Technical DIY path

Set up the Claude Code personal assistant starter kit

Use this checklist if you want the file-based Claude Code version of the assistant. It is the more technical path: you install local tools, unzip a resource pack, and keep the assistant's memory in plain files you can inspect.

Start the setup checklist Prefer no terminal? Use Cowork Get guided help

About 30 to 60 minutes from a clean machine. One /setup command writes your profile and schedules the morning run. Optional phone notifications and a two-way phone channel are extras you can add later.

What this path requires

What you are building

A local assistant workbench

The Claude Code version lives in a folder on your computer. That folder holds the assistant's operating instructions, your profile, local agenda files, saved skills, and the reports it writes. You can open every file and see what changed.

Profile and memory files

CLAUDE.md tells the assistant how to operate. USER.md tells it who you are, your goals, and the people who matter. /setup writes both to the project root.

Flat local state

now.md is the running cockpit and decision-log.md the durable record, both in the project root (no nested folders). /setup creates them on first run.

Six reusable skills

Setup, morning brief, meeting prep, email triage, capture, and skill-builder ship under .claude/skills/ and load automatically.

Overlap and difference

Same assistant idea, different home

Cowork and Claude Code share the assistant pattern: profile, memory, connectors, repeatable skills, and a strict read/draft/approve boundary. The difference is where it lives and how much you touch the files.

What matters Cowork DIY Claude Code (this guide)
Setup Install a plugin, run the setup skill, let Cowork create the live Daily Brief artifact. Unzip the pack, open it as a project, run /setup (the same skill, adapted), then start a fresh chat so the profile loads.
Memory Project files plus a live artifact for the day-to-day view. Plain local files in the project root: CLAUDE.md, USER.md, now.md, and decision-log.md.
Daily Brief A live Cowork artifact that refreshes on open. An HTML + text file in outputs/ the scheduled task rewrites each weekday. You can open, diff, and back it up.
Daily run A scheduled task runs inside Cowork. /setup creates a weekday scheduled task (Routine) for you. It runs while Claude Desktop is open and your computer is awake.
Best fit The easier daily driver for non-technical DIY users. People who want file-level control, a terminal, and optional phone channels Cowork does not offer.

Setup steps

The setup checklist

Steps 1 through 12 get you a working assistant with an automatic weekday brief, including optional one-way phone notifications. The optional two-way phone channel at the end is an extra. Each step expands.

Step 1

Claude Pro or Max subscription
  1. Create or sign in to your Claude account. Go to claude.ai.
  2. Upgrade to Claude Pro or Max. Go to claude.ai/upgrade, choose Pro or Max, and complete checkout. Pro is enough to start.
Step 2

Install Claude Desktop on your laptop and sign in
  1. Download Claude Desktop. Go to claude.com/download and choose macOS or Windows.
  2. Install and open it. On Mac, open Claude from Applications. On Windows, open Claude from the Start menu.
  3. Sign in with the same Claude account. Send a quick hello message to confirm the app works.

Claude Desktop supports macOS 11 or newer and Windows 10 or newer. If you are on a locked-down work laptop, install early in case your IT policy blocks new apps.

Step 3

Install Claude Mobile on your phone and sign in

Use the same Claude account on mobile so your assistant is reachable from your phone.
  1. Install Claude Mobile. Use the iOS App Store or Google Play links from claude.com/download.
  2. Sign in with the same Claude account. Send a quick hello message from your phone.

Claude Mobile is optional for the technical build, but useful when you want to check in from your phone.

Step 4

Set up the Google account your assistant can use

Have a Google account ready, but do not connect sensitive mail or calendar data until you understand the permissions.

If your primary email and calendar are Google, then you are done. Keep that login available for the assistant setup.

If you use iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, or another provider, create a free Google account at accounts.google.com/signup. Use it for starter exercises or for safe forwarding tests. You do not need to migrate your life into Google.

If your email or calendar lives in iCloud, Outlook, or Yahoo, keep the provider setup reference handy for provider-specific forwarding or calendar steps.

Privacy & safety before you connect anything

  • Do not connect Google, Gmail, or Calendar directly to Claude until you understand the permission scope unless you already did and are comfortable keeping it connected.
  • Read access can expose private content: emails, attachments, meeting details, file names, and documents.
  • Write access can change real things: agents may send mail, edit or delete files, create invites, reschedule meetings, or cancel events.
  • Use the smallest permission that works and revoke access after testing if you only needed it temporarily.

Safety note: Do not forward a sensitive inbox or publish a sensitive calendar just to test. Use sample events or a dedicated Google account if you are unsure.

Step 5

Install Git

A small tool Claude Code uses to work with local files and project history. Quick on both Mac and Windows.

Mac

  1. Open Terminal (press Cmd+Space, type Terminal, hit Enter).
  2. Run: xcode-select --install
  3. A pop-up will appear. Click Install and follow the directions. When it finishes, Git is ready.

Windows

  1. Download the installer from git-scm.com/install.
  2. Run the installer and accept the defaults through to the end.

Not sure if you already have Git? That is fine. Running the step again does no harm.

Step 6

Download the starter materials

Grab the resource pack and unzip it into the folder where you want your assistant to live.
  1. Download the resource pack. Get it here: claude-code-assistant-pack.zip.
  2. Unzip it. On Mac, double-click the .zip file. On Windows, right-click it and choose Extract All.
  3. Move the unzipped folder somewhere you will keep it. Your Documents folder is fine. This is your assistant's home, so do not treat it like a disposable download.

The unzipped folder is named Claude-Code-Assistant-Pack. It ships with the six skills under .claude/skills/ (including setup), optional Telegram helpers in a telegram/ folder, a sample brief, and a README. Your profile and now.md start empty: /setup creates them in the project root on first run.

Optional: show hidden files. The pack includes a .claude folder, and folders whose names start with a dot are hidden by default. You do not need to see it for the assistant to work, but if you want to browse the skills yourself, turn on hidden files:

  • Mac (Finder): open the Claude-Code-Assistant-Pack folder and press Cmd + Shift + . (period). Hidden files appear, dimmed. Press the same keys again to hide them.
  • Windows (File Explorer): open the folder, click the View menu (or the ... / Show menu on Windows 11), then turn on Hidden items. On Windows 10 it is a checkbox on the View ribbon.
Step 7

Open the folder as a Claude Code Project

Claude Code needs to work inside the folder so the packaged skills and local files stay together.
  1. Open Claude Desktop. Click the Code tab.
  2. Open the unzipped Claude-Code-Assistant-Pack folder. If Claude asks whether you trust this folder, approve it. You downloaded it from this page and it needs local file access to work.
  3. Confirm the skills loaded. Type / in the prompt box; you should see setup and the other skills listed. They load automatically from .claude/skills/ because you opened this folder.
  4. Start a new chat inside that project. You should be working in the pack folder before you run setup.

Folder boundary: keep the assistant's work inside this project. The pack is designed so .claude/skills/ and your profile files in the project root stay together.

Step 8

Connect Gmail and Google Calendar

These connectors let meeting prep and morning brief work on your real calendar and inbox.
  1. In Claude Code, open connectors or integrations. Add Gmail and Google Calendar for the account you want the assistant to read.
  2. Approve the minimum permissions you are comfortable with. Calendar and Gmail read access are enough for the core setup; draft creation is useful for email triage.
  3. Stay inside the Project and run a quick connection check. Ask Claude: Check whether Gmail and Google Calendar are connected. Do not send email and do not change any calendar event.

If your main mail or calendar is iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, or another provider, use the provider setup reference to forward mail or share calendar context into Google where needed.

Step 9

Optional: turn on phone notifications

One-way only: your own brief, texted to you. Set this up before /setup so the morning task wires it in. Skip it and the brief still lands in outputs/.

This is notifications, not control: it sends your own brief to you and nothing else. It does not read your texts or take commands. Want to text your assistant and have it act? That is the two-way channel in the last step.

iMessage (Mac + iPhone)

  1. Add the Read and Send iMessages connector in Customize, then Connectors.
  2. That is all you need here. In the next step, /setup asks for your own number or Apple ID email and wires the morning task to text you the brief.

Telegram (any phone, including Android)

  1. Open the integrated terminal in Claude Code and run telegram/setup-telegram.sh once. It stores your bot token and finds your chat id. See telegram/telegram-setup.md for the two-minute walkthrough.
  2. The morning task then sends your brief via telegram/send-telegram.sh.

Boundary: both are one-way and outbound to you only. They send your own brief to you. They do not read inbound texts, take commands, or let the assistant message anyone else.

Step 10

Run /setup

One command writes your profile, confirms your connectors, and creates the weekday morning scheduled task.
  1. In a chat inside the project, run: /setup (or just say "set up my assistant").
  2. Answer the two questions. It asks your assistant's name and your top 2 to 3 goals for the quarter, then does the rest. It detects your timezone and defaults the morning run to 8:00 AM weekdays.
  3. Let it write your files. Setup creates CLAUDE.md, USER.md, now.md, and decision-log.md in the project root.
  4. Let it create the scheduled task. Setup creates a weekday task named daily-brief-refresh that runs meeting prep, email triage (drafts only), and your morning brief, and writes the brief to outputs/.

If your Claude Code version cannot create the task automatically, setup prints the exact Routines steps and a ready-to-paste task prompt instead, so you are never stuck.

Start a fresh chat after setup. Your new CLAUDE.md loads at the start of the next chat in this folder, not halfway through the current one.

Step 11

Run the scheduled task once and approve permissions

This is the one click that keeps the morning brief automatic.
  1. Open Routines in the Claude Code sidebar.
  2. Select daily-brief-refresh and click Run now.
  3. Open the session that starts and approve every permission with "always allow" so future runs do not stall while you are away.

Pick "always allow," not "allow once"

If you pick "allow once," the morning run will quietly stall the next day waiting for you. The pack ships a .claude/settings.json that pre-authorizes the brief-delivery tools, so only the connector reads need this one-time approval.

Constraint: a local scheduled task only runs while Claude Code Desktop is open and your computer is awake. Enable Keep computer awake in Settings if you want it to fire reliably at 8:00 AM.

Step 12

Open your Daily Brief and test the skills

Read the file the task just wrote, then exercise each skill once.

The run from step 11 wrote your first brief to outputs/YYYY-MM-DD-daily-brief.html and .txt. Open the HTML file to read your day. From here on, the task refreshes it every weekday morning, and you can run any skill by hand whenever you want:

  1. Morning brief: Give me my morning brief for today.
  2. Meeting prep: Prep me for tomorrow's meetings.
  3. Capture: Capture this update: [a real decision, follow-up, or note about a person].
  4. Email triage: Triage my last 48 hours of Gmail and draft replies for me to review. Do not send anything.

These workflows write local files and draft outputs inside the project. The Daily Brief is the file in outputs/, not a live artifact. At this point you have a working assistant.

Optional

Text your assistant and have it act: two-way Channels

Beyond notifications. Message your assistant from your phone and it works on your real files, then replies in the same chat. Uses Claude Code Channels (research preview).

This is different from Step 9. Step 9 sends your brief to your phone one way. Channels is two-way: you text your assistant a request from iMessage or Telegram, it runs in your open Claude Code session against your real files, and the reply comes back in the same chat. Messages only arrive while a Claude Code session is open, so keep one running (or a background session) when you want to reach it.

What you need: Claude Code v2.1.80 or newer, a Claude Pro or Max account, and Bun installed (the channel plugins are Bun scripts; check with bun --version). On Team or Enterprise plans an admin must enable channels first.

iMessage (Mac, no bot needed)

  1. Install the plugin. In Claude Code run /plugin install imessage@claude-plugins-official
  2. Grant Full Disk Access when macOS prompts (it needs to read your Messages database). Or add your terminal under System Settings, Privacy & Security, Full Disk Access.
  3. Restart with the channel on: claude --channels plugin:imessage@claude-plugins-official
  4. Text yourself from Messages on any device on your Apple ID. Your own messages reach Claude with no pairing. Click OK on the one-time Automation prompt so Claude can reply.

Telegram (any phone, including Android)

  1. Create a bot. In Telegram, open @BotFather, send /newbot, and copy the token. (If you already made one for notifications in Step 9, you can reuse that token.)
  2. Install the plugin: /plugin install telegram@claude-plugins-official then /reload-plugins
  3. Add your token: /telegram:configure YOUR_BOT_TOKEN
  4. Restart with the channel on: claude --channels plugin:telegram@claude-plugins-official
  5. Pair your account. Message your bot; it replies with a code. Run /telegram:access pair YOUR_CODE then lock it down with /telegram:access policy allowlist

The action boundary still holds

Two-way means your assistant can receive requests from your phone, not act without you. It still reads, drafts, and reports, and still waits for your approval before it sends email, posts, deletes, buys, or changes a calendar event. Only allowlisted senders can reach your session (texting yourself on iMessage is auto-trusted), and anyone who can message you can approve tool use, so keep the allowlist to you. Channels is a research preview, so the exact commands may change; the official steps live in the Claude Code Channels docs.

Daily loop

How the Claude Code assistant compounds

The workshop deck's core loop still applies here: morning brief opens the day, capture keeps the state current, meeting prep adds context before important conversations, and email triage drafts replies for your review.

Start the day

The weekday scheduled task runs morning-brief for you and writes the brief to outputs/. Run it by hand anytime too. It reads your profile, agenda, calendar, and inbox, then updates now.md.

Keep state current

Use capture whenever something changes: a decision, a follow-up, a person update, or a lasting preference.

Prepare and draft

Use meeting-prep before meetings and email-triage when you want Gmail drafts. You still approve the final send.

Saved skills

What the resource pack includes

These are the same skills as the Cowork version, adapted for Claude Code. They live in .claude/skills/ inside the folder you open as a project and load automatically.

setup

The single setup path: interviews you, writes your profile to the project root, confirms connectors, and creates the weekday scheduled task. Re-run it to refresh your profile.

/setup

morning-brief

Builds a mobile-readable brief covering meetings, threads needing attention, first move, goal progress, waiting items, and watch-outs.

Give me my morning brief for today.

meeting-prep

Finds upcoming meetings, researches attendees, and writes linked meeting, contact, and company/org briefs for the people and orgs in the room.

Prep me for tomorrow's meetings.

capture

Records decisions, follow-ups, reminders, meeting notes, contact changes, durable facts, and lasting assistant preferences.

Capture this update: [what changed].

email-triage

Reviews recent Gmail, classifies threads, creates Gmail drafts when available, and prints the draft text in chat. Nothing is sent.

Triage my last 48 hours of Gmail.

skill-builder

Turns a repeatable workflow into a new skill, or edits an existing skill, while keeping external actions approval-gated.

Make this a reusable skill.

Safety boundary

Read, draft, approve

The Claude Code resource pack keeps the workshop rule: the assistant can read connected sources and draft local files, reports, and Gmail replies, but anything that leaves your control waits for you.

Read Inbox, calendar, profile files, agenda files, meeting notes, contact notes, and connected context you approve.
Draft Morning briefs, meeting prep docs, contact briefs, local agenda updates, and Gmail drafts for you to review.
Approve You send emails, confirm calendar changes, approve external messages, and decide before anything irreversible happens.

Claude Code distinction: this path is more transparent and more manual than Cowork. That is the point. You trade the live Cowork artifact for a local folder you can inspect, edit, back up, and extend.

Got it running, or hit a wall?

If the local setup is more than you want to manage, the no-terminal Cowork path covers the same ground. If you would rather build it live with help in the room, join the guided class waitlist.

Use the Cowork path instead Join the guided class Compare all paths