All Things Claude — do-it-yourself demos

Companion repo for "All Things Claude AI: From Coding to Cowork to Security and Integrations" (All Things Open 2026, Brent Laster, Tech Skills Transformations).

In the talk you watched seven demos. This repo lets you run your own version of each one: the same ideas and the same steps, with different (made-up) projects and files so you can explore on your own. Each DIY takes about 8–12 minutes.

#	DIY demo	Where it runs	You'll need
1	Claude chat: five habits for better answers	claude.ai or the desktop app	Any plan (Free works)
2	Claude Code: one bug, start to finish	Terminal	Claude Code, Python 3.9+, git
3	Turn a routine into a skill	Terminal	Claude Code, Python 3.9+, git
4	Cowork: a project, a folder, and real work	Claude desktop app	Paid plan
5	Claude Design: a flyer you can edit	claude.ai or the desktop app	Paid plan
6	Security: a locked secret, a review, and a deep scan	Terminal	Claude Code, Python 3.9+, git, paid plan
7	Claude in Excel and PowerPoint	Excel + PowerPoint	Microsoft 365 desktop apps, Claude add-in, paid plan

Do them in any order. DIY 3 picks up the story of DIY 2, and DIY 5 the story of DIY 4, but each one sets itself up and works on its own.

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Before you start

1. Claude Code installed and logged in (for DIY 2, 3 and 6). Check with claude --version. Install instructions: https://code.claude.com/docs.
2. git and Python 3.9 or later. No Python packages to install.
3. Clone this repo and check everything in one go:

git clone https://github.com/skillrepos/claude-diy.git
cd claude-diy
python3 setup_diy.py check

Windows: use python if python3 isn't found. The commands work in PowerShell, Git Bash and WSL. Where a README says ~/atc-diy, that's the atc-diy folder in your user folder.

New to Claude Code? Five things that trip people up

These apply to DIY 2, 3 and 6 (checked with Claude Code 2.1.302).

1. The trust question starts on "No, exit". The first time you run claude in a folder, it asks whether you trust it. Press ↓ to highlight Yes, I trust this folder, then Enter. Pressing Enter straight away quits.
2. The line under the message box shows the mode (auto mode on, plan mode on…). Shift+Tab steps through them: auto → manual → accept edits → plan → auto.
3. Grey text in the message box is a suggestion, not something you typed. Just type your own message over it.
4. Steps fold into grey one-liners like Ran 1 shell command. Press Ctrl+O to see everything in full, and Ctrl+O again to go back.
5. Long answers scroll off the top. Use Page Up (or your mouse wheel) to read back, and Ctrl+End to jump back down.

How the setup script works

Demos that change files (2, 3, 4, 6 and 7) run in a fresh working copy outside this repo, in a folder called atc-diy in your home folder:

python3 setup_diy.py 2      # build (or rebuild) the copy for DIY 2
python3 setup_diy.py all    # build every copy
python3 setup_diy.py clean  # delete all the copies

Run a demo, make a mess, then run the script again to get a clean start. It deletes and rebuilds that demo's folder, so cd back into it afterwards. The files in this repo never change. (Set ATC_DIY_HOME to put the copies somewhere else.)

DIY 1 and 5 run in your browser and use the sample files straight from this repo: diy-01-chat/files/ and diy-05-design/files/brand/. On a Mac, open diy-01-chat/files (run from the top of the repo) opens that folder in Finder so you can drag files into the chat.

Good to know

• Everything is made up. The companies, people, contracts, numbers, secrets and API keys are fictional sample data. The Team Notes app in DIY 6 is insecure on purpose; don't deploy it.
• Answers vary. Claude won't word things the same way twice, and menus in the apps change often. Each README tells you what kind of result to expect and what to do if you get something else. Go by what your screen shows.
• These use your plan's usage. The deep security scan in DIY 6 is the heaviest; it says so and asks before it starts.
• Where your files go. Chat, Design, Cowork and the Office add-ins send what you give them to Anthropic to process. Since October 6, 2026, Cowork tasks on Pro and Max plans run in Anthropic's cloud, getting a copy of each file a task opens. Stick to the sample files here when you practice.