A free place to start building with AI. No experience needed.
Most people use AI like a smarter Google. It can also build you websites, apps, sales automations and much more.
Type what you’d like and watch it build it, right here. No sign-up.
“Can you explain how to make a budget?”
→ three paragraphs to read“Build me a budget for my month.”
→ a working tool, made for you- An idea, and no developer. Request: "Make a landing page for my dog-walking service, with a waitlist." Shows: The page; a waitlist sign-up filled in
- My cakes could pay the rent. Request: "Build an order page for my home cake business, with prices and pickup days." Follow-up sent: "Put it all on one web page that works on its own." Shows: Picking cakes; the total updates
- Our street needs a tool library. Request: "A board where neighbours list tools and borrow them." Follow-up sent: "Put it all on one web page that works on its own." Follow-up sent: "Make sure it also works well on a phone screen." Shows: A drill listed; someone borrows it
- I count birds every weekend. Request: "Turn my sightings sheet into a dashboard." Follow-up sent: "Make sure it also works well on a phone screen." Shows: Charts draw in Sample data, made up for this video
- The landlord sent 40 pages. Request: "What are my rights? Draft a reply." Follow-up sent: "Put it all on one web page that works on its own." Shows: Plain-words summary, then the letter, incl. its advice to check with a tenants' advice service Sample data, made up for this video
- Mum's meds. Three siblings. One fridge calendar. Request: "A shared care plan: meds, appointments, who's on when." Follow-up sent: "Put it all on one web page that works on its own." Shows: The rota; a shift claimed
- Mortgages. By Friday. Request: "Teach me how mortgages work in five short lessons, with quizzes." Follow-up sent: "Put it all on one web page that works on its own." Shows: A lesson; a quiz answer turns green
You don't need to code. You need to ask. Try it above ↑
Now let’s get you set up to do this yourself.
The thing you just tried up top? You’re about to do that on your own machine, where what you build is really yours.
On your phone? The building part happens on a computer (Mac or Windows).
The whole setup, start to finish, in under two minutes. Sound on, captions included.
This guide uses Claude because it’s what we build with. The same process works in ChatGPT, Gemini and other tools. Compare them → · Go deeper on each →
The building part costs money: Claude Pro, about $20 a month. You will hit that as soon as you open the Code tab, so we would rather you heard it here than met it as a surprise halfway through.
The free plan can chat and make small things inside the chat, but it can’t build on your computer. That is exactly why the demo at the top of this page is free: so you could see what this is worth before spending anything. If you are not ready to pay, stop after step 1 and read on. There are free routes further down the page and nothing below this point breaks without a subscription.
What you type, and the files in your project folder, go to Anthropic to be processed. Keep passwords and other people’s private details out, and check your employer’s rules before using work files.
Download the Claude desktop app
Clicking below opens Anthropic’s download page in a new tab. Pick Mac or Windows, and it installs like any normal app. No terminal, no setup wizard from hell.
Open the download page ↗Sign in, and open the Code tab
This is where the building happens. (The cost note above applies from here.)
One setting before you start: under the message box, bottom left, there’s a mode picker. Set it to Manual. That way Claude shows you each change and waits for your yes. (It may start on Auto, where a safety checker approves changes for you. That’s fine later. For your first build, you want to see everything.)
Make an empty folder, call it my-first-project
Put it anywhere. Your Desktop is fine. When Claude asks which folder to work in, pick that one. (This trips everyone up: Claude just needs a place to put what it builds. An empty folder you made on purpose is nothing to worry about.)
Nothing here can break your computer. In the Code tab’s Manual mode (step 2), Claude asks before it changes anything. You read what it wants to do, then say yes or no. (Two exceptions, both optional and further down: the chat route asks once for its folder rather than before each change, and installing the terminal version runs like any app installer.)
If any of that felt confusing, that is on the instructions, not on you. This is the step people get stuck on most, every time. Read it again slowly, or skip ahead and come back to it. Nothing further down depends on you having finished this first.
Other ways to do the same thing (optional)
You can skip both. Everything above works on its own.
A normal Claude chat can do it too
Give an ordinary chat in the Claude app a folder, and it can make files in it. Anthropic calls this Cowork, though it no longer has its own tab. It needs a paid plan (Pro or above), and what it makes appears next to the chat.
The terminal
A terminal is a plain window where you type instructions instead of clicking. It looks technical, but opening one can’t harm your computer, and Claude still asks before it changes anything. Same Claude, same subscription. You never need it: every step in this guide works in the desktop app. People move here later, when they want more. What is a terminal? →
- ◆It remembers how you work
You write one plain-English file,
CLAUDE.md, saying how you like to be worked with. It applies to every project, every time. No re-explaining yourself. - ◆It works on your whole machine
Any folder or file you point it at.
- ◆Many things at once
Several sessions running side by side, each on its own piece of work.
- ◆Bigger projects
It keeps up as your projects get longer and more ambitious.
This time, you make the thing.
Four small moves. No guessing what to type: we hand you the exact words. Click through them here first, then do it for real in the app.
Point Claude at your folder
In the Claude app, open the Code tab. Above the message box, click No folder, then Open folder… and choose the empty my-first-project folder you just made. When it asks whether to trust it, say yes. That’s Claude’s workspace now. Everything it builds lands there. Then check again that the mode picker under the message box (bottom left) says Manual.
There’s really only one skill, and you just used it.
The cleverness is already in the machine. The only thing that decides whether you get magic or mush is how you talk to it, and that’s learnable. Everything else is just this loop, over and over:
…then around again. Two or three laps and the thing is exactly what you pictured.
Three moves that make the loop work better
Use plain, messy words
There’s no secret syntax and no “one perfect prompt.” Talk to it like a clever friend who can’t see your screen. “Make the text bigger and the blue softer” works perfectly.
When you’re stuck, ask it what to say
Blank on what to type next? Hand the problem back: “what else should I tell you to make this better?” It’ll ask you the right questions.
Ask it to critique its own work
Before you settle, try: “what could be better here?” It’ll spot things you wouldn’t and offer to fix them. The first answer is never the best one.
A tiny recipe for a prompt that lands
Most weak prompts are missing one of three things. Add all three and the answer gets useful fast.
Like this: “I run a tiny bakery [situation]. Make me a one-page menu I can print [goal]. Keep it to six items and warm colors [constraint].”
You can approach almost anything now.
The loop you just learned works on almost any small thing you’ve been meaning to make. Pick a corner of your life. Here are real first prompts to steal.
Build me a simple one-page website about what I do: a short intro, three things I offer, and a way to get in touch. Keep it clean and calm.Make me a checklist tool for [the task I repeat every week]. Let me tick things off, and start fresh each week.Here are my messy notes: [paste them]. Turn them into a short, clear summary I could send my team, with bullet points and no fluff.Copy one, open the Code tab, paste, and run the loop. Then write your own. You already know how: plain words, look, say what’s off, repeat.
It really is a magic power. You just had to learn to use it, and now you have.
Send this to someone who says “I’m not technical”