshots folders first. Get the chaos under control locally.
Get Claude to review, reorganise, and structure your Google Drive. Create a logical folder hierarchy that makes sense for how you actually work.
Take everything from your cleaned-up Desktop and Downloads and get it into the right Google Drive folders.
Ask Claude to write out a plan of how your Google Drive is organised — what lives where and why.
Take that structure plan and mirror it in Notion. Use Notion (or Obsidian) because they handle markdown — the language AI thinks in. Have Notion read, annotate, and catalogue your Drive contents.
Finally, write the complete organisational plan into your Claude instructions file. Now Claude knows where everything lives — and when it creates new things, it puts them back in the right place instead of making it up.
Tell Claude the same things you'd tell a new Executive Assistant on day one — how your files are organised, who your key contacts are, how you like things done, what your clients need. The better the onboarding, the better the output.
Save your code changes to your GitHub repository regularly. Each commit is a checkpoint you can roll back to if something breaks.
Link your GitHub repository to a Vercel project. Once connected, every push to the main branch triggers an automatic deployment.
Vercel gives you a URL immediately (e.g. yourproject.vercel.app). Buy a custom domain through Vercel or point an existing one.
For private content, set the project to private or add password gating. Use a robots.txt file to prevent search engine indexing until you’re ready to go public.
Processing large data stores — like 30,000 unread emails or an entire Google Drive — will consume significant tokens quickly. Get organised in other areas first before letting Claude loose on large data volumes. Start fresh where possible.