Get Started with ClaudePart 2

Written August 2026. Menus move, so if a button isn't exactly where I say it is, look nearby. The idea doesn't change.

Part one was what Claude can do: the app, your profile, the right model, your tools connected, a project with memory on. This is where to click for the part people quit on, because every guide explains what a skill or a tool IS and never says where the button lives.

5 more things, in the order that keeps you from getting stuck on step 3 wondering why nothing works, because step 1 is the one that blocks everything after it, and most people don't find that out until they're already stuck.

1. Turn on the settings that unlock everything else

Click your initials in the bottom left, go to Settings, then Capabilities, and turn on code execution and file creation. 1 toggle, and it unlocks both skills and the ability to publish a tool.

What plan you need: every plan, Free through Enterprise. It's already on by default for Free, Pro, and Max, so check before you assume you're locked out.

If skills stay greyed out later, or you build something with no publish button in sight, this is why. Come back here first.

30 seconds.

2. Install Claude in Chrome and pin it

The exact path:

1. Open Chrome. Has to be Chrome, not Edge, not Arc, not Safari.
2. Search the Chrome Web Store for "Claude," published by Anthropic. Check the publisher name before you install anything.
3. Click Add to Chrome, then sign in with the account you already pay for.
4. Pin it. Click the puzzle piece icon in your toolbar and pin Claude. Skip this and you'll forget it exists by Thursday.

What plan you need: it's in beta, on paid plans, Pro and up. Not on Free yet.

Your first real run: pick the CRM entry you've been putting off since your last call, or a form you've filled out by hand more than twice. Watch the whole thing run once before you hand it anything you actually care about.

The mistake that makes it fail: being vague about which tab. It's reading a browser, not your mind, so "update the client record" is a coin flip. "On the tab with the contact page open, update the notes field with the summary from our call" works, because it names the page, the field, and what goes in it.

2 minutes to install. The habit of actually using it is the part that takes longer.

3. Build a skill by talking to Claude

A skill is a saved set of instructions for the thing you do the same way every time, so you stop re-explaining it from scratch.

The exact path:

1. Open a normal chat and say what you want. "Make me a skill for the thing I explain over and over." Swap in your actual thing: client onboarding, a weekly recap, a proposal draft.
2. Upload real examples. Drag your files into the chat, or click the attachment icon in the message box. Templates, past work, whatever it should sound like. Skip this and the skill sounds like a robot instead of you.
3. Answer its questions properly. The skill is only as good as those answers.
4. Save it, then click your initials in the bottom left, go to Settings, Capabilities, Skills, and toggle it on.

Your first real run: don't test it by saying "use my skill." Ask for the work the way you normally would. If extended thinking is on, watch for a line in its thinking that names the skill, that's your proof it fired. If you don't see thinking at all, judge it by the output instead: does it already sound like you, without you explaining anything?

The mistake that makes it fail: skills don't sync. One built on claude.ai doesn't exist in Claude Code, and it's private to your account, so you can't hand it to a teammate. Build it where you'll actually use it.

4. Build a tool and publish it

A tool is a small app Claude builds for you, a quiz, a calculator, anything with its own interface, and it lives at its own web link once you publish it. There's no separate mode to switch into first: in a normal chat, describe the problem you want solved, and Claude decides on its own to build something self-contained (usually anything over about 15 lines of content becomes one of these). It opens automatically in a window to the right of the chat.

The exact path:

1. In a normal chat, describe the problem you want solved, not the code you want written. Let it ask you questions back.
2. It builds in a window to the right of the chat.
3. If you asked for changes and it's now on a later draft, click the three-dot menu in that window's header to see the version history and pick the one you want.
4. Click Publish in that window's header, then Publish & copy link.

What plan you need: Free, Pro, and Max can publish a public link straight away.

Whoever you send the link to needs no Claude account to open it.

Your first real run: the thing you keep rebuilding in a spreadsheet. A pricing calculator, an intake form, a quiz that sorts people into the right package.

The mistake that makes it fail: unpublishing is one way. Once you unpublish, you can't republish that same one, and everything tied to it is gone. Want it back up, you build a new one and send a new link.

5. Create a scheduled task

This is the one that runs while you're asleep, or making breakfast, or anywhere but your laptop. It's called a scheduled task, and it lives inside Claude Cowork, not your regular chat window. If you've been hunting for it in a normal conversation, that's why you didn't find it.

The exact path:

1. Go to claude.ai and open the Home tab.
2. In the message box, select Cowork at the bottom left.
3. Click Scheduled in the left sidebar.
4. Click New task in the upper right.
5. Pick Create with Claude and answer its questions, or Set up manually and fill in the task name, the prompt, how it should run, and the frequency.

Shortcut: type /schedule in any Cowork session.

What plan you need: it's rolling out in beta, plan by plan, not all at once. Max got it first. Team and Enterprise picked it up in beta on web and mobile as of August 3, 2026. If you're on Pro and don't see Scheduled yet, that's the rollout, not you doing something wrong. Check back.

Your first real run: a newsletter summary every Monday at 8am. Set the prompt to "Summarize this week's newsletters from [your inbox or label] into one email, organized by topic, ready by Monday morning." Set the frequency to weekly, Monday, 8am. Let it run once before you trust it with anything longer.

The mistake that makes it fail: writing the prompt like a note to yourself. Nobody is there to answer follow-up questions, so anything vague comes back useless. "Summarize my newsletters" gives you nothing. Naming the inbox, the grouping, and what "done" looks like gives you something you'll actually read Monday morning. Second: the tool it needs, your inbox or whatever it's pulling from, has to already be connected. Test the prompt by hand once before you schedule it.

The fastest path to a win

1. Flip the toggle in Settings, Capabilities. 30 seconds, unlocks steps 3, 4, and 5.

2. Install Claude in Chrome and run it on one real form.

3. Build one skill out of the thing you explain the most.

4. Publish one tool and send the link to a single person.

5. Schedule one task, the Monday newsletter summary, if Cowork has reached your plan yet.

One step a day and you're done by the following Monday. None of it needs a bootcamp, or money you don't have.

If you only do one thing: the toggle. Everything else on this page is greyed out until you do.