OpenAI vs. Anthropic gets all the attention these days, but Google Labs is quietly shipping some of the most interesting AI products right now.

Pomelli for marketing, Stitch for design, Flow for videos, and more — these tools are better than most people realize.

Watch the tutorial now to see me review all five tools live and share where each product excels and where they fall short.

Timestamps:

• (0:00) Why Google’s most underrated AI products are in Labs

• (0:39) Pomelli: Generate marketing assets from any URL

• (4:37) Stitch: Create web and mobile designs from scratch

• (7:27) Genie: Walk through AI-generated 3D worlds

• (9:11) Flow: The best tool for making AI videos and images

• (11:49) NotebookLM: Turn any source into video, slides, and infographics

• (14:27) 3 takeaways on Google’s AI strategy

I’m proud to partner with Granola

The world’s best product teams including Ramp, Linear, Replit, and more all use Granola to take notes and focus more in meetings. I’ve tried many meeting notes apps myself but keep coming back to Granola. It’s just that good.

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A review of 5 Google Labs tools and their pros/cons

1. Pomelli: Generate marketing assets from a link

Pomelli generates beautiful marketing assets and your brand DNA (colors, fonts, images, logo), all from a link to your website.

For example, I gave Pomelli a link to my favorite local Asian bakery, Simply Cake. It pulled the brand’s logo, fonts, colors, and images in under 20 seconds:

Once Pomelli has your brand’s DNA, it’ll generate 3 marketing campaigns for you to review. Here’s a Mother’s Day campaign it made for Simply Cake:

Pomelli’s Photoshoot feature is also worth trying. Upload a basic photo of an egg tart and it creates marketing-ready assets with Nano Banana:

Next, I tried Pomelli on my newsletter to see how it handles a content business. Unfortunately, it didn’t work as well. Content brands like mine don't have great product photography to extract from, so Pomelli has less to work with:

My verdict: Pomelli is incredible if you run a physical or e-commerce store with a strong visual library. My one gripe is that you can’t edit the text and images manually — you have to re-prompt the AI every time.

2. Stitch: Create beautiful product designs

Stitch is Google's answer to Claude Design. I gave it a simple prompt to "design a mobile fitness app." Stitch first generated a design system, then produced the screens:

One great thing about Stitch is that it’ll use Nano Banana to fill in images, which makes the screens look more realistic. There’s also a fun feature that shows a predictive heat map of where users might click.

But Stitch has one flaw compared to Claude Design — it didn’t ask me a single clarifying question before making the app. Compare that to how Claude Design handles the same prompt:

Read more

Today, I want to share a review of Claude Design, Anthropic’s new AI design tool.

In the tutorial below, I ran through 5 real demos live using Claude Design to create videos, slides, websites, apps, and even a design system.

Watch my tutoral now for the complete walkthrough.

Timestamps:

• (0:00) Why Anthropic is coming for the full knowledge work stack

• (1:12) Turn any post into an animated video

• (4:17) Pro tip for creating beautiful slide decks

• (7:27) Recreate any landing page in one prompt

• (9:21) Build a 3D rotating globe and text particle effects

• (10:53) One-shot a mobile fitness app with play testing built in

• (12:46) Generate an Apple Liquid Glass design system

• (14:28) 3 takeaways on where AI design is headed

I’m proud to partner with Granola

I have Granola’s MCP connected to Claude and use it as a weekly coach. Every Friday, I ask it to recap my meetings and pull out next steps to follow up on.

The better prompts are the reflective ones: “What themes keep coming up across my 1:1s?” or “Where did I talk too much and listen too little?” Your meeting notes know you better than you do. Granola makes that context easy to use.

Try Granola for Free

Anthropic is eating the knowledge worker stack

Anthropic is quietly building an AI native version of the entire knowledge worker stack. They have:

1. Claude Code for coding

2. Claude Design for design

3. Claude Cowork for documents and more

The common thread across all three products is simple:

Code is the universal medium for all knowledge work.

Videos, slides, websites, apps, and animations — they’re all just code under the hood. And code is now free, or at least very cheap.

This means Claude now competes with both incumbents like Figma and Microsoft Office and AI startups like Replit, Lovable, and Gamma.

But how good is Claude Design? Let’s run through 5 real use cases: animated videos, pitch decks, landing pages, mobile apps, and design systems.

1. Animated video

Let’s start with video. Open a new project in Claude Design and paste in this prompt:

Make an animated video for Claude Design featuring this content: (Paste in the Claude Design announcement post or any text you want)

Claude will ask you clarifying questions first — how long the video should be, what tone and aspect ratio you want, and more — before making the video. It’s the same behavior as Claude Code when you ask it to build something:

Here’s the video Claude Design made in one shot:

This would’ve taken hours or days to do manually but Claude did it in just a few minutes. Because the video is just code, you can also manually tweak the color palette and even turn captions on or off.

The only flaw is that you can’t export the file as a video yet, so I had to use Mac’s screen recording to save it.

2. Slide deck

Now, let’s try using Claude Design to make a slide deck. When using AI to make a deck, I like to use regular Claude to iterate on the copy for each slide first:

Next, I went to Claude Design, selected Slide Deck, and prompted it:

Make a slide deck with this copy: (TEXT)

Here’s an example slide that it made:

This looks OK but the overall deck feels too static and boring compared to the video we just made. So my pro tip for creating beautiful animated slides is:

Read more

Today, I want to show you how to build a beautiful mobile app to track your workouts.

Building a mobile app used to require a team of engineers. But AI tools like Claude Code and Pencil have made it easy for you to ship a beautiful app by yourself even if you don’t know how to code.

Watch my tutorial to see me walk through how to do this in just 16 minutes.

Timestamps:

• (0:00) What we'll build: A beautiful mobile app to track your workouts

• (2:01) Step 1: Define requirements with Claude

• (6:11) Step 2: Create designs with Pencil

• (8:56) Step 3: Build the app with Claude Code

• (14:21) Getting the app on the App Store

• (15:19) Recap of all 3 steps

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

I’m proud to partner with…Granola

Granola just launched Spaces — a new way for your team to organize and share meeting notes with each other. For example, you can create a “User Calls” space with your interviews to let anyone ask questions about user needs. You can even ask questions directly in Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini with Granola’s new APIs and MCP.

Try Granola for Free

What we’ll build: A mobile app to track your workouts

We live in a time where it’s easier to vibe code your own mobile app than to find an existing one that you like. So let’s build an app that can:

1. Create workouts by selecting an exercise and then the number of sets and reps.

2. Track workouts live by tapping each exercise set to complete it.

3. Measure progress via a calendar and charts for each exercise.

I’ll walk you through how to build it in 3 steps below.

1. Define the requirements with Claude

Let’s start by pasting this prompt into Claude:

Let’s work together on requirements for a mobile fitness app. I want three screens:

1. Add/edit workouts: Create workouts and add exercises with sets and reps

2. Workout session: Track workouts in real-time, tap to complete sets

3. Calendar: See which days you worked out and view workout details

This is the basics, but let’s work on the spec together. I want you to stay crisp on the requirements, and if you have any questions, ask them in a numbered list.

The most important part of this prompt is

I always include this line when discussing requirements with Claude so that it can ask me questions to make the spec better. Here are a few example questions and answers:

1. Claude: Do you want a rest timer?
   Me: Yes, also let me customize it in settings.

2. Claude: Do you want automatic deload after failed sets?
   Me: No, let’s keep it simple.

After Claude gets the spec to a state that you’re happy with, ask it to:

Include the last line because Pencil (our AI designer) is better at design than Claude. 🙂 Let’s cover that next.

2. Design the mobile screens with Pencil

This is where the magic happens. Here’s how to use Pencil to create beautifully crafted mobile screens instead of AI slop:

Read more

Today, I want to share 5 real use cases for Gemini inside Google Workspace.

If you’re like me, you probably do most of your work in Google Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Drive. And for a long time, Gemini in Workspace just wasn’t great.

So when Google announced a big Workspace update recently, I was skeptical. Well, I’m happy to report that Gemini in Google Workspace is now much better.

Watch my tutorial to see what’s great and what still needs work across 5 use cases.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Why Gemini in Workspace is actually useful now

• (00:51) Sheets: Researching kid summer camps

• (03:26) Sheets: Building a Bay Area family budget

• (07:04) Docs: Planning our next vacation destination

• (09:08) Docs: Writing a script for an upcoming talk

• (12:04) Slides: Generating beautiful slides from the script

• (15:54) Honest rankings: Gemini in Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Drive

• (17:44) Why Google has golden opportunity that might close soon

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

I’m proud to partner with Replit

Replit's new Agent 4 can one-shot beautiful slide decks. For example, Karpathy published new data on which industries and jobs are most likely to be disrupted by AI.

I pasted the cloned GitHub into Replit and it made this beautiful slide deck (spoiler: according to this dataset, lawyers are most likely to get disrupted outside of tech).

Replit is my go-to tool for generating slide decks because it has genuine design taste and can generate images too. Try it by selecting “Slides” and sharing your prompt.

Try Replit for Free

1. Sheets: Researching Bay Area summer camps

Let’s start with Gemini in Google Sheets.

If you’re a parent in the Bay Area, you know that finding summer camps for your kids is basically the Hunger Games. You’re competing with every other parent to find and register before spots fill up.

Let’s open a new Google Sheet and ask Gemini to:

Create a sheet of the top 10 summer camps in the Bay Area for my 7 year old. Include columns for: name, location, age range, type (sports, STEM, arts, nature, etc.), dates, and a short description.

Gemini will create a plan first for you to review. Approve the plan and let it build. After a few minutes, you should get a spreadsheet like this:

Now there’s one very important column that’s missing: the price. Add a new column called “Weekly Cost” and type this formula:

=ai(”Get the weekly price for this camp”)

Gemini will search the web and fill in real price data. Now here’s the magical part: drag that cell down to fill the rest of the rows. Gemini will run a separate web search for each camp and fill in the prices automatically.

One thing I wish it did by default is show where it’s pulling the data from. You can fix this by updating the formula to include sources:

=ai(”Get the weekly price for this camp and include a source link”)

2. Sheets: Building a Bay Area family budget

Since we’re already in Sheets, let’s find out how much it really costs to live as a family of four in the Bay Area. Here’s the prompt:

Create a monthly budget for a family of four in the Bay Area in 2026. Include typical tech income (two working parents) and expenses: mortgage, childcare, groceries, transportation, healthcare, insurance, utilities, dining out, travel, and more. Add columns for category, estimated monthly cost, and your notes.

Gemini will make a plan again. Approve it and wait for the sheet to generate. Here’s the family budget that it made for me:

Read more

Replit just launched Agent 4, and I got early access over the weekend.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to plan, design, and build a habit-tracking app live using Agent 4’s new infinite canvas and parallel agents.

I’ll also show you how to generate presentations and animations from code, all in just 10 minutes. Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Three new features in Replit Agent 4

• (00:34) Step 1: Design a habit tracker app with the infinite canvas

• (03:39) Step 2: Build faster with parallel agents

• (05:52) Step 3: Publish a full-stack app in one click

• (07:11) Step 4: Generate a slide deck and animation from code

• (08:58) Honest take: where Replit fits in the AI coding market

What we’ll build

I’ve always wanted an app where I can check off habits on a calendar and track streaks to stay motivated. So let’s build it now. 🔥

1. Design the habit tracking app with canvas

Let’s start by trying out Replit’s new infinite canvas with this prompt:

Build a mobile habit tracker app (max 3 habits). Two tabs: Calendar (default) and Habits (create/edit).

Calendar tab: Monthly view. Show a progress in each date ring that fills as habits are completed. Tap a date to open a bottom sheet with toggle cards for each habit.

Habits tab: Create and edit habits. Name field, color assignment. Clean and minimal.

Let’s start by exploring 4 design variants for the calendar tab on canvas:

1. Glassmorphic — dark, frosted-glass cards, soft glows, premium feel

2. RPG Quest — pixel art, XP bars, streak flames, gamified

3. Botanical — living garden metaphor, streaks grow plants, calm and earthy

4. You surprise me

Note how I asked Replit to generate four different designs. Behind the scenes, it spins up four separate agents to do the work. Here are the first three designs it generated:

Since I’m a gamer at heart, I’ll go with the RPG quest design. Now let’s edit the designs visually using the canvas. You can:

1. Generate additional screens. Hit the + button for the RPG design and ask it to: “Generate the quest screen.”

2. Make precise edits. Click the inspect icon and change text or colors manually.

Now that we have a calendar and quest view that we like, let’s get Replit to build them.

2. Build faster with parallel agents

Instead of building with one agent at a time, let’s have two agents work in parallel.

In Replit, you can now spin up separate threads to work on different parts of the app. Here are the prompts I gave each agent:

Calendar view: Build the monthly view, swipe to scroll between months, today is highlighted. Date cells show progress rings that fill as habits are completed (1/3, 2/3, 3/3). Tap a date to see bottom tray where I can toggle 3 habits on/off.

Habits view: Create and edit up to 3 habits with name and color. Each habit displays its current streak count. Editing a habit resets its streak to zero.

After kicking off two threads, you can now sit back and watch the agents work. There’s this cool Trello-style board view where you can see tasks move through three stages: Drafts, Active, and Ready. Drafts are plans waiting for approval, active means the agent is building, and ready means the work is done and ready for review:

This is where I think AI coding agents are heading. Instead of pair programming with one agent, you’re managing a team of agents. You give them instructions, step away, and come back to review the work.

Once the agents finish, you can review each one and click “Apply changes to the main version” to merge it in. You’re still in control of what ships. If something looks off, you can ask for edits before merging.

Once the app is built, you can deploy it in one click by hitting Publish. One advantage of Replit is that it’s vertically integrated, with frontend, backend, database, and security scanning all built in.

3. Generate a slide deck and animation with code

Now let’s have some more fun. Lately I’ve realized that:

Code is the foundation of all knowledge work.

With code, you can generate not just apps, but also slide decks, animations, documents, and more. For example, I pasted this full newsletter post into Replit and generated these assets:

1. Slide deck. The Agent generated 10 slides covering how you can use Agent 4 to plan, design, and build the habit tracker.

2. Animation. The Agent generated a beautiful animation complete with custom graphics and more.

Slides, animations, and documents are all just code under the hood. If an agent can write and iterate on code, it can generate almost any knowledge artifact.

Honest take: Where Replit’s Agent 4 fits in the AI coding market

I think the AI coding market has split into two segments — tools for professional developers and tools for everyone else.

For developers, I think it’s a two-horse race between Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. These tools are powerful, fast, and deeply integrated into model and developer workflows.

For everyone else — and this is the larger market — Replit is making two bets with Agent 4:

1. Non-technical people will collaborate directly with AI agents. Designers will use AI to generate designs on a canvas instead of doing them manually. PMs will manage agents through a Trello-style board to get work done.

2. Code is the foundation of knowledge work. If an agent can write code, it can generate apps, presentations, animations, and more. Just think about how many people use Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, and traditional design or animation tools. That’s the market Replit is chasing.

I think Agent 4 is a real step forward on both fronts. The canvas could use a bit more polish, but the direction is clear. We’re going to work with AI agents to build all kinds of things in the future, not just apps.

Watch my tutorial to see it in action and go try Agent 4 yourself.

Google just dropped Gemini 3.1 and updated AI Studio to be full stack. Together, I think they make the best free AI prototyping and vibe coding tool in the market.

I’ve been prototyping with AI Studio for 6 months now and it’s completely changed how I build products at work.

Instead of starting with specs and designs, I now start with prototypes that I can validate with stakeholders and real users in hours.

Watch my tutorial to see how I prototype new features with AI Studio in 5 steps.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Waterfall vs. prototype-first product development

• (01:33) What Google AI Studio can build (poker, image gen, games)

• (03:08) Step 1: Build a base template for your existing product

• (05:43) Step 2: Work with your AI design partner to add a new feature

• (10:32) Step 3: Iterate with AI to refine your feature

• (13:08) Step 4: Collaborate with others on the prototype

• (15:05) Step 5: Turn your prototype into a real product

• (16:12) Recap: How to master AI prototyping

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

I’m proud to partner with…Linear

I’ve been talking to many AI-native companies and the way they build is just completely different. Instead of doing manual work, their best employees focus on delegating work to AI agents by giving them the right context and feedback loops.

Linear is built for the best teams to onboard and work with AI agents. It provides transparency on what agents like Cursor and Codex are working on and gives them context automatically from Slack, support tickets, and your codebase.

Try Linear for Free

P.S., I’m hiring a Senior PM for Creator Hub at Roblox — the platform millions of creators use to build and grow their games. If you have 7+ years of PM experience (especially in creator/gaming) and a “get shit done” mindset, apply here.

Why prototypes > waterfalls

Here’s the difference between waterfall and prototype-led development:

• Waterfall is when you start with a spec, the designer makes a design, and then you hand everything off to engineering. By the time you get feedback, you’ve already invested weeks.

• Prototype-led is when you start with a prototype that you iterate on with your team and real users. Once you validate your idea with the prototype, then you create the spec and design.

The key difference is:

One caveat: I said prototype-led, not prototype-only. For complex products, you should still create a PRD and design to capture the milestones and edge cases. For simpler features, you can go straight from prototype to real product.

Let me show you how.

What we’ll build

For this tutorial, let’s be meta and prototype a new feature for Google AI Studio itself.

I love Google AI Studio because it's fast, free, and integrates with Google APIs like Nano Banana directly.

However, I think AI Studio’s interface is way too busy. There are too many buttons and toggles. So let’s prototype a simplified AI Studio by following the 5 steps below.

1. Build the base template

Let’s start by taking some screenshots of Google AI Studio’s Home and Build screens and asking AI:

Replicate these screens as closely as possible. Try to match the styles and colors and make it interactive.

Google AI Studio will now build a working replica of its own interface. Save it as “Google AI Studio template” and clone it before making changes.

This way, you can easily start over from what’s live in the product today if things go wrong. Anyone on your team can also clone the prototype off the same base.

2. Prototype the feature

Now let’s simplify Google AI Studio’s UX. First, we need to decide what to simplify.

Let’s create a Gemini Gem called “UX designer” and set it up as follows:

1. Ask AI: “Give me a prompt to make you an experienced UX designer. I want you to work with me to simplify the UX for Google AI Studio.”

2. Paste the prompt that AI generates into the Gem and share some screenshots of Google AI Studio.

Now, let’s ask the Gem:

I want to redesign Google AI Studio’s interface to be much simpler. Check out the attached images and list the top 5 things to simplify. Ask me any questions first.

Gemini will ask you a few questions and come up with a list. I also did some research on Reddit and the top request is to have project folders just like Codex.

With this research in hand, let’s ask AI to update our prototype with this prompt:

Read more

Today, I want to show you how to use OpenClaw to manage your calendar, edit your documents, send yourself personalized briefings, and much more.

Ever since I set up my bot, I’ve barely touched my other AI apps. It’s just so much easier to text my AI employee to do things while on the go.

Watch my tutorial to see me demo 5 use cases, Google Workspace setup, and more.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Why OpenClaw is my favorite AI bot

• (00:54) How to set up your bot safely in 5 steps

• (03:01) Use case 1: Manage Google calendar

• (05:40) Use case 2: Edit Google Docs and Sheets

• (08:31) Use case 3: Give your bot a voice

• (11:15) Use case 4: Get personalized briefings

• (13:50) Use case 5: Get weekly insight reports

• (15:48) How to connect to Google Workspace

• (21:47) How to personalize your bot’s memory and soul

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide.

I’m proud to partner with…Linear

My newsletter is called Behind the Craft and few companies exemplify craft like Linear. They’ve built the best platform for teams to work with AI agents. You can:

1. Assign bugs and tickets to coding agents

2. Pull in context from Slack, your support tickets, and your code base

3. Turn that context into specs and plans automatically without manual work

I’m managing my creator business with Linear and you should try it too. Use the link below to get 6 months free to Linear Business now.

Try Linear for Free

Recap: How to set up OpenClaw safely

Let’s first recap how to set up OpenClaw safely so that you don’t get compromised:

1. Run it on a dedicated computer. I installed my bot on a Mac Mini but any old MacBook will do. Keep your Mac on 24/7 using a free app called Amphetamine.

2. Give it its own credentials. My bot (I call her Zoe) has her own Apple and Gmail ID.

3. Run OpenClaw’s security audit. In terminal, type “clawdbot security audit --deep” and then follow its instructions to make it more secure.

4. Give it read access to your main account and write access to select files. For example, Zoe can read my calendar and edit select Google Docs and Sheets but can’t access my entire Google Drive.

5. Never share your bot with anyone else. Don’t add it to any group chats or websites. Zoe can only talk to me.

5 everyday tasks I’ve delegated to my bot

When I talk about OpenClaw, I get questions like:

1. “Why can’t you just vibe code an app for this?”

2. “Is this really better than Claude Code?”

Using my bot doesn’t feel like using an app. It feels like onboarding an AI employee that I can train to do whatever I want her to do.

Here are 5 tasks that I’ve delegated to Zoe:

1. Managing calendar invites

Zoe has view access to my calendar, so I can simply text her to schedule things for me.

For example, I recently texted Zoe to send me a calendar invite for a family trip to SF. It’s way easier than navigating the Google Calendar app:

2. Editing Google documents

Zoe can edit select Google Docs and Sheets that I’ve shared with her.

For example, I asked Zoe to draft a plan for my weekend visit to the city in a Google Doc. She included Caltrain schedules and lunch options at the Ferry Building:

Zoe can also edit specific Google Sheet cells and Google slides just through texting. I demo this in my video tutorial.

3. Reply via voice

Zoe is more fun to talk to when she can reply with voice. To set this up, just ask:

I want to let you reply to me with voice. What are some options to do this?

She found a few voices in Microsoft’s Edge TTS service, which is free to use. I ended up giving her a soothing British voice to tell me corny dad jokes:

4. Daily morning briefs

One of Zoe’s most useful capabilities is that she can schedule recurring tasks that run at a set date and time (also known as cron jobs).

Every morning at 6:30 AM, Zoe sends me a personalized briefing with weather, calendar events, priority tasks, trending AI tweets, and a personalized thought to start my day. She pulls from this info from Google Calendar, Linear, X, and her memory.

Her personalized thought is my favorite. Here’s what Zoe shared with me recently:

5. Weekly insight report

Zoe can also send me emails from her dedicated Gmail account.

Every Friday, she sends me an email with stats for my latest YouTube videos and Substack articles:

1. For YouTube, she uses yt-dlp (free) to pull public video data for me and similar channels.

2. For Substack, there’s no public API access. So I added Zoe as an admin to my Substack and she just uses the browser to pull stats for me!

Here’s what the report looks like:

To try this, just ask your bot:

I want you to send me a weekly email that includes (fill this in).

You probably see where I’m going with this. Zoe (OpenClaw) is the first AI product that I’ve used where it feels like I can just ask her to do anything.

That’s a remarkable feeling.

Setting up your bot with Google Workspace

If you’re like me, you probably run your life using Google Workspace. I’ve been waiting for Google to launch an AI that can send me emails, manage my calendar, edit my Google Docs, and more for years.

It turns out that you can set up your OpenClaw bot to do all this in 10 minutes.

Let me walk you through exactly how in 3 steps:

Read more

Today, I want to show you how to set up OpenClaw (formerly called Clawd), the most impressive AI product I’ve tried since Claude Code.

OpenClaw is an AI employee that you can text at any time to manage emails, edit documents, push code, and so much more on command.

Watch my tutorial now to see my top 5 use cases and learn how to set up OpenClaw safely.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) What is OpenClaw and why everyone's losing their minds

• (02:30) Live demo: Using OpenClaw to send emails, read docs, push code

• (09:27) Do you actually need a Mac Mini to run OpenClaw?

• (10:26) How to set up OpenClaw to run safely (important!)

• (12:41) Step 1: Run the install script and setup wizard

• (13:26) Step 2: Connect OpenClaw and your messaging apps

• (16:10) Step 3: Give OpenClaw access to GitHub, X, and Google Workspace

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

P.S. I recently interviewed Peter Steinberger, the developer who built Molt, so subscribe to get our exclusive interview this Sunday. 🙏

This post is brought to you by Granola, Replit, and Linear

I’ve partnered with 3 of my favorite AI tools for the next few months:

1. Granola lets me customize exactly how I want to share my meeting notes.

2. Replit is my go-to tool for beautiful prototypes and full stack apps.

3. Linear is quickly evolving into a platform for orchestrating AI agents.

It feels great to promote tools I actually love and you can now unlock 3 months free to Granola + Replit and 6 months free to Linear by becoming a paid subscriber.

Upgrade to Get Instant Access

What is OpenClaw and what can it do?

OpenClaw is a free, open-source AI assistant that lives in your messaging apps.

It's like having a really smart employee that you can text and assign tasks to. You just need to give it your Claude subscription and install it on a computer for it to work.

I’ll walk through how to set up OpenClaw safely later. First, here’s what it can do:

1. Read X/Twitter timeline

I asked OpenClaw to check my X timeline and it pulled the best tweets from people I follow along with the hot topics of the day.

2. Read, draft, and send emails

I asked OpenClaw to email me a summary of the setup process from its point of view. It wrote the email and sent it to my Gmail in a few seconds.

3. Send me personalized weekly briefings

I asked OpenClaw to look at my Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive to send me a briefing for the upcoming week. It pulled together a briefing with important meetings, emails that need attention, key focus areas, and more.

4. Build and deploy a website

I asked OpenClaw to build and deploy a website covering our interactions so far. It deployed the website in under a minute from a chat message. 🔥

5. Remember context about me

Finally, I asked OpenClaw to read my Google Drive to update its memory based on my Plan and Health documents. Now when I ask OpenClaw questions, it knows my goals, my health priorities, and what I’m working on. Onboarding my new AI employee is complete 😉

How other people are using OpenClaw

I’ve only been playing with OpenClaw for a few days and it’s already blown my mind, but others have customized it to do much more:

1. Health tracking. Connect OpenClaw to Whoop to get daily fitness summaries.

2. Flight check-in. Get OpenClaw to use your browser to check in to flights for you.

3. Smart home control. Control your lights and home appliances with OpenClaw.

One person even set it up to control their smart oven although I have some serious hesitations about doing this. You don’t want AI to burn your house down. 😅

Step by step guide to install OpenClaw in 20 minutes

First things first, you can run OpenClaw on any of the following:

1. Your regular laptop. Your old MacBook works fine to start. Just make sure it stays plugged in and on (no sleep mode) or OpenClaw will go silent.

2. A virtual private server (VPS). Services like Hetzner cost $5-10/month and keep OpenClaw running 24/7 without leaving a computer on at home.

3. Mac Mini. It costs $500 to buy one. The advantage here is that you can just leave your Mac Mini plugged in as a dedicated home for OpenClaw.

I made this guide just running OpenClaw on my old Macbook Pro, so start with that before you decide to invest in new hardware.

How to install OpenClaw safely

If you want to run OpenClaw safely, here’s what I recommend:

1. Run it on a dedicated computer. This can be a Mac Mini that’s powered on 24/7 or just an old laptop. You can try it on your main machine, but I definitely recommend switching to a dedicated computer as soon as possible.

   Give it its own credentials. I set up my Mac Mini with its own Apple ID, Gmail, and Google ID. This way OpenClaw doesn’t have access to my main accounts. Instead, I’ve shared specific Google Docs, Sheets, and Drive files for it to read and edit.

Again, OpenClaw is still early software. You don’t want it to read a malicious email that has a prompt injection to delete all your files. That’s why I recommend doing the above.

Now let’s walk through the install process step by step:

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Today, I want to show you how to build a super fun retro game using Claude Code.

Building games with my 7-year-old and Claude Code is one of my favorite weekend activities and I want you to learn how to do this too.

Here are some games we’ve built together:

• An underwater shooter where you play a swimmer fighting off sharks.

• An animal hospital game where you treat different animals (using Nano Banana).

• And today’s tutorial: A retro space shooter with wave-based enemies, power-ups, and epic boss fights.

Watch my tutorial to learn how to build the space shooter in 5 steps.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Why I love vibe coding games with my kid

• (01:19) Step 1: Set up the project

• (02:56) Step 2: Find free pixel art assets

• (05:33) Step 3: Draft the spec with Claude's AskUserQuestion tool

• (08:56) Step 4: Build the MVP and iterate

• (13:06) Step 4.5: Debug the epic boss battle

• (15:24) Step 5: Ship your game with GitHub and Vercel

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

This post is brought to you by…Replit

Now that I know how to build retro games on the web, I’m excited to start shipping them as native mobile apps. Replit is the easiest way to do this because it builds with real native components and handles App Store submission for me.

Try it yourself by going to Replit, selecting “Mobile app” in the dropdown, and then building your idea. It’s as simple as that.

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What we’ll build: A retro 2D space shooter

We’ll build a classic vertical-scrolling space shooter with wave-based enemies, power-ups, and epic boss battles at the end. A note before we get started:

This game might look intimidating to build, but it really just comes down to chatting with AI just like you chat with ChatGPT or Claude.

If my 7-year-old can do it, you can too. Let’s dive in!

1. Set up the project

Start by creating and opening an empty folder in Cursor called “space-shooter-game” and then installing Claude Code in Cursor’s terminal (follow this quick start guide if you need help). Then, type in terminal:

claude --dangerously-skip-permissions

This sounds dangerous, but all it does is let Claude work in your new folder without having to ask you for permissions each time. This makes vibe coding way more fun, and Claude is smart enough not to screw up your files.

By the way, if you’re kids don’t know how to type yet, just use Wispr Flow to encourage them to dictate commands to Claude directly.

2. Find game assets

Now let’s find some pixel art for our game. Claude has web search built in, so you can simply prompt:

I want to build a retro 2D space shooter. Where can I find free pixel art assets?

It’ll likely find pixel art on websites like Open Game Art and itch.io. But to make this much easier, I’ve already found an amazing pixel pack for building shooters, platformers, and more that’s 100% free. Here’s the download link:

Download the Legacy Pixel Collection

After you download the pack, open it and drag the entire folder into your space shooter folder. Then, ask Claude:

I just added some pixel art, list the ones that we can use for our space shooter.

Claude will identify the relevant pixel art for your player ship, enemies, projectiles, power-ups, and backgrounds automatically.

3. Draft the spec

Next, let’s ask Claude to draft the spec for our space shooter. Whenever I want AI to draft a spec, I always like to include 3 specific instructions in the prompt:

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Today, I want to show you how to build a Claude Skill to write better.

Skills have the potential to be the biggest AI productivity unlock since Projects.

Think of a skill as expertise that AI can trigger from any conversation. But the product is still early and you have to know how to get AI to trigger the skill reliably.

Watch my tutorial to build a new skill to avoid AI slop writing forever and trigger it reliably from any conversation.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) What exactly are Claude Skills?

• (01:51) Skills vs Projects: When to use each of them

• (02:46) Building a writing style skill to avoid AI slop forever

• (06:26) My hack to get Claude Skills to trigger reliably

• (11:04) Building a strategy doc template for our writing skill

• (13:46) How to get started with Claude Skills now

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

This post is brought to you by…Radiant

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What is a skill?

A skill is just a folder with instructions that AI can trigger based on a given task.

For example, the skill in the image above applies Anthropic’s brand guidelines to any artifact. Here’s a breakdown of each file:

1. Skill.md (required). Tells AI what the skill does (e.g., main colors = #141413). Be sure to write a clear description that AI will use to decide when to trigger the skill.

2. Reference (e.g., slide-decks.md). Templates that AI can pull in if needed.

3. Scripts (e.g., apply_template.py). Code that AI can execute to apply the skill.

Here’s a snapshot of the contents of each file:

When to use Skills vs. Projects

Skills complement Projects well:

1. Use Projects to upload materials for a specific work stream.

2. Use Skills to train AI to follow your instructions across all relevant conversations.

Here’s a simple comparison table:

To me, the core value of skills is that AI is supposed to know when to trigger it based on your conversation. But in practice, this doesn’t work reliably yet. I’ll share a hack in the steps below to fix this problem.

What we’ll build: A skill to write better and avoid slop

Let’s build a writing skill that:

1. Improves your writing and avoids AI slop.

2. Knows how to create a great strategy doc using my personal template.

1. Create the writing-style skill

Nobody likes walls of text, so I keep my writing simple, short, and specific. I use short paragraphs mixed with numbered lists that have bold stems for easy scanning. I also avoid the telltale signs of AI slop:

• AI phrases. e.g., “It’s worth noting,” “importantly,” “overall”

• AI words. e.g., Delve, foster, underscore.

• AI styles. e.g., “Not only X, but also Y,” “question? answer”, too many em dashes.

a) Prompt AI to create the writing-style skill

Here’s the exact prompt to get Claude to create a skill that’ll permanently improve your writing and avoid AI slop:

Read more

Today, I want to show you how to set up your own AI health and fitness coach.

A few months ago, I got a DEXA scan that was a wake-up call — I had 25%+ body fat and low muscle mass despite working out 3x a week.

I was clearly doing something wrong, so I decided to work with my friend Dan Go to get serious about my health. I also hired another coach that’s (you guessed it) AI.

If you don’t want to pay thousands for a professional coach, AI can give you surprisingly personalized health advice if you give it the right context.

So let’s cover how to:

1. Start with the fundamentals

2. Create a personal health plan

3. Set up your AI health coach

4. Example prompts to ask your coach

5. How to check-in regularly for advice

1. Start with the fundamentals

If you don’t know Dan Go, he’s a fellow middle-aged Asian dad who reaches millions of people and has helped thousands of founders and tech professionals get fit. Here’s his basic advice and how I’ve adjusted my lifestyle:

1. Sleep 7-8 hours. I’m trying harder not to bring my phone to the bedroom. If I’m being honest, I succeed maybe 50% of the time (Dan, don’t judge me!).

2. Get 0.8g protein per pound of bodyweight. I get my protein from salmon, mahi mahi, beef, and chicken that I eat on top of salads for dinner. I also drink a protein shake in the afternoon and have largely cut out alcohol, refined carbs (goodbye rice 🥲), and late-night snacking.

3. Walk 8-10k steps daily. I go on walks around the neighborhood between meetings and use AI to voice dictate my thoughts like a crazy person.

4. Lift weights 3-4x a week. I’m pushing myself harder and started focusing on my legs more (the biggest muscle group).

This stuff isn’t rocket science, but staying consistent is hard. If you can’t afford someone like Dan to keep you honest, here’s how to set up AI as the next best thing.

2. Create a personal health plan

Create a Google Doc called “Health” and add the following:

1. Status. Your current weight, body fat percentage, lean mass, and visceral fat. You can get this from a smart scale or a DEXA scan.

2. Goal with milestones. Set a specific target like “reach 20% body fat by March 1” and get AI to set monthly milestones based on your current status.

3. Life context. Your schedule, job demands, family situation, and constraints. I tell AI I work from home Mon/Fri, have two young kids, and don’t have much time.

4. Diet. Your daily protein target and typical meals. I split mine by home vs. office days since my eating patterns differ.

5. Exercise. Your workout split, exercises, sets, reps, and weights. Include both strength and cardio workouts.

6. Sleep. When you go to bed, wake up, and any sleep issues. Sleep is the foundation for everything else.

7. Challenges. Be honest about what you struggle with. For example, I had a terrible late night snacking habit.

In addition to your health plan, consider getting a:

1. DEXA scan. DEXA costs ~$80 and gives you an accurate body fat number. This might be your wake up call too — my DEXA body fat was 8% higher than my scale.

2. Blood work. Upload your annual blood test results. AI can interpret markers and flag areas of concern.

3. Set up your AI health project and prompt

Now let’s bring AI into the picture. Create an AI project called “Health” and attach your health plan document. For your convenience, I’ve included:

1. My health plan template that you can fill in and attach to the project.

2. My health coach prompt to get AI to give you objective, personal advice.

Here are the links:

Read more

Today, I want to show you how to prompt Gemini’s Nano Banana model to create beautiful infographics that match your brand every time.

Here’s the problem: If you just ask Nano Banana Pro to “create an infographic” it’ll create a cluttered mess full of generic clip-art and text.

Watch my tutorial to create infographics that match your brand in 5 steps.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Why most AI infographics look terrible

• (01:03) Step 1: Use regular Gemini (to save money)

• (02:18) Step 2: Work with AI to create a style guide

• (05:55) Step 3: Prompt Nano Banana in two steps

• (07:23) Step 4: Customize the prompt for your brand

• (09:17) Step 5: Iterate with AI and save your prompt

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

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What we’ll build: A prompt to create beautiful infographics that match your brand every time

Below’s a comparison of two infographics for my recent So What’s Going to Happen to Product Management Anyway? post:

1. Left: I just wrote “Create an infographic for this: (paste post).”

2. Right: I used a prompt that I created by following the 5 steps below.

You can see the difference between the AI slop on the left and an infographic that you’ll actually want to share on the right. Let me show you how I did this below.

1. Use regular Gemini (to save money)

There are three ways to access Nano Banana:

1. Gemini: Free to try and lets you chat with AI to iterate. Images have a small Gemini watermark at the bottom right that you can easily remove later.

2. NotebookLM: Free to try but doesn’t let you iterate after generating the image which is a deal breaker for me.

3. AI Studio: Gives you the most control and doesn’t have the Gemini watermark. However, you have to pay (it’s $0.13-0.24 per image).

Since I’m cheap and I want all of you to try this, let’s just stick with regular Gemini. Just be sure to prompt “use Nano Banana Pro” so that it uses the latest Gemini model.

2. Work with AI to create a style guide

This is the key step. Your style guide should include all of the following:

1. Aspect ratio. Choose 9:16 (vertical), 16:9 (horizontal), or square. I prefer 9:16.

2. Resolution. Choose at least 1K resolution. You can also go for 2K or 4K.

3. Colors. Choose a primary color, 2-3 secondary colors, and a background color.

4. Typography. Choose your desired font style and size for title and body text.

5. Layout. Choose your ideal layout (e.g., a grid with generous whitespace).

6. Illustration. Choose the illustration style. You can also refer to an existing style (e.g., illustrations should look like New Yorker or HBR cartoons).

It’s really important to describe all this in detail to get infographics that match your brand. For the illustration style, try uploading a few infographics that you like and asking AI to create the style, texture, concept, palette and more.

Below’s my detailed AI prompt to create infographics that have a beautiful hand-drawn illustration style (I’ve also added it to my prompt library for paid subscribers):

Create a 9:16 infographic (1K resolution) with Nano Banana Pro using the text that I’ll share with you next.

ILLUSTRATION

Read more

Gemini 3 and Replit Design Mode combined is the best AI designer I’ve ever seen.

Instead of purple AI slop, you can now finally build beautiful websites and apps complete with stunning AI videos in just 2 minutes each.

In the tutorial below, I share the exact prompts that I used to build a stunning travel catalog, a retro personal OS, a poker game, a music sequencer, and more.

Watch the tutorial and follow along to build 10 beautiful websites in 12 minutes.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Why Replit and Gemini 3 are a game changer for AI design

• (00:37) Step by step: Build a stunning travel catalog with AI-generated videos

• (03:21) Create a retro Windows 95 personal website with my favorite games

• (05:37) Generate a multiplayer poker game that actually works

• (07:08) Build a luxury Ferrari showroom with dramatic video reveals

• (09:39) Design a personal journal app with late-night café aesthetics

• (10:40) Demo of my satirical Bay Area real estate website that went viral

P.S. You can get 3 months free Replit, Wispr Flow, and Granola ($153 value) and my AI prompt library + AI community by upgrading to an annual subscription.

This post is brought to you by…Reforge

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Let’s build a stunning travel catalog website (link)

Here’s my travel catalog website complete with AI videos highlighting the top 5 countries that I’ve visited. You can build the same thing by following the steps below.

Build and show it to your relatives during the holidays — I’m sure they’ll be blown away 🙂 Watch me build it live here.

1. List and describe videos highlighting top 5 countries

Start by listing the top 5 countries you’ve visited and describing the video you want for each. I worked with AI to come up with these 1-liner video descriptions:

• Japan: Slow zoom on Himeji Castle framed by drifting cherry blossoms

• Portugal: Golden hour drone glide over Lisbon’s terracotta rooftops

• Italy: Positano’s pastel homes cascading to sea in golden hour light

• Spain: Slow dolly through the Alhambra’s intricate Moorish archways

• France: Cinematic reveal of Eze village perched over the Mediterranean

2. Work with AI to write a prompt to build the website

Now let’s ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to create an AI prompt to build the website. I’ve included my full prompt below for your convenience. Just replace the bold section:

Build a high-end, cinematic travel catalog website with beautiful fonts. The site must use a full-screen vertical scroll-snap layout where every section is 100vh.

Structure & Content:

1. Landing Section:

• Background video: Cinematic slow-motion waves crashing on a dark sand beach at sunset, moody and atmospheric.

• Layout: Split screen or heavy typography focus.

• Headline: “My top 5 favorite countries” in massive, tracking-tight white typography (Inter or Helvetica).

• Interactive List: A numbered list (01-05) of destinations below. Hovering a destination shifts the text right and reveals an arrow. Clicking smoothly scrolls to that section.

2. Destination Sections:

• Each section must have a unique full-screen background video, centered white text with a dark overlay for readability, and entrance animations (fade up). You should use AI to generate the videos based on the descriptions below.

• Japan: Slow zoom on Himeji Castle framed by drifting cherry blossoms

• Portugal: Golden hour drone glide over Lisbon’s terracotta rooftops

• Italy: Positano’s pastel homes cascading to sea in golden hour light

• Spain: Slow dolly through the Alhambra’s intricate Moorish archways

• France: Cinematic reveal of Eze village perched over the Mediterranean

Tech stack and style:

• React + Tailwind CSS + Framer Motion.

• Use scroll-snap-type: y mandatory for the container.

• Typography: Clean sans-serif (Inter), white text on dark backgrounds.

• Videos: Use high-quality, muted, autoplaying loops for all sections.

3. Paste the prompt into Replit Design Mode to build

Now go to Replit, select Design Mode, and paste in your prompt. The whole process takes about 2 minutes. Grab a coffee while it generates your site.

Sometimes, the prompt above generates static images instead of videos. If that happens, just ask it nicely: “No, I want full looping videos for each background.” If you want to edit copy, just be specific about what you want changed.

There’s no need to read or touch code in any part of this process 🙂

When you’re finished, hit Publish on the top right to take your site live. It’s that simple, and the design is night and day from the typical purple AI slop.

10 beautiful websites and apps to build next

I spent a few hours on the weekend finding the best websites and apps that people have created with Replit and Gemini 3. Below, I’ve included all the actual prompts and instructions to make it easy for you to build and personalize these yourself.

Remember that you can get Replit Core for free to try these prompts by upgrading to my annual plan. My 20% off offer is also valid for another 5 days.

Upgrade Now to Get Instant Access

1. The nostalgic retro desktop I wish I still had (link)

This one’s my favorite. Imagine a full Windows 95 desktop with boot sequence, draggable windows, start menu, and even a Memories folder with screenshots from my favorite games: Starcraft, Red Alert 2, Commander Keen, and more.

Create a retro personal portfolio designed as a Windows 95-style operating system. Include bootup sequence with loading bar, desktop with draggable windows for About, Projects, Skills, and Contact, working taskbar with clock, and classic UI elements like beveled buttons. Use system fonts and a teal/gray palette. Make windows draggable and resizable with smooth animations.

2. A poker game that deals, bets, and actually works (link)

This prompt creates a complete poker game with card dealing animations, chip stacks, and a betting interface that actually works.

Create a beautiful multiplayer poker game with card dealing animations. Include chip stacks for each player, betting interface with raise/call/fold buttons, and smooth card flip animations. Use clean typography and a felt green table background. Make it functional with proper poker rules.

3. An AI workflow and agent builder interface (link)

This prompt generates a workflow builder for creating and connecting AI agents.

Create a high-quality interface for building AI agents, similar to Zapier. Include drag-and-drop workflow builder with node connections, trigger and action blocks, settings panel, and testing interface. Clean modern design with good information hierarchy and intuitive flow between components.

4. A Ferrari showroom for “Dubai luxury” (link)

This prompt generates a luxury car landing page with full-screen videos and dramatic reveals.

Build a landing page for a Ferrari showroom in Dubai. Include: hero section with full-screen video background, featured models grid with specs and images, virtual tour CTA section, and elegant contact form. Use Ferrari’s red and black color scheme with sophisticated typography. Make it feel premium.

5. A beautiful music sequencer that plays beats (link)

This prompt creates a fully functional music creation interface inspired by Teenage Engineering’s minimalist design.

Create a digital step sequencer inspired by Teenage Engineering. Include 16-step grid, multiple instrument tracks, playback controls, and tempo adjustment. Use minimalist design with cream background and colorful buttons. Make it functional with Web Audio API. Clean interface with proper spacing and typography.

6. A cyberpunk portfolio site for a creative director (link)

This prompt builds a cyberpunk-style portfolio with real-time particle effects and case studies. It looks a bit too much like a crypto site to me, but maybe you’ll like it.

Create a portfolio site for a creative director at a gaming studio. Aesthetic: cyberpunk command center meets sleek product design. Hero section with real-time particle system that reacts to mouse movement. Case studies designed like unlocking game levels with progress bars and video trailers that expand on click. Use dark purple and electric blue color scheme with neon accents.

7. An audio product page with buttery smooth parallax (link)

This prompt creates a minimalist product page with smooth parallax scrolling and moody product videos.

Build a product page for a high-end audio hardware company. Style: Teenage Engineering meets Bang & Olufsen. Include sections with buttery smooth parallax effects, looping videos showing the product in cinematic environments, technical specs in clean typography, and generous white space throughout. Minimalist color palette.

8. A beautiful motion design portfolio (link)

This prompt generates a portfolio site with 60fps animations and transitions that showcase motion design craft.

Build a motion design portfolio with high-end car commercial aesthetics. Include smooth 60fps animations throughout, dramatic lighting effects, dark sophisticated color palette, and transitions that demonstrate craft. Featured work should display video reels that play on hover. Navigation should feel fluid and premium.

9. A cozy journal app for late-night thoughts (link)

This prompt creates a warm, inviting journaling interface that encourages reflection and daily writing.

Design a personal journal app with late-night café aesthetics. Include soft amber lighting effects, comfortable rounded UI elements, gentle transitions, and a welcoming interface. Features: calendar view, mood tracking, rich text editor with formatting options, and daily writing streaks. Color palette should feel warm and inviting.

10. The most honest Bay Area real estate agency (link)

Last but not least, I used this prompt to create a satirical site for a Bay Area real estate agency. You can buy a “brilliant starter home” for only $3.2 million and “take just 90 minutes to commute 12 miles in Bay Area traffic.” 😅

Build a satirical luxury real estate site: 5 full-screen scroll-snap sections with video backgrounds (SF Aerial, Old Ranch, Street, Traffic, Sale Sign). Design: High-end editorial, white serif text, dark gradients. Copy highlights: Dream, Reality ($3.2M fixer starter home), Schools (insanely pricy private schools), Commute (90 min to drive 12 miles), Opportunity (bidding war). Add smooth scroll animations.

The holidays are a perfect time to build

If you ever get tired of talking to your relatives, here’s what I recommend:

1. Download Replit Mobile

2. Get 3 months free by upgrading to my annual plan (offer expires in 5 days)

3. Copy one of my prompts above into Replit and watch the magic 🙂

To be honest, I built some of the websites above while waiting in line for boba tea. This is the world that we live in now.

Watch the video tutorial if you need more help and subscribe to my YouTube if you enjoyed this guide.

Today, I want to share my thoughts on whether AI browsers are worth the hype.

I tested OpenAI Atlas, Perplexity Comet, and Dia across 6 use cases including research, emails, shopping, YouTube, and more.

Watch my video tutorial now or keep reading to see if these browsers are worth it over Chrome.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) OpenAI Atlas vs Comet vs Dia compared

• (02:36) Task 1: Researching information

• (03:59) Task 2: Summarizing across tabs

• (06:29) Task 3: Managing emails with agents

• (08:32) Task 4: Extracting YouTube summaries

• (10:50) Task 5: Shopping and travel planning

• (14:07) Task 6: Top 3 use cases from 100+ replies

• (16:01) The critical security flaw in agent mode

• (17:25) My honest verdict on AI browsers

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OpenAI Atlas vs Perplexity Comet vs Dia

AI browsers embed an AI assistant that can:

1. See what you see in your open browser tabs.

2. Take action like navigate websites, click buttons, and fill forms (if you let it).

Here’s a comparison of the top 3 AI browsers:

1. OpenAI Atlas lets you use ChatGPT from the URL window, side bar, and by highlighting text. If you pay $20/month for Plus, it can also take actions for you in Agent Mode. Overall, Atlas feels like a MVP — there are no direct API integrations (e.g., Gmail, Calendar) or custom workflows.

2. Perplexity Comet is my preferred AI browser for two reasons. First, Perplexity search results just generate faster than ChatGPT. Second, it’s the only browser with direct API integrations with Gmail and Calendar plus features like tab organization and interactive voice mode.

3. Dia from Browser Company was acquired by Atlassian for $610M recently. One of its best features is skills that let you create custom AI automations (e.g., type “/fact-check” to get AI to check any article you’re reading). However, it lacks agent mode, which might not be a bad thing as I’ll explain later in this post.

My verdict: If I had to choose one, it’ll be Comet because Perplexity is optimized for searches and has the most features.

But let’s get real and test if these browsers are actually useful and safe versus Chrome.

Testing AI browsers across 6 practical use cases

I used Comet for most of these tests but the other AI browsers are similar:

1. Researching information

Here are a few research tasks I gave Comet:

1. “What’s the best AI browser and why?” It gave me a decent answer using Perplexity. But I could’ve gotten the exact same answer just by going to Perplexity.com.

2. “Summarize this article on AI browsers.” I asked it to summarize a New York Times article (see above) that was behind a paywall. It did pretty well at reading the text behind the banner.

My verdict: Somewhat useful to summarize a single webpage or to peek behind a paywall banner.

For other research tasks, I still prefer Google or Perplexity for quick searches and Deep Research if I want a deeper dive.

2. Summarizing across tabs

AI browsers can summarize info across all your browser tabs. Here are some example use cases:

1. “Based on my open tabs, do you think Google stock is a buy?” I asked this question to Dia after opening three tabs — Google Finance for Google stock data, Google’s latest earnings transcript, and the official Gemini blog. Dia took about 33 seconds to create a great investor report for Google’s stock.

2. “Based on my open tabs, write my weekly product update.” My friend Cemre is the PM for Dia. He uses the browser to summarize info across his analytics dashboard, Slack channel, and roadmap. It scans his tabs and then compiles everything into a product update.

My verdict: Pretty useful to avoid having to copy and paste information from multiple browser tabs into AI.

3. Managing emails

Now let’s test using Comet to help with my emails:

1. “Summarize the takeaways from all the emails from Ben Thompson.” It took a screenshot of my inbox to find emails from Ben’s Stratechery newsletter. Then, Comet started opening the emails and reading them one by one very slowly.

2. “Unsubscribe to these emails.” Next, I asked Comet to unsubscribe to Stratechery. It opened a Stratechery email, looked for the unsubscribe button, and clicked it. Again, this took forever but you could theoretically pre-filter to spammy emails and just walk away while it does its thing.

3. “Reply to this email.” I asked Comet to reply to an email and the draft felt too generic and AI-generated. Honestly, I would never trust an AI browser to reply to emails for me.

My verdict: Decent for unsubscribing to spammy emails especially if you pre-filter the list beforehand.

So far we’ve seen middling results, but this next use case AI browsers are genuinely great at.

Read more

Today, I want to share my ranking of 22 popular AI tools that help you get work done.

Out of all 22 tools, there are only 7 that I use every day to work and code. A few of these I use even more than ChatGPT.

Watch the video tutorial now to see me rank and demo each tool live, or keep reading.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Ranking 22 AI tools: Only 7 are worth using daily

• (00:28) D-tier: The worst AI productivity tool I’ve ever used

• (03:33) B-tier: This tool generates slide decks in 60 seconds

• (08:39) S-tier: The voice tool I use more than ChatGPT

• (11:56) S-tier: The best AI agents for everyday work

• (15:40) Companies only pay for 2 AI coding use cases

• (18:27) B-tier: The most beginner-friendly AI coding tool

• (21:33) A-tier: This agent works for beginners and experts

• (23:07) S-tier: The 3 best AI coding tools on the market

AI productivity tools

D-tier

1. Gemini for Google Workspace can’t do much of anything. It can’t summarize comment threads or edit documents. ChatGPT and Claude have better Google Workspace integrations at this point. This is the worst AI product I’ve tried because it has so much wasted potential. Maybe Google should put the Gemini team in charge of Workspace since they seem to be ones shipping.

2. Zoom AI’s meeting notes are way too long. The notes work but are incredibly long and just a chore to read. I have to use ChatGPT to summarize Zoom’s AI summary just to get the takeaways. Zoom lets you pick the template, but doesn’t let you use your own prompts. Overall, it’s a far cry from the S-tier meeting notes tool that I’ll cover later in this post.

C-tier

3. Grammarly keeps changing what I actually mean to say. I was a loyal subscriber for years but canceled because it kept on suggesting changes that completely changed the meaning of my sentences. Now I just use ChatGPT or Claude to fix spelling and grammar instead. Shishir is a leader I respect and he recently took over the company, so I’m optimistic that this tool will improve fast.

B-tier

4. Glean is very useful for internal knowledge search. It’s very good for queries like “Summarize all documents related to [topic]“ or “Look up recent information about [product].” On the flip side, I don’t find Glean’s AI agents as flexible for creating AI workflows as Zapier or n8n.

5. Gamma generates slide decks in under 60 seconds. Just paste your notes and then customize the amount of text (e.g., minimal), theme, and image style (e.g., line art) that you want. It’s an impressive AI product but the slides are still too verbose and the images look too AI-generated.

A-tier

6. Linear makes it easy for teams to assign work to AI agents. Linear started as an issue tracking tool but has quickly evolved into the best platform for teams to coordinate with AI agents like Cursor and Github Copilot. Assigning bugs to AI agents and getting PRs back for review feels like the future.

7. NotebookLM can make your boring research notes very engaging. If you have a lot of documents and files that you don’t want to read, just upload them to NotebookLM to get an engaging podcast conversation or a short video overview summary. It’s one of Google’s best AI tools.

   

8. Superwhisper is great for voice dictation while going on walks. It supports local models for privacy and is the only voice tool that lets you record for over 10 minutes at a time. I love going on a walk and dictating the first draft of a document to the app (I use Claude to clean up the draft later). However, it’s transcript accuracy isn’t as good as the S-tier tool I’ll cover next.

S-tier

9. Wispr Flow is a voice tool that I use even more than ChatGPT. Voice dictating accurate notes with a single button press is a game changer for my productivity. I find Wispr Flow more accurate than other voice tools as it auto-corrects mistakes and can even format your notes into bullets. It also supports mobile keyboard integration which lets me dictate accurate notes from any apps.

10. Granola is the AI meeting tool with the most taste. Unlike Zoom’s verbose summaries, I can edit Granola’s prompt to get near-perfect notes every time. Granola is also building useful features like chat so that I can ask “Summarize my meetings this week” or “Give me some back to back meeting therapy.”

    

11. Notion built the best AI agents for everyday work. Notion AI is the exact opposite of Google Workspace AI in that it actually does more than you think it can do. The killer feature is being able to make bulk updates to database entries in one shot. It actually addresses the biggest complaint I have with Notion by making it super easy to set up any type of Notion block. Watch my video tutorial to see it in action.

12. Perplexity is still the best for quick searches with generous free access. I use it all the time to look up local events nearby, plan my travel itinerary, or do a quick fact check. It’s way faster at generating results than ChatGPT and better than Google AI Mode. The free tier is also very generous with 5 Pro searches daily, so I never feel limited.

AI coding tools

Now let’s cover my favorite AI coding tools in what is arguably the most competitive market out there. You probably know about Cursor, but some of my picks in the higher tiers might surprise you:

Read more

Today, I want to share an updated guide on how I use ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

This is exactly how I use GPT-5 vs Claude 4.5 vs Gemini 2.5 across 10 different use cases — from everyday answers to writing to coding.

In the 20 min video below, I also cover 9 AI projects that help me save time for product and creator work along how I use Deep Research for more than just research. Watch now:

Watch on YouTube or read the guide below.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) GPT 5 vs Claude 4.5 vs Gemini 2.5 across 10 everyday tasks

• (01:13) Has OpenAI Codex caught up to Claude Code in coding?

• (04:50) Live demo of OpenAI’s Atlas browser and my thoughts

• (06:52) 9 Projects that I use daily for product, creator, and personal tasks

• (16:12) Deep research: How to prompt and 5 examples

• (21:42) Recap: How I actually use AI

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ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini across 10 everyday tasks

Here are my favorite AI models for each task:

1. Everyday answers (ChatGPT). GPT-5 is fast and concise which makes it great for answering questions. Claude keeps running into rate limits on the $20 / month plan. 😢

2. Writing and editing (Claude). Claude matches your writing style the best if you give it examples of your writing. ChatGPT likes bullet points too much and Gemini’s writing is too dry and verbose.

3. Coding (Claude Code and OpenAI Codex). I’m a big fan of Claude Code but many of my friends have switched to OpenAI Codex with GPT-5 high. Codex is slower than Claude but can often fix gnarly bugs in just a few of lines of code. It’s pretty remarkable how fast OpenAI caught up to Anthropic in coding.

4. Web search (Gemini). If I need to look up real-time information, Gemini’s AI mode is still much faster than ChatGPT or Claude. That’s also why I still prefer Chrome over OpenAI’s new Atlas browser, chat just takes too long to generate when you want instant results.

5. Deep research (Claude). I prefer Deep Research from Claude because it creates concise five-page reports that I want to read instead of 30+ pages from ChatGPT or Gemini. Deep Research is truly amazing and I’ll share how I use it later in this post.

6. Voice (ChatGPT): ChatGPT has the most natural voice and personality but it still interrupts me too much. That’s why I prefer apps like Wispr Flow for AI voice dictation instead of any option from the big labs.

7. Image (Gemini) and video generation (Sora). Gemini’s Nano Banana is the best image model (watch my tutorial) and Veo 3.1 is arguably a better video model than Sora. But I love how Sora lets me make videos of my family and friends. OpenAI just gets social better than Google (they hired all the Meta people after all).

8. Live camera and computer use (none). I don’t find either of these features that useful. Computer use feels especially painful—you’re literally watching the AI click a mouse and take screenshots. It just takes forever. 🫤

Last but not least, let’s talk about Grok. Grok may very well be a great model but I cannot take a product that markets “AI companions” seriously. I think this stuff just turns away people who want to use AI to get serious work done. xAI needs better marketing.

My top AI projects for product, creator, and personal work

Ok now let’s talk about my go-to AI feature for all three models — Projects.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but I think Projects is far more useful than AI agents, browsers, or whatever is hot in AI right now.

All 3 big labs have this feature but I prefer Claude Projects because it lets me paste in simple text files directly.

3 tips to get the most out of projects

I create AI projects for everything that I work on. Here’s exactly how I set them up:

1. Attach Google Workspace files. This ensures that my project always has the latest updates from my Google Docs and other files. I also like to add plain text files and Deep Research outputs as context.

2. Include your output style in the prompt. For example, my preferred style is: “Use short bold stems followed by 2-3 short sentences so it’s easy to skim.” This way, AI always writes how I want.

3. Get AI to iterate on your prompt. After a long chat where AI finally nails the output, I ask: “Can you update the prompt to one shot this?” This way, AI is always helping me improve my project prompt.

Now let’s cover 9 projects that I rely on every day for product, creator, and personal tasks.

My top 3 projects for product work

1. Edit product review or PRD docs. I create a project for every product that I work on and attach my best PRD/strategy doc examples, reference material, and voice dictated notes. Let’s be honest, PMs spend a lot of time editing docs 🥲. My projects give me both a thought partner and an editor for every product.

2. Draft performance reviews. I create separate projects for myself and my team. Each project has past performance reviews, leveling expectations, and notes from 1:1s. I use these to iterate on performance reviews, check in on progress, and identify growth areas.

3. Write interview summaries. This project has my PM interview guidelines and expectations. After each interview, I use it to convert my rough notes into a structured summary (of course, I still review and edit the notes manually).

My top 3 projects for creator work

1. Prep podcast interview guide. This project has my podcast interview template and any reference material on the guest (e.g., transcripts from past interviews). I use it to draft questions and notes that I share with guests ahead of time.

2. Draft podcast post-production. This project uses my past examples to convert an interview transcript into a list of top quotes, moments to cut, YouTube titles and thumbnails, and even social posts. I’ve spent a lot of time refining the prompt and it alone saves me 3-5 hours a week.

3. Edit newsletter posts. This project has my best newsletter posts to give it a deep understanding of my writing style. I use it to iterate on my post after I create the first draft.

My top 3 projects for personal work

1. Get personal life advice. This project has a Google Doc with my current goals, challenges, and what gives me and drains my energy. It gives me incredible personal advice whenever I feel overwhelmed by life.

2. Plan weekends and family trips. This project has my family’s interests and travel preferences. I use it to plan weekend trips and longer vacations. It can search online and create personal itineraries that fit my style.

3. Get home improvement tips. I’m the least handy person out there so I made a project to keep track of what’s broken around the house. It gives me honest advice about what I can DIY vs. need to hire a professional.

I’ve updated my AI Prompt Library with my latest Project prompts

My AI prompt library now has detailed prompts for the projects above. I’ve added dates so that you can easily find my recently updated prompts.

Upgrade to paid now to get all 24+ prompts and access to my AI community with Colin Matthews.

Upgrade now to get instant access

Deep research: The real “extended thinking” mode

Ok now let’s talk about Deep Research.

I think Deep Research is the real extended “thinking mode” for AI. It’s my go-to tool for thinking through a gnarly problem or a difficult decision.

5 steps to get the most out of Deep Research

Most people just type a single question into Deep Research and wonder why the output sucks. Let me show you how to get a much more personalized report in 5 steps:

Read more

Today, I want to share some real talk about the AI coding market.

There are A LOT of AI coding tools so I want to share what I’m hearing from founders and builders behind the shiny ARR numbers.

Let’s cover what’s happening behind the scenes:

1. Five hot takes on where this market is headed

2. A breakdown of all 20 major AI coding tools

3. My take on who the winners will be

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5 hot takes on where this market is headed

1. Enterprise adoption is where the money is

As I wrote in my 15 hot takes about AI post, the real money for AI coding is at enterprises where you can deliver clear ROI by helping engineering teams ship faster.

The data backs this up. The two leading AI coding tools both target enterprises — GitHub Copilot has 1M paid subscribers across 90% of the Fortune 100 while Cursor has $500M+ ARR with half the Fortune 500 using it.

Here’s why the other segments might struggle with retention:

1. Early adopters chase the next shiny thing. The startups and people posting about “multi agent workflows” on Twitter will always switch to the latest tool to gain an edge. That’s not great if you’re looking for long-term retention and revenue.

2. Small businesses have smaller budgets. I can see SMBs using AI coding tools instead of website builders like Squarespace to create sites with backends and databases. But these incumbents aren’t sitting still (e.g., Wix acquired Base44) and SMB budgets can’t match enterprise deals.

3. Consumers don’t think vibe coding is a painkiller. I don’t believe normal people wake up thinking “What app should I build today?” They’d much rather play with AI video feeds like Sora, which recently hit #1 in the App Store.

The most valuable customers are engineers, PMs, and designers at enterprises. These people want AI coding tools that work reliably, integrate with existing workflows, and come with enterprise-grade security and support.

2. Enterprises only care about two problems

I think enterprises are only willing to pay for two AI coding use cases:

1. Help engineers ship production code. This means using AI to refactor code, handle migrations, add features, and fix bugs in existing code bases. Most AI coding tools compete here because it’s the bigger market.

2. Help non-engineers prototype 0-1. This means helping designers, PMs, marketers, and founders build apps, websites, and internal tools from scratch. Lovable, Bolt, Figma Make, and v0 play here.

Replit is unique in that they target both use cases, though I think their marketing leans heavily toward building 0-1.

3. Helping engineers has clearer ROI than prototyping

With AI coding, the most value comes from solving the boring, high-friction workflows that engineers don’t want to deal with manually.

AI coding is great for migrations, refactors, code reviews, and documentation.

This makes sense when you think about ROI. For example, Factory (a popular AI coding agent) points to 96.1% shorter migration times and 95.8% reduction in on-call resolution times for their customers.

Compare this to prototyping.

Yes, it’s useful for PMs and designers to prototype ideas quickly with AI. But how do you measure ROI? How much faster can you validate an idea with AI versus Figma? And when every prototyping tool generates similar-looking components, where’s the differentiation?

Prototyping is still valuable, but production code has clearer ROI.

4. Cost is often the make or break factor

The reality that I’m hearing from founders and enterprises is that:

Companies are very cost-conscious about AI right now. Claiming that your AI agent can work autonomously for 30 hours will just scare the Finance team.

It’s all too easy for a few power users to burn through thousands of dollars in tokens in a single session. Enterprises want predictable costs and care about compliance and security. Many have implemented hard caps on monthly AI spending per employee.

The tools that figure out transparent, value-based pricing with clear cost controls and compliance will thrive.

5. Distribution often beats a better product

Everyone’s always talking about the latest agentic coding tool or SWE benchmark on Twitter, but enterprise distribution is what matters.

For example, GitHub Copilot is still incredibly popular with 20M users and $2B ARR despite everyone on Twitter obsessing about Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex. When I asked why in my tweet above, the answers were clear:

1. Copilot is the default for GitHub and VSCode which almost all enterprises use.

2. Copilot is cheaper than alternatives with predictable caps built in.

A similar dynamic might play out in prototyping. Getting through enterprise procurement is much easier when you’re already an established vendor like Figma.

But there’s a twist I’m seeing play out:

Some tools are getting into enterprises through the back door — individual employees start using a tool without formal approval.

That organic adoption eventually forces IT and security teams to either block it or officially adopt it. This bottom-up adoption can be just as powerful as top-down sales.

A breakdown of all 20 major AI coding tools (October 2025)

I admire every founder building in this space given how brutal the competition is.

So I created a detailed comparison table with valuation, ARR, pricing, users, and key strengths and weaknesses for all 20 top AI coding tools, including:

Cursor, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Replit, Windsurf / Devin, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Gemini Jules, Figma Make, Cline, Factory, Amp, Warp, Roo Code, Tabnine, Base 44, Augment Code, and Amazon Kiro

This table answers questions like:

• Which tools raised the most money and at what valuation?

• Who has real traction versus just hype?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

Below’s the link to this detailed table and I’ve also included my thoughts on who I think the winners will be:

Read more

Today, I want to show you how to build an app that turns your photos into professional headshots using Google’s nano banana image model.

This is a great app to build if you’re new to AI coding because it’s just really fun to create professional headshots for your family and friends.

I’ve made this tutorial 100% free and included all my AI prompts below to make this as simple for you as possible. Watch now:

Timestamps:

• (00:00) An overview of our AI headshot app

• (00:46) Step 1: Work with AI to draft the spec

• (04:00) Step 2: Building the UI and scaffolding

• (05:55) Step 3: Creating 3 prompts for headshot styles

• (09:10) Step 4: Hooking up Google’s Nano Banana API

• (11:49) Step 5: Fixing bugs and issues

• (12:35) Testing the complete app end to end

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below. P.S. I wake up at 6 am to make these tutorials so subscribe to my YouTube if you enjoy them. 🙏

Thanks to Linear for sponsoring this newsletter!

Teams at the fastest growing companies in the world (including OpenAI, Ramp, Cursor, and more) are using Linear to collaborate with AI agents that can:

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What we’ll build: A professional headshot app

Let’s build an app using Google’s nano banana API where you can:

1. Upload a selfie

2. Select from 3 professional headshot styles (corporate, creative, executive)

3. Get a polished headshot to download

1. Work with AI to draft the spec

Start by pasting this prompt into your AI coding tool (I use Cursor with Claude Code):

Create a spec.md for a professional headshot AI app where I can upload a photo, select from one of three styles (corporate classic, creative professional, executive portrait), and then get a professional headshot that I can directly compare to my original photo.

Include the requirements, tech stack, and 2 milestones. First milestone is to set up the UI and 2nd is to add Google’s nano banana image to image API: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/image-generation. 

Use React for frontend and Express for backend.

When getting AI to write the spec, I like to ask it to include:

1. Requirements, tech stack, and milestones.

2. Instructions to build the UI in the first milestone so I can see the app update live.

3. Links to relevant documentation (e.g., Google’s nano banana API docs).

Once AI drafts the spec, make sure to review and simplify it. AI often wants to build more than you ask for which can lead to problems down the line.

2. Build the UI first

Now let’s ask AI to “Build milestone 1 and run localhost. Use TailwindCSS 3.”

Tip: I asked AI to use “Tailwind 3” (an older frontend react framework) because it’s bad at understanding new frameworks (Tailwind 4 just shipped this year).

If you’re run into Tailwind issues, don’t give up. Paste the error messages that you see in the browser for AI to fix and eventually, you should get a UI where you can upload a photo and select a style:

The actual image generation won’t work because we haven’t integrated the API yet.

3. Create 3 prompts for headshot styles

Now that we have the UI set up, let’s ask AI to create a prompt.md file with 3 styles:

Create a prompt.md file with prompts for 3 styles:

1. Corporate: Standard LinkedIn-style headshot with neutral background.
2. Creative: Close-up with soft bokeh background and natural lighting.
3. Editorial: Dramatic black and white portrait with artistic lighting.

For your convenience, I’ve included prompts for all three styles below for you to easily copy and paste into your prompt.md file:

Corporate classic

Transform this photo into a polished profile shot maintaining the exact facial features and identity. Subject framed chest-up with headroom, eyes looking directly at camera while body angles slightly away. White t-shirt with black leather jacket, open smile. Neutral studio background. High-angle perspective with soft, diffused lighting creating gentle catchlights. 85mm lens aesthetic with shallow depth of field - sharp focus on eyes, soft bokeh background. Natural skin texture with visible hair detail. Bright, airy feel. Make subject look great and accurate to their original appearance.

Creative professional

Transform this photo into a close-up portrait with shallow depth of field creating soft bokeh background. Warm, natural lighting highlighting subject’s features. Casual attire and genuine, engaging smile. Subject fills more of the frame. Background hints at creative workspace or outdoor setting with beautiful blur. Preserve natural skin texture and authentic features. Modern, approachable creative professional aesthetic. Make subject look great and accurate to their original appearance.

Editorial portrait

Transform this photo into a dramatic black and white portrait in editorial style. Preserve subject’s authentic features and character. Apply these specifications: monochromatic treatment with rich grayscale tones, deep charcoal or black background with subtle gradation, dramatic side lighting creating strong shadows and highlights on face (Rembrandt or split lighting), preserve all natural skin texture and detail - no smoothing, sharp focus capturing fine details in eyes and facial features, relaxed and contemplative expression - not smiling, casual professional attire (dark textured jacket, no tie), hand gesture near chest or face for dynamic composition, high contrast with deep blacks and bright highlights, cinematic film grain for texture. Maintain editorial photography aesthetic - artistic but professional. Make subject look great and accurate to their original appearance.

Tip: To try another style, just paste a headshot that you like into AI and ask it to “Create an AI prompt to recreate this style.”

4. Connect Google’s nano banana API

Let’s build milestone 2 next. First, let’s get a Gemini API key by going to Google AI Studio → Get API key → Create API key:

Next, ask AI to build milestone 2 and paste the API key into the prompt:

Build milestone 2. Use this API key: [YOUR_KEY]

Remember to follow the instructions in the docs to build image-to-image: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/image-generation

If you want to give more context to AI, you can also just paste in this entire section of the Google’s docs as part of your prompt:

5. Fix any bugs or issues

Here are some errors that you might run into while building this app:

1. Image generation is random. AI might be using the wrong Gemini model. Ask it to use “gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview.” If it says that Gemini can’t do image-to-image generation, tell it that it’s wrong and refer it to the docs again.

2. The UI looks bad. Try pasting a screenshot of my UI in the “What we’ll build” section up top and then ask AI to make the app look closer to the screenshot.

Congrats on building your first photo app!

You can watch me test the complete app here with some photos of myself and my friends. If you followed this tutorial closely, you now know how to get AI to:

1. Write a spec

2. Build a full stack app

3. Hook up a real API

Now go generate some headshots of your friends and tag me on social 📸

If you want to keep building, check out the “AI tutorial” section of my YouTube channel for more easy to follow tutorials.

Today, I want to share 20 tips to master Claude Code while building a real app.

In this tutorial, we’ll build a family activity finder for busy parents to find local events personalized to their location, kids’ age, schedule, and interests.

While building this app, we'll cover every essential Claude Code tip from planning to coding to debugging. I guarantee that you’ll learn a lot from this video!

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Start in plan mode and explore solutions with Claude

• (03:57) Follow the spec → to do → code process

• (09:58) Use the explanatory output style to learn while building

• (11:41) Use Claude.md to add your personal preferences

• (15:41) Debugging with "think ultra hard" and browser console logs

• (18:26) Add version control with GitHub integration

• (23:42) Hook up Claude API with web search for real-time events

• (33:00) Recap: All 20 Claude Code tips from beginner to advanced

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

Thanks to Bland for sponsoring today’s newsletter!

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1. Custom prompts and guardrails to keep conversations on-brand and accurate.

2. Seamless integrations with your CRM, scheduler, and existing systems.

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Planning and project setup

1. Use plan mode before coding. If you just remember one tip, make it this one. The more time you spend planning, the more likely Claude will succeed. I always press shift-tab to cycle to plan mode to start. If Claude asks to start coding, just hit escape to cancel. Think of Claude as an overeager engineer that you have to train.

2. Ask Claude to explore solutions first. The first thing I like to do in plan mode is to ask Claude to “explain the code base.” Then I tell it: “I want to build X, can you explore solutions starting with the simplest one first?” Collaborate with Claude to come up with the plan first before coding.
   
   Let’s use this prompt to explore solutions for our activity finder:

I want to build a family activity finder. Parents enter:
1. Their city
2. Kids ages
3. When they're free (like "Saturday afternoon")
4. How far they'll drive (miles)
5. Any other preferences

The app searches for weekend activities nearby and returns 5 recommendations with bold titles, an emoji, and 2-4 sentences each. What are 3 solutions starting with the simplest first? Include a solution that uses the Claude Messages API.

3. Follow the spec → to do → code process. After exploring and selecting a solution with Claude, I like to ask it to create a spec with the requirements, tech stack, design guidelines, and up to 3 milestones. I’ll then ask it to “Create a detailed to do list for milestone 1.” This way, I’m always auditing Claude’s plans in each step.
   
   Let’s ask Claude to create the spec and the prompt for our family activity finder. Make sure you review the spec before asking it to draft a to do list for milestone 1:

Create a spec.md with requirements, tech stack (React + Express + Claude API), design guidelines, and up to 3 milestones. Keep it as simple as possible. 

For milestone 1, let's get the UI set up with dummy data. For milestone 2, let's connect to Claude API with the web search tool: https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/agents-and-tools/tool-use/web-search-tool.

//

Also create a prompt.md file with the prompt that we're going to use for milestone 2 where we call the Claude API to get the 5 recommendations. Have input fields in place for city, kids ages, availability, miles range, and other preferences.

//

Create a todo.md with a list of tasks for milestone 1.

4. Use output styles to learn while building. Type “/output-style explanatory” to get Claude to add Insights boxes that explain why it made each choice so that you can learn to read code and understand Claude’s decisions while it’s building. If you want to get your hands dirty, you can also type “/output-style learning” to get Claude to mark to do items for you to implement yourself.

5. Use Claude.md to bootstrap project understanding. You can type “/init” to have Claude scan the code base and create a detailed Claude.md file with project context. This becomes Claude's memory for every future conversation. Since we’re starting from an empty project we’ll skip this step.

6. Use Claude.md to add your personal preferences. You can also add your personal preferences to Claude.md. For example, I want Claude.md to know that I’m a PM with limited coding experience and that it should always explain changes and new technology to me when it’s coding.
   
   Let’s ask Claude to create the Claude.md file now:

Create a Claude.md file with the text below:

I'm a product manager with limited coding experience who's looking to learn to become more technical. When you're coding and doing your work, please share tips that explain the tech architecture and any changes that you're making and why.

Core coding workflows

Read more

Today, I want to show you how to build an AI research agent with Claude Code.

Most people use Claude Code for coding, but it's really an everything agent that can automate any task for you.

In the tutorial below, I walk through how to build a YouTube research agent that finds the best videos from your favorite channels and highlights each creator’s winning formula. You’ll learn about slash commands, permissions, and more.

This agent has already changed the YouTube strategy for me and many of my creator friends. Some quotes from them:

• "Damn it's true what it says."

• "Call this the harsh truth agent."

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Why Claude Code is an everything agent

• (01:10) Step 1: Explore solutions with Claude in plan mode

• (03:08) Step 2: Set permissions to auto-approve changes

• (04:49) Step 3: Write a spec for the slash command

• (07:56) Step 4: Convert the spec into a detailed to-do list

• (08:42) Step 5: Create the slash command and test with real channel

• (11:01) Step 6: Add batch processing to analyze 5 channels at once

Watch now on YouTube or read the written guide below.

Thanks to Linear for sponsoring this newsletter

I love working with Linear because they share my obsession for product craft and quality. Now they’re bringing the same attention to detail to build an operating system for teams to collaborate with AI agents that can:

• Analyze customer feedback from multiple sources

• Auto-triage tickets and assign owners

• Build complete features from scratch

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What we'll build: A YouTube research agent

Let’s create a /youtube slash command that analyzes any channel to get the 10 best recent videos and insights on what’s working. Here's the analysis for my channel:

Here’s the same analysis for Lenny’s channel:

I’ll assume that you already have Claude Code installed. If you don’t, follow the instructions from last week’s beginner’s tutorial.

1. Explore solutions with Claude

Tip: Always start by exploring solutions with Claude in plan mode (shift-tab). It can save you hours of going down the wrong path.

It's funny that Claude Code and other CLI tools all have a "plan mode" because the models are just way too eager to start coding. Type this prompt into Claude:

"I want to build a tool where if I type '/youtube @channelname', it outputs a youtube-research.md file with that channel's top recent videos (title, views, YouTube link) plus a key insight about what content works. Can you suggest 3 ways to get YouTube data with pros/cons?

Claude will suggest several approaches including a free tool called yt-dlp that can fetch YouTube data without any API keys. I would’ve never found this tool if I didn’t ask Claude to explore solutions first.

2. Set permissions to auto-approve changes

Before we go further, let's configure permissions so Claude can work without interrupting us every 30 seconds. Type:

/permissions

Claude will create a .claude/settings.local.json file. Add these specific permissions:

{
  "allowedTools": [
    "Read",
    "Write",
    "Bash(npm:*)",
    "Bash(yt-dlp:*)"
  ]
}

This lets Claude read, write, and run specific commands (e.g., npm and yt-dlp) without asking you for permission all the time. This way, we can actually get coffee and browse YouTube while Claude works. ☺️

3. Write a spec for the slash command

Tip: Use slash commands to re-use your favorite AI prompts and workflows.

Now let’s ask Claude to write a spec for our /youtube slash command:

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