Claude Desktop course
Course 2 · Lesson 1 of 7

Lesson 1 · about 20 minutes

Make a tool, not an answer

By the end, you have a tip-split tool you can open any week: type the total, and it shows each person's share. Claude calls a tool like this an artifact. An artifact opens in its own window beside the chat, and Claude saves it so you can come back to it. You'll also know when to ask Claude for a tool instead of an answer.

From course 1, lesson 6
Before Cowork permanently deletes a file, what does it do?

It stops and shows a permission prompt, and waits until you select Allow. Anthropic says that applies in every mode. Artifacts have a similar check: the first time one needs a connected app, Claude shows which apps and tools it will use and asks you to approve them.

ThinkDelegation

What do you work out again and again?

A tool is something you open and use every week. A chat answer is something you read once.

Think of splitting a bill, pricing a quote, checking a delivery date or converting a list. Pick one that takes under a minute to explain. Using the practice file? Write "tip split".

PredictDiscernmentDiligence

What do you get, and who can open it?

Guess first. The Check tests both answers.

You paste a staff list and ask Claude for a tip-split calculator. What comes back?
Show the answer

A small tool you can click. A tool like this is a self-contained page, so Claude opens it as an artifact beside the chat. You type a new total, change someone's hours, and the shares update. No developer is involved.

If Claude only answers in the chat, it didn't treat your request as a tool. Ask again: "Put this in an artifact I can click."

You finish the tool. Who can open it?
Show the answer

Only you. Artifacts start private. When you share one, you choose who can open it. On Team and Enterprise plans, artifacts stay inside your organization by default, and an Owner decides whether people may share outside it.

Do

Build the tool

Five steps. Tick each one when it's done.

tips.csv 6 staff hours worked this week Chat You ask for a tip-split tool once The tool Type the total. Change any hours. Shares update. Next week you reopen the same tool and type a new total.
What you're buildingYou describe the job once and get a page you can use every week.

  1. Get the staff file.

    Use your own list of names and numbers, or the practice file. The practice file is a made-up café, Little Owl, with six staff and the hours each worked this week. It's a CSV file, a plain table that Excel or Google Sheets can open.

    Or use the practice file

    Six rows, 120 hours in all. No real names.

    • tips.csv6 staff and hours · under 1 KB

  2. Open a new chat and attach the file.

    Click the + at the lower left of the message box, choose Add files or photos and pick the file. Then paste this:

    This file has our staff and the hours each worked this week. Build a small tip-split tool as an artifact. I type the total tips in euros, and it splits them by hours worked. Show each person's share, rounded to cents, and the total at the bottom. Let me change anyone's hours.

  3. Try the tool.

    The artifact opens in its own window beside the chat. Type 540 as the total. With the practice file you should see Ana €135.00, Ben €108.00, Cira €81.00, Dan €54.00, Eli €90.00 and Fay €72.00.

  4. Ask for one change in plain words.

    For example: "Show the euros per hour above the table, and add a line that says if the shares don't add up to the total." Claude changes the same artifact. You don't start over.

  5. Find it again and decide who gets it.

    Open Artifacts in the sidebar. Your tool is saved there, so you can reopen it from any chat. It stays private until you share it. To send it to a colleague, click Share at the upper right of the tool. On Team and Enterprise, choose Only people invited or Anyone at with your company's name. On Pro, Max and Ultra, the choices are Only you and Anyone with the link.

If you see this instead

Claude answers with a table and no tool
It didn't treat the request as a tool. Reply: "Put this in an artifact I can click."
No window opens beside the chat
A setting is off. Click your initials at the lower left, choose Settings › Capabilities and switch on Code execution and file creation (newer screens call it Create and edit files). On Team and Enterprise, an Owner turns it on for everyone in Organization settings › Capabilities, and turns on Artifacts in Organization settings › Artifacts.
The tool shows an error message
Click Try fixing with Claude near the message, send it, and let Claude repair the tool. If it fails twice, describe in words what you expected.
The shares don't add up to the total
Splitting money into cents can leave one cent extra or missing. Ask Claude to show the sum and to give the odd cent to one person you choose.
CheckDiligence

Does the tool still work when the numbers change?

A tool that only works for the numbers it was built with is just an answer. Change the numbers.

1 · ASK tips.csv + one paragraph describing the tool You describe the job once 2 · BUILD Claude writes a page and opens it beside the chat as an artifact It's saved in your Artifacts tab 3 · USE Total: 600 Dan: 0 hours Ana €166.67 ... Change a number and the shares move
The orderAsk once, then use it as often as you like.

With the practice file

Type the new numbers into the tool's own boxes yourself: 600 as the total, and 0 for Dan's hours (he was off sick). That makes 108 hours in all. A table Claude writes in the chat doesn't count.

You pass when the shares on screen change to Ana €166.67, Ben €133.33, Cira €100.00, Dan €0.00, Eli €111.11 and Fay €88.89, and those add up to €600.00.

With your own file, change one number in the tool and check one share by hand.

Two questions from memory

Claude answered with a table in the chat and no tool. What do you say?

"Put this in an artifact I can click." Claude makes an artifact for content that is self-contained and worth reusing, so a short answer stays in the chat.

Which setting has to be on for artifacts to work?

Code execution and file creation (newer screens call it Create and edit files), in Settings › Capabilities. On Team and Enterprise an Owner turns it on in Organization settings › Capabilities.

Lesson 2 opens by asking the first one again.

Want the tool to read your connected apps?

On Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise, an artifact can use the apps you connected in course 1. Everyone who opens a shared tool connects their own apps, so it shows each person only what their own accounts can see.

Course 2 so far

What you've built

Lesson 1: Tip calculator
Lesson 2 lets Claude use the browser.