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Claude Code for Non-Coders (In Under 30 Minutes)

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Claude Code for Non-Coders (In Under 30 Minutes)

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945 segments

0:00

In this video I'll cover how to use

0:01

CloudCode as a non-coder, why I think

0:04

it's still the best tool for founders

0:06

that want to automate their business and

0:08

use it for tasks that actually have

0:09

nothing to do with coding, for example,

0:11

marketing, sales, operations, and so on.

0:13

I'll give you an overview of its most

0:15

important capabilities without going too

0:17

much into the nitty-gritty. And the goal

0:19

is that after this video you'll know

0:20

about 90% of everything there is to know

0:23

to use CloudCode effectively in just

0:25

under 20 minutes. And the reason I'm

0:26

making this video is I see a lot of

0:28

videos teaching Cloud Code on YouTube,

0:30

but it's mostly for coders. And also the

0:32

videos that are actually made for

0:34

non-coders are pretty much all outdated

0:36

because they typically show you how to

0:38

use the CLI version of CloudCode, which

0:40

is for coders. And what many don't know

0:43

is that there are actually now much more

0:45

user-friendly ways and easier ways to

0:47

use CloudCode. So, I'll get into all of

0:49

that. If you don't know who I am, my

0:50

name is Moritz. I'm a German engineer

0:51

with over 10 years experience in tech,

0:53

and I've built a software company to

0:55

over 200k in revenue, and now I help

0:57

business owners save time and scale by

0:59

building AI automations. So, let's dive

1:00

in. All right, here's an overview of

1:02

every topic I want to cover. I'll start

1:04

with the interface and setup, and then

1:06

we're going to go into what is actually

1:08

the difference between CloudCode and

1:10

some of the other tools out there. Then

1:11

I'll go into connections and tools,

1:14

which I think is the most important

1:15

thing to actually unlock CloudCode. Then

1:17

I'll go into skills and how to use them,

1:20

what they are, and so on. I'll go into

1:22

routines, which are essentially

1:23

automations. And finally, I'll go into

1:26

what are the mobile options and talk

1:28

about this a bit. Okay, so let's start

1:30

with interface and setup. And the first

1:32

thing we'll talk about here is basically

1:35

which interfaces are possible to to use

1:37

CloudCode from. And right now there are

1:38

three options, which is Cloud Desktop,

1:41

the CLI, and also through a plugin like

1:44

VS Code or Cursor or something like

1:46

that. And I'll show you each of those.

1:48

So, right now my preferred way of using

1:50

CloudCode is through the Cloud Desktop

1:53

app that you can see here. Just Google

1:54

for the Cloud Desktop app, download it,

1:56

and then you can see here, there's a

1:57

toggle between home, which is kind of

2:00

just like the normal Claude chat, and

2:02

also the integrated Claude co-working

2:03

here now. I'll go into the difference a

2:05

bit later. And then you can also switch

2:06

here to code, and uh this is how I use

2:09

my Claude code mostly now. And I'll tell

2:11

you why, but let me just show you the

2:13

other options. So, the other option here

2:15

is the CLI. So, you can see here, this

2:19

is like basically Claude code living

2:22

inside of the terminal. And as you can

2:24

see, it looks very technical already.

2:26

This is the kind of classic version of

2:28

Claude code, and this is, you know, what

2:30

gives it like this uh feeling that it's

2:32

mostly for coders. So, essentially, it's

2:35

a little program that you can open up

2:37

from your terminal, and then you can

2:38

start like typing and, you know,

2:41

chatting with it and getting it to do

2:42

stuff for you. So, this is how Claude

2:44

code was, you know, in its initial

2:47

version was being used, and how actually

2:48

a lot of people also still prefer using

2:50

it. If you're a developer, one of the

2:52

advantages of this is that it's a little

2:54

bit more lightweight, so it does feel a

2:56

bit snappier and faster. The end of day

2:58

though, the capabilities of using it

3:00

through the terminal version here

3:02

compared to the capabilities in the

3:04

desktop version are basically the same.

3:06

So, you know, the desktop version is

3:07

just a little bit more user-friendly.

3:09

Now, another way that people also like

3:11

to use it is through an IDE like Cursor

3:15

or VS Code or or something like that.

3:17

So, here you can see I've opened it up

3:19

in Cursor, and what you can do here or

3:21

what's the main difference here is that

3:23

it's inside of an IDE, you have this

3:25

view typically where it's like you can

3:27

see the folder that you're operating in.

3:29

So, you can see all of the files here.

3:31

I'm inside of the Claudia folder here,

3:33

this is just my custom folder where I

3:35

like operate all of my or most of my

3:37

Claude code sessions from. And I have

3:39

all of these files saved here, like the

3:41

the claude.md file, for example, and

3:43

when I click on it, it's opening it up

3:45

on the right side here. And then I can

3:47

switch between different files, so this

3:49

one, for example, and then it's opened

3:51

up here on the right side, and I can go

3:53

into it and, you know, do edits straight

3:55

away.

3:56

So, that's the benefit of this view. And

3:58

then you're kind of having Cloud Code

4:00

within this view as more like a Copilot

4:02

type of thing, where you can then chat

4:04

with it here. You can tag the files,

4:06

also, and it will like make edits for

4:08

you or or do whatever you want. Um so,

4:10

it's just a different way of creating

4:12

Cloud Code. The benefit here, as I

4:14

mentioned, is kind of that you basically

4:16

have the view into your files, and you

4:19

can make edits into your files a bit

4:20

more easily. Now, why do I prefer still

4:23

mostly just using it through the desktop

4:25

app is they've added a lot of

4:27

capabilities in the last few weeks,

4:29

where you can, even if you're editing

4:31

files, you can do it straight from the

4:33

app. So, let me show you. So, here, for

4:34

example, I had it create a file for me,

4:37

and then the file is linked here, and I

4:38

can click it, and it will open it up in

4:40

this kind of preview here on the right,

4:42

and then I can click this button, which

4:44

essentially allows me to also edit this

4:46

file directly inside of the Cloud

4:48

desktop app. So, that's pretty cool. And

4:50

I just think overall, using the desktop

4:52

app is kind of uh feels a bit more

4:53

user-friendly, and so I would say like

4:56

90 or 95% of my usage is through the

4:58

Cloud desktop app. Okay, next up is this

5:00

topic of working inside of a local

5:03

folder. So, what does this actually

5:05

mean? Now, the main difference between

5:07

if you use the Cloud chat in your

5:09

browser, same with ChatGPT, the chat

5:12

that you're probably used to using out

5:14

of the browser,

5:15

versus using Cloud Code is that Cloud

5:18

Code lives locally on your machine,

5:21

whereas Cloud chat, you can think of it

5:23

as basically in the internet. And so,

5:24

you can think of this like if you're

5:26

using, for example, Microsoft Word,

5:29

that's a program that is running on your

5:31

computer, and you're using that on your

5:32

computer, whereas if you're using Google

5:34

Docs, you're basically using it through

5:35

the browser, and it's, you know, living

5:37

on the internet, basically, right? So,

5:39

that's like a a simple way to explain

5:41

it. And the benefit of having Cloud Code

5:43

locally is that it basically has a bit

5:45

more power. It can take actions across

5:47

your computer, so it can do a lot of

5:49

things for you. For example, it can like

5:51

read a bunch of files and write a bunch

5:52

of files for you very quickly. So, these

5:54

are just some of the advantages there.

5:56

Now, what does this mean for you? So,

5:57

when you're using Cloud Code and you're

5:59

creating a new chat here, so when I

6:01

click on the plus, this basically opens

6:02

up a new chat, you'll see here a couple

6:04

of options. The first one is you can

6:06

select local or also you can select

6:09

something from the cloud options here. I

6:11

I won't go into that now because um we

6:13

want to just operate locally, so on your

6:16

machine, so have local selected. And

6:18

then here you can also select the folder

6:20

that it should operate from. And this

6:22

basically just means you have folders on

6:26

your machine. So, we're inside of my

6:27

home folder here. I have my finder

6:29

opened up. This is my home folder. And

6:31

then in that home folder, I have another

6:33

folder here called Claudia, which

6:35

basically is kind of like my home folder

6:38

for operating all of my or most of my

6:40

Cloud Code sessions from. When you're

6:42

starting out, it's totally fine to just

6:43

create one empty folder and just like

6:45

start from there. I kind of have it

6:47

optimized and I've set up a bunch of

6:49

files so that every time I talk to it,

6:50

it remembers things. I made another

6:52

video about this. It's called my Cloud

6:54

OS. You can check that out if you want

6:55

to do the same. But yeah, when you're

6:57

starting out, you can just create one

6:59

folder in your home folder and then just

7:01

make sure that this folder is selected

7:03

here. And um you can then start your

7:05

session, so start your chat from inside

7:08

of this folder. Now, this doesn't mean

7:10

that it's limited to this folder

7:11

necessarily. It just means that this is

7:13

the default folder that it operates the

7:15

chats out of. So, for example, if you

7:16

tell it to create a file, it will create

7:19

it inside of this folder. The file will

7:21

just like pop up inside of this folder.

7:24

But it still has the ability to look

7:26

outside of this folder. So, if I would

7:28

paste it the path to a different folder,

7:30

so for example here, I'll just go into a

7:32

different folder like coding projects

7:34

and then I'll take this one here and

7:35

copy the path, paste it into the chat.

7:38

It has the path to this different

7:39

folder. I can basically go, "Hey, go and

7:42

check out what is inside of this

7:43

folder." Hit enter and it has the

7:45

ability, even though it's kind of

7:47

starting the chat from within my Claudia

7:49

folder, it has the ability to go and

7:51

check out different folders. The other

7:53

little thing you should know about when

7:54

starting out is this topic around

7:55

permissions. So, basically they have

7:58

now, if you click here onto this button

8:00

here, just beneath the chat, you have a

8:02

couple of options and these are the

8:03

permissions. So, you can select between

8:05

manual, accept edits, plan, auto, bypass

8:07

permissions. And I would recommend to

8:10

just always have it on auto, on the auto

8:12

mode. Uh, it's one of the newer things

8:14

that they introduced a couple weeks ago,

8:16

I think, or maybe months. And this is

8:18

basically it decides when it should ask

8:20

you for permissions. Because what used

8:22

to be the problem in the past is that,

8:24

by default, I think it was manual. And

8:26

then, if you have it on manual, you

8:27

basically try to do things, for example,

8:30

read a file or write a file, and it

8:32

would always like have a pop-up here and

8:34

ask you whether it's allowed to do that.

8:36

And if you if it starts like doing that

8:38

a lot, then it gets very annoying and

8:40

slows you down. The other option here,

8:41

plan, this is more for I would say more

8:44

relevant when you're writing code. You

8:46

usually want to have a step before that

8:47

where you do like a big plan and then

8:49

execute on that plan. So, this is the

8:51

plan mode. I don't use it that much

8:52

anymore unless I'm, you know, coding big

8:54

features. But, since this video is more

8:56

about, you know, just using it for

8:57

everyday tasks in my business, I don't

8:59

really use that much. And then there's

9:00

also bypass permissions, which kind of

9:03

was what I was using before there was

9:05

auto mode. But, now that there's auto

9:07

mode, you can basically just put it on

9:08

auto and that ought to be the the better

9:11

and and easier way to go here. Okay, and

9:13

finally, just to get like all of the

9:14

basics out of the way is also your model

9:17

and context settings, which you can see

9:18

down here. So, here, if you press on

9:20

this button here, you can see you can

9:22

select between the models. Right now, as

9:24

of filming this, I usually just have it

9:26

on Opus 4.8 and have the fast mode here

9:29

enabled. Now, if I want to ask just like

9:31

some very basic questions or have it do

9:32

something really quickly, I will

9:34

sometimes also select Sonnet 5 or Haiku

9:37

because those are faster, they use less

9:39

tokens, but mostly I kind of just have

9:41

it on Opus 4.8 and have the fast mode

9:43

here. Fable 5, which is the new model

9:46

that they have, is very intelligent,

9:47

but, you know, for most of the things

9:49

that I'm doing with it, I really don't

9:50

need Fable 5, unless I'm doing something

9:53

that's like super con- complex or I want

9:55

it to like work by itself for a really

9:57

long time. And then the other selection

9:59

that you can make here is how much

10:01

effort it should be putting in. So, if

10:04

you don't need that much effort, you can

10:05

slide it here to low and then all the

10:07

way up. So, it just basically determines

10:09

how long it will think and how much

10:11

effort it will put into the task that

10:13

you're giving it. And I usually have it

10:14

somewhere in the middle here. When I

10:16

feel like it's something more important

10:18

that I want it to do, where I want to

10:20

make sure that the results should be

10:21

really good, then I'll just like

10:22

increase the effort a bit. And if it's

10:24

something less important, I um decrease

10:27

it, but usually I just have it here on

10:29

high. This seems to be like between high

10:31

and extra seems to be like the sweet

10:33

spot between it still being intelligent,

10:35

but still being fast enough for me to

10:37

operate on our tasks. Okay, and these

10:39

are pretty much the basics here. So, now

10:40

you can basically just start a new

10:42

session, which is just a new chat, and

10:44

you can start chatting with it here. And

10:47

it will go ahead and do things for you.

10:49

Let's jump into the next topic here.

10:50

Okay, next up, let's talk about this

10:52

topic briefly, which is something people

10:54

often ask and I think what uh gets

10:56

people confused is kind of like what is

10:58

it actually the difference between

11:00

Claude Code and some of the other tools

11:02

out there. And I think when you

11:03

understand this, you'll, you know,

11:04

understand much better like what Claude

11:06

Code actually is and how to use it. So,

11:08

the first one that people bring up is

11:10

what is the difference between Claude

11:12

Code and Claude Co-work and also just

11:14

the normal Claude Chat. So, let's start

11:15

with Claude Chat. Claude Chat is

11:17

essentially just, if I switch here into

11:19

the chat mode on the home tab, I can

11:21

just chat with it and I'll get answers

11:23

back. Okay, so that's essentially the

11:25

Claude Chat mode. And then there is

11:27

Co-work, which kind of is I can chat

11:29

with it and it can go and do things for

11:31

me. And, you know, in the co-work mode I

11:33

can also select like kind of this folder

11:35

for the context, and I can also connect

11:38

it to tools and so on, so it can do

11:40

things across those tools. So, it's

11:41

actually very similar to Claude Code,

11:44

but the main difference is that Claude

11:46

Code work, more or less, you can still

11:48

think of it as in a closed environment.

11:50

Basically, you can think of it like it's

11:51

in the cloud. Both of these are in the

11:53

cloud. Claude Chat is in the cloud.

11:55

Claude Code work is kind of also in the

11:57

cloud, more or less. You can add folders

11:59

for context that are local, and it can

12:01

write files locally. But, the main

12:03

difference is kind of that it's it's a

12:04

so-called sandboxed, which just means

12:07

it's kind of more closed off versus

12:09

Claude Code is it has like less shackles

12:12

around it. It's really just like on your

12:13

machine and basically do a lot of things

12:15

across your machine. So, I'd say Claude

12:17

Code is a bit more powerful. I will say

12:20

that as it is with software, like they

12:22

start out with one feature and then kind

12:23

of they add other features on top. I do

12:26

think that everything at some point is

12:28

kind of going to just become one, and

12:30

all of the capabilities will kind of

12:31

just merged, and it will be made easier

12:33

for the user to understand what what is.

12:35

Now, there's kind of this split between

12:37

the three different modes, and it's kind

12:38

of confusing. But, as of filming this

12:40

right now, my personal preference is to

12:42

just use Claude Code for most things

12:44

because it's still the most powerful.

12:46

But, I do think in the future, probably,

12:49

there will just be like one normal way

12:51

to use Claude, and there doesn't really

12:53

need to be like a difference between all

12:54

of these modes, and it can just do all

12:56

of the things for you. So, it's kind of

12:58

a bit of a temporary thing, but yeah,

13:00

right now, I think using Claude Code is

13:02

the best. Okay, and then you might ask,

13:04

"What is the difference between Claude

13:06

Code and Codex?" So, basically, Codex is

13:08

by OpenAI, and you know, it's a similar

13:10

story there. They they basically have

13:12

these like three different products,

13:14

which essentially, at the end of the

13:16

day, will all become the same thing, I

13:17

think. But, Codex was basically the

13:20

Claude Code version by OpenAI. And, what

13:22

they've done recently is they've

13:23

released this new desktop app, where you

13:26

can also select between ChatGPT work and

13:29

Codex. And they're basically the same

13:31

thing. Like they can do the same things

13:33

now. And within ChatGPT work, you can

13:36

now also just chat, which is kind of

13:38

just for like simple questions and

13:39

answers. So, this is like the classic

13:41

ChatGPT chat. And then the ChatGPT work

13:45

is now basically like you can, you know,

13:47

have it work for you and do stuff for

13:49

you across tools. Then Codex is

13:51

basically the same thing, but it's more

13:54

meant for coding, I guess. But again, I

13:56

think everything will just basically

13:57

become the same thing. Okay, now what is

13:58

the difference between tools like

14:01

CloudCode and tools like OpenClaw,

14:03

Hermes, and Victor? So, the main

14:05

difference is that tools like CloudCode,

14:08

you basically use it like this through

14:09

this application, and then you can chat

14:11

with it directly, and it will go and,

14:13

you know, do things for you right here.

14:15

You know, it's like the work that it's

14:17

doing is very close to where you're

14:19

actually chatting with it. Whereas, if

14:21

you use something like Victor, and I'll

14:23

show you how it looks like there. So,

14:25

when you use Victor, and it's pretty

14:26

much the same thing with OpenClaw and

14:28

Hermes, is that you're using it through

14:31

a chat application. So, in this case, I

14:33

would be using it through Slack. And the

14:35

way I interact with Victor, it's like

14:37

it's a bot inside of my Slack. So, I can

14:39

just say, "Hey." And then I'll tag

14:40

Victor. And once I do that, it will then

14:42

answer and, you know, see the message

14:44

and answer to that message. And then you

14:46

also have this like command center here

14:48

where you can go in and like manage

14:50

things like which tools it is connected

14:52

to, and you can also create skills and

14:54

so on. But the main difference is that

14:56

you're accessing it from a

14:58

communications platform like Slack,

15:01

Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, and so on.

15:04

Okay, now and what is the difference

15:05

between CloudCode and automation tools

15:08

like n8n and Make? Okay, so n8n is an

15:11

automation tool. So, you can see here,

15:13

for example, it has this like a canvas

15:15

where you can like drop in modules, and

15:17

you can like configure these modules.

15:19

But I would say that tools like n8n and

15:21

Make are pretty much outdated by now

15:24

because all of the automations that you

15:26

can build here, you can build that also

15:27

with Cloud Code and you can do it in a

15:30

faster way. Whereas, you know, building

15:32

these like classic workflows just takes

15:34

much longer now. So, I think these are

15:36

pretty much outdated and if you want to

15:38

automate something, you can do it in

15:39

Cloud Code now. Okay, let's go into the

15:41

next topic of connections and tools. So,

15:43

basically what makes Cloud Code powerful

15:46

is that you can connect it to other

15:48

software tools and then have it do work

15:51

across those tools. So, easiest way to

15:53

do that is just basically through the

15:56

Cloud built-in marketplace. So, if you

15:58

click here on customize, it will open up

16:00

this window here. You can click on

16:01

connectors and then you'll see here

16:04

there are like a bunch of tools that

16:05

I've already connected and if you want

16:07

to add a new one, you basically just

16:08

click here browse connectors. And this

16:11

is the marketplace of all of tools that

16:13

are available that you can connect to

16:16

Cloud Code. Now, technically when you

16:18

connect these here, they're connected to

16:20

your Cloud

16:22

Cloud account, which has the benefit

16:23

that, you know, through if you're using

16:25

Co Work for example, these tools are

16:27

also connected. There are different ways

16:28

to make connections. This is just one of

16:30

them and I think this is the easiest

16:31

one. So, just stick to that for the

16:33

beginning. And the way it works is super

16:35

simple. So, let's say I want to connect

16:36

my Figma account. If I click here into

16:38

Figma, I can first like read through

16:41

what capabilities are. I can go here

16:43

into tools and I can see tools this

16:45

particular connection has. So, here you

16:47

can see it can generate diagrams, it can

16:50

get design contracts. So, here you can

16:52

get an idea of what this tool is capable

16:54

of doing or basically what this

16:56

connection is capable of of doing in the

16:58

tool that you're connecting. And then

16:59

when you want to connect it, you can

17:00

click on connect here and that will

17:02

usually open up the, you know, in this

17:04

case Figma, your Figma account and

17:07

you'll have to log into your account and

17:08

then it will be connected. Now, there's

17:10

also something called a custom

17:12

connector. If the tool is not inside of

17:14

this marketplace that I showed you just

17:16

now. It just means it's like not if in

17:17

the official marketplace, but it doesn't

17:19

necessarily mean that you cannot connect

17:21

it. So, for example, here you can see

17:23

from my list of the tools that I've

17:25

connected, there is Beehiiv here, which

17:28

is not in the marketplace, at least it

17:30

wasn't when I connected it.

17:32

But, if I go here into Google and type

17:34

Beehiiv MCP, the company actually does

17:38

have an MCP. Just the way to connect it.

17:40

And, you know, for for other companies

17:42

that also have an MCP, this will be a

17:44

similar way to do this. You basically

17:46

search for the MCP of that company. And,

17:49

in this case, okay, search for the

17:51

documentation on how to connect the MCP.

17:53

Usually, you know, the tools will have

17:55

something like that. And then, you want

17:56

to find a URL. So, in this case, for

17:59

Beehiiv, it's basically this URL here.

18:01

And then, you can just go into your

18:02

Cloud's code here and click on add

18:05

custom connector. And then, type in

18:07

Beehiiv. And then, you can paste the URL

18:10

here. And this way, you can add the

18:12

connection. And after that, it will show

18:14

up here. And then, again, you can click

18:16

on it and click connect. And then, it

18:17

will prompt you to to the login page.

18:19

And then, you can connect it to your

18:20

account. So, as I said, there are

18:22

different ways to connect tools. There's

18:24

also through CLI tools or just through

18:26

the API directly. But, I think when

18:28

you're starting out, the really easiest

18:30

way is to just do it through the MCP.

18:32

Another thing I want to mention here as

18:33

well is basically the ability for Cloud

18:36

Code to use the browser for you. Because

18:38

if certain tools that you want to

18:40

connect and have Cloud Code take actions

18:42

for you on those tools, if they don't

18:44

have an MCP or any other way to connect

18:47

to it, then you can still default to

18:49

basically just having Cloud Code use the

18:51

browser for you. And the classic way of

18:52

doing that was, if you go here to

18:54

connectors again, you can you see this

18:55

like Cloud in Chrome. And it's basically

18:58

a Chrome extension that you can install.

19:00

And once that's installed and connected,

19:01

you can basically say things like, "Hey,

19:04

open up YouTube on my browser in

19:07

Chrome." And so, you can see here now

19:09

it's saying I'll use Cloud in Chrome to

19:11

open YouTube. And if I switch here to my

19:13

browser, you can see it's opening up

19:15

YouTube. And here obviously you can then

19:17

have it take other actions for you. And

19:19

these can be, you know, full workflows.

19:21

For example, I have this like particular

19:23

workflow where I wanted to open up

19:25

YouTube for me, go into my account, view

19:27

my channel, and then attach a comment on

19:29

one of my videos. But I do think that

19:31

this method is also becoming obsolete

19:33

soon because just a few days ago, they

19:35

now released the browser directly inside

19:38

of the Cloud Desktop apps. So if I click

19:40

here to open up the browser, I can

19:42

actually also open up websites just

19:44

inside of this browser here, and it

19:46

should then be able to basically, like

19:48

you can you can also log into your

19:50

accounts there, and have those accounts

19:52

like be persisted the login, so that it

19:54

will, you know, across other chats, it

19:56

will still stay logged into your

19:57

account. And you know, it just has

19:59

access to the browser directly here. So

20:01

I think this will be even easier way to

20:03

do this other than installing this

20:04

Chrome extension. Okay, and finally, I

20:06

do want to also mention Meta Connector

20:09

Tools. And these are basically, you can

20:11

think of them like as a tool that's kind

20:14

of like a third-party marketplace to

20:16

connect a bunch of other tools. And one

20:18

of the most famous tools here is called

20:20

Composio. So if I go into my Composio

20:22

account here, you can basically see I

20:23

can connect Composio once, and then

20:26

within my Composio account, I can

20:28

connect all of these other tools. So for

20:30

example, I have my Gmail here that I can

20:33

connect it to my Google Docs and so on.

20:34

And the benefit here is that, first of

20:36

all, sometimes these connections are

20:39

more capable than the connections that

20:41

you can do directly through your

20:44

marketplace inside of the Cloud Desktop

20:46

app. So one example here is, if I look

20:48

for Google Drive, Google Drive exists

20:51

here in the Cloud Desktop app, and it

20:52

has a couple of tools available like

20:54

create file and so on.

20:56

But if I want to interact with like

20:59

Google Sheets files, the Google Sheets

21:00

connector actually does not exist here.

21:03

But in Composio, there is a Google

21:06

Sheets integration. And basically, it's

21:08

kind of like a pre-built, I guess, you

21:10

know, integration that access the API

21:13

directly. You know, you don't have to

21:14

know the technical details here, but

21:16

essentially, what I'm trying to say is

21:18

there is like sometimes you can find

21:20

some capabilities that are possible

21:22

through the connections that you can

21:23

make here through Composure that do not

21:25

exist on the Cloud Desktop app. The

21:28

other benefit of using a meta connector

21:30

tool like this is that if you ever want

21:32

to migrate all of your connections, so

21:35

for example, you you know, you're using

21:36

Cloud Desktop and then you want to

21:38

migrate it to using it through the Open

21:41

AI ecosystem, then you only need to

21:43

migrate this one connection and

21:45

basically bring all of your other

21:46

connections with you. So, that makes the

21:48

migration easier. That's one of the

21:49

benefits as well. Okay, next up is this

21:51

topic of skills. So, what are skills?

21:54

Skills basically just you can think of

21:56

them as a saved prompt. That's the

21:58

easiest way to think about this. How do

21:59

you create skills? Well, the easiest way

22:02

to do that is you open up a new chat and

22:05

you say what you want the skill to be

22:07

about. So, for example, I want you to

22:10

create a skill. It should and then you

22:13

do two and so on. And you just describe

22:15

what it should do. Step one, it should

22:17

go into my um tool which records my

22:20

meetings, fetch the transcript. Step

22:23

two, it should go through that

22:24

transcript and summarize it and so on.

22:26

Okay, where are skills stored? If you

22:29

create the skill like the way I showed

22:31

you just now in Cloud Code, they will be

22:32

stored locally in a folder. So, inside

22:36

of this uh folder that you're operating

22:38

your Cloud from, in my case it's

22:39

Claudia, and then there will be a folder

22:42

here called dot cloud. It's a hidden

22:44

folder, so you need to press the

22:46

keyboard shortcut shift command dot to

22:49

show you the hidden folders in here. You

22:51

click into this dot cloud folder and

22:53

then there will be a folder here called

22:54

skills. And this is where all of the

22:56

skills are saved. So, you can see

22:58

they're kind of just like uh if you look

22:59

have a look at this this skill here,

23:01

it's like a folder called proposal

23:03

builder, which is the name of the skill.

23:05

And inside of that folder, there's a

23:07

skill.md file. And here is where the

23:09

logic of the skill lives. And it's just

23:11

plain text English, right? That

23:13

describes what the skill should do. Now,

23:15

if you create skills in the desktop app,

23:19

and this is by default if you create it

23:21

from co-work, and admittedly, that's

23:24

kind of confusing now, but that's just

23:25

just the way it is. It will be saving it

23:27

inside of You can imagine it like being

23:30

saved in the cloud, basically, your

23:31

skill. And it's like tied to your cloud

23:34

account, whereas the other skill that

23:35

you're creating is locally on your

23:37

machine. But yeah, the ones that you

23:38

create through co-work are living in

23:40

here, and so you can see the skills here

23:43

in this list. I basically like kind of

23:44

just copied all of my local ones into

23:46

here as well, so I can use the same ones

23:48

on co-work if I wanted to. And yeah,

23:50

that's just like the different places

23:52

where they live. I think this is like

23:54

one of the topics where as time goes on,

23:56

Anthropic will probably like find a way

23:58

to make the management of these skills a

24:00

bit easier, but that's kind of the way

24:01

that it is right now. If you do it

24:03

through code, they will by default be

24:04

saved locally. And if you do it through

24:06

co-work, they're saved like basically,

24:09

you can access them here through the

24:11

desktop app. Now, there's also this

24:12

topic of plugins, which is, you know,

24:14

one thing that people ask when it comes

24:15

to this topic of skills. And I don't

24:17

want to make it too confusing, but

24:19

basically, plugins in the Anthropic

24:21

ecosystem is essentially a package of

24:25

skills and tools. So, you can see here

24:28

through the plugin marketplace, if I go

24:30

into this like this is the productivity

24:32

plugin that was created by Anthropic.

24:34

And you can also, you know, create

24:35

custom plugins for your own company or,

24:38

you know, other companies like here,

24:39

Carta has created plugins that are also

24:41

featured here officially in this

24:44

directory. But essentially, what it is,

24:46

you click into it, and it is like a

24:47

bundle of skills and also a bundle of

24:50

tools that you can connect. Okay, so, I

24:52

don't want to go too much into detail

24:53

here, but yeah, that's basically what it

24:55

is. What makes it kind of confusing is

24:57

that if you go into the Open AI

24:59

ecosystem, when they talk about plugins,

25:01

it's basically just the direct

25:03

connection. And so, uh you know, this

25:05

all makes it slightly confusing, but uh

25:07

yeah. Personally, I just have like

25:09

skills and connected tools. For me,

25:11

that's enough, and I don't use that many

25:13

plugins, but uh you know, they might

25:15

become useful. If you're doing a

25:17

specific function very often, or you

25:19

know, you want to create like a bundle

25:21

of skills and tools for your company,

25:23

then uh this might come useful. And the

25:25

final which is actually the reason why

25:28

they're so useful is that after you've

25:30

saved this prompt, basically, you can

25:32

just very easily just trigger it. And

25:35

you do that by typing forward slash, and

25:37

then let's say I want to trigger my

25:40

YouTube upload skill, and then I can

25:42

just select it and basically hit enter,

25:44

and it will go ahead and trigger it for

25:46

me and and run that prompt, basically.

25:48

Okay, next up, let's talk about this

25:50

feature here called routines. So, first,

25:52

what are routines? Basically, if I click

25:55

into it, you'll see these are

25:56

essentially automations, and they're

25:59

just defined by a trigger, and then the

26:02

thing that it should do when it

26:03

triggers. So, you can see here if I want

26:05

to define it, it will have

26:07

a trigger of the schedule, so I can

26:09

select like manually, hourly, daily,

26:12

weekly, and so on, or custom, and then

26:15

just the things that it should do when

26:17

it triggers. So, how do you create them?

26:19

Easy way is clicking here into the

26:22

routines tab, and then here you can

26:23

click on new routine. You can select

26:25

between local and cloud. I'll go into

26:26

that later. If you then select local,

26:29

you can define like the things that you

26:30

do here, and then just hit create.

26:32

Another even easier way to do it is also

26:34

just inside of the chat. I want you to

26:37

create a test routine. Okay, so now it's

26:40

said basically it just like created a

26:42

Telegram ping test routine. And now if I

26:45

go into my routines tab here, you'll see

26:47

it created this test Telegram ping

26:50

routine. And that's also, you know, you

26:52

can just create your routines through

26:53

the chat. Now, what is this difference

26:55

between local and cloud routines? So,

26:58

essentially, local is, as the name said,

27:01

it runs locally, which means it will

27:03

have the same capabilities as when

27:06

you're just running a prompt locally.

27:07

So, you can think of it like you're just

27:09

defining a trigger, and when that

27:11

trigger happens, so for example, every

27:13

morning at 9:00, it will just

27:15

essentially create a new cloud code chat

27:18

and just paste your instructions as the

27:20

prompt. That's it, basically. That's how

27:22

local works. Now, the big downside to

27:24

that, obviously, is that this only works

27:27

when your cursor is on and when your

27:29

cloud desktop app is on. So, if you want

27:31

something to just constantly run without

27:34

you having to have your cloud desktop

27:36

app on, this may not be the best thing

27:38

to do. Although, if you look at my

27:39

routines, since, you know, I use cloud

27:41

desktop every day, most of my routines

27:43

are local routines. And it's just the

27:45

easiest way to do this, because you

27:46

don't need to set anything else up. You

27:48

just create your routine, and that's it.

27:50

And since my cloud desktop app is on all

27:52

the time anyways, they will just trigger

27:53

when the time comes. The other way to do

27:55

this is through the cloud, and this you

27:58

can really think of as you're basically

28:00

creating like this set of rules, and

28:03

then you're hosting it somewhere in the

28:05

cloud, and every time the trigger

28:07

happens, it will basically just run this

28:09

thing, but it will run it in the cloud

28:11

instance. So, it won't run it on your

28:13

computer. The downside is it takes a

28:15

little bit longer to set up, because you

28:16

need to create a repository for it and

28:18

then host it and so on. You can define

28:21

also like which tools it is allowed to

28:23

connect to. And these are, by the way,

28:25

all of the tools that you've connected

28:26

through your customize, so you can

28:28

define which ones it should have access

28:29

to in this particular routine. Then,

28:31

when the time comes, it just basically

28:32

triggers that. So, if you want

28:34

automations that really should just be

28:35

constantly running, like every day or

28:38

something like that, then this is the

28:40

way to do that. And you can compare

28:41

these with basically N8N or Make

28:44

automations. You can, you know,

28:46

essentially just like write your logic

28:48

here, have it create this automation and

28:50

put it in the cloud and it will just

28:52

constantly run. Okay, now the last topic

28:53

here is mobile options and I have to

28:57

admit that there are some options right

28:59

now for you to be able to use cloud code

29:02

on your phone, but they're not great

29:04

yet. And if your usage really is heavy

29:07

on your phone, then maybe using a tool

29:10

like you know, open claw, Hermes or or

29:12

Victor is the better option for you. But

29:14

you know, if your usage is heavy just on

29:16

your laptop, then I I think cloud code

29:19

is a very good option for you. Having

29:20

said that, there are a couple ways to

29:22

access cloud code on your phone. And the

29:25

first way is basically this feature

29:28

remote control. You can go into settings

29:31

and then if you go here into the cloud

29:33

code settings, you can activate this

29:35

setting here which is called enable

29:37

remote control by default. And what this

29:39

does is that every time I create a new

29:42

chat, it will by default activate this

29:44

remote control, which essentially means

29:46

if I click here, you'll see here I have

29:48

this is it says remote control is active

29:50

on this one. And it just means that this

29:52

chat that I'm creating here is also

29:55

automatically accessible from my cloud

29:57

mobile app and I can continue the chat

30:00

there. The downside is that since this

30:01

is a local session, I cannot create the

30:05

local session from my phone. I can only

30:07

create it here from my laptop and then

30:08

continue it on my phone. If it's a cloud

30:10

session, then it's possible. But yeah,

30:12

in in my case I'm using this locally, so

30:14

it's you know, it's useful for

30:16

continuing conversations, but other than

30:18

that, it's not super useful. The other

30:20

way is then through a feature called

30:23

dispatch. Now, this is actually a

30:26

feature that was only developed for

30:28

co-work initially and then later it was

30:30

expanded to be able to used in cloud

30:32

code. And I can click here into

30:34

dispatch. You can think of it just like

30:36

one chat that you can have as like one

30:38

channel that they created that is

30:39

accessible for you on your local desktop

30:42

here, but then also on your phone. And

30:45

then there's this little trick here,

30:47

which [clears throat] is if you want

30:48

your dispatch to always just have access

30:51

to cloud code, you can go into your

30:52

co-work instructions here and basically

30:54

just type in the instructions here to

30:56

say "Every time I use dispatch, just

31:00

have it access my cloud code" or

31:03

something like that. I used to have

31:04

this. I don't know why this prompt got

31:06

deleted for some reason, but yeah, this

31:07

is like one little trick how you can

31:09

kind of force your dispatch usage to be

31:11

just using cloud code instead of

31:13

co-work. All right, that's it. So, these

31:15

are pretty much all of the things you

31:16

need to know to be using cloud code on

31:18

like a near professional level without

31:20

going too much into the details,

31:22

although I think I went over 20 minutes,

31:23

but yeah, that's it. I appreciate you

31:25

watching till the end. And if you want

31:27

to see more of these kinds of videos,

31:29

then feel free to subscribe to my

31:31

channel. And if you want to get help to

31:33

automate your business, then go check

31:35

out joinagentos.com. This is where you

31:38

can work with me and you can book a call

31:40

with me, and then we can have a look at

31:42

your business and see which parts of it

31:44

we can automate so that you get to work

31:47

faster, that you get more done, and

31:50

ultimately have better margins and make

31:52

more profit. All right, thanks for

31:53

watching. See you in the next video.

31:55

Bye-bye.

Interactive Summary

This video provides a comprehensive guide for non-coders on effectively using Claude Code to automate business tasks. It covers interface options, focusing on the desktop app, explains the advantages of local file operations compared to cloud-based chat, and details how to manage permissions and models. Furthermore, the video explores how to connect external tools via MCP and meta-connectors, explains how to use skills and routines for automation, and discusses the current state of mobile access.

Suggested questions

4 ready-made prompts