Two upgrades. First you plug Claude into your own tools. Then you let it work on its own — on your command, or automatically.
Your kitchen can cook. But two things are still missing.
Let Claude reach your calendar, your mail, your files.
On your command, or automatically — without you sitting there.
From a kitchen that waits for you → to one that shops and runs itself.
Connect it to your world.
So far the kitchen only cooks with what's already inside. Let's give it a supplier.
The lead agent — holds the vision and splits the work.
Subagents — each cooks one dish, in parallel.
A skill — how to make it, the same way each time.
But a kitchen also needs ingredients — and those come from outside.
A recipe tells the cook how. It doesn't stock the fridge. On its own, Claude can only use what's already in the kitchen — the files you opened. It can't see your calendar, your inbox, your customer list.
That supplier line has a name: a connector — or MCP.
Switch a connector on and Claude can reach an outside service — and fetch what it needs, mid-task.
MCP is just the technical name for that plug.
The AI itself — that's Claude.
What it can see and use — your information.
A shared standard — one plug that fits every tool.
A standard way to give the model the context it needs.
The recipe was yours; the ingredients came from your own tools.
Give access like you'd give a key — only to what it really needs.
Want to try it yourself? Open the Connectors module — it walks you through it, step by step.
Now let it run on its own.
A connected kitchen still waits for you to say go. Time to change that — on your command, or automatically.
We'll walk through each — then pin down the difference.
Like a kitchen timer you keep resetting.
One task, repeated on an interval — every 10 minutes, every hour — for as long as you let it run. You start it; it keeps going until you stop.
Like the paper delivered every morning.
Runs on a fixed clock — every morning at 8:00, every Monday — even when your laptop is closed. It works up in the cloud, not in your session.
Like a motion-sensor light.
Not the clock — an event sets it off: a file changes, a task finishes, Claude needs you. You set the rule once (a hook); it fires every time.
The more you want it to run on its own, the less your own laptop needs to be on.
A loop, or a big local job. It works on your computer — so your Mac has to stay on, and awake.
A routine runs on their servers. Your laptop can be shut. You can be on holiday.
Cloud = remote control: you set it up once, they keep it running.
If a long job runs on your own Mac, don't let the screen doze off — it stops halfway. Give your Mac a coffee.
A free app in your menu bar — a little pill. One click and your Mac stays awake.
Already built into every Mac.
Only for jobs on your own computer — a cloud routine never needs this.
You set it up once. After that, it just happens.
Automatic saves you time. It doesn't remove your judgment.
Name it — then we pick a connector, and loop, routine or trigger.
See you next week