Build the starship, one system at a time.
You don't slay the dragon on Day 1. Building a real AI system means breaking a huge goal into systems and building one at a time: skills, agents, connections, architecture. Seven systems. Build each, then launch the whole.
Every part follows the same short rhythm. No setup, no blank box, nothing to break.
- Hook
- The idea, and why it matters.
- Explore
- Watch it work in a hands-on interactive.
- Try
- Make the call yourself. Guided, and you can't fail.
- Takeaway
- Keep a reusable cheat-sheet in your kit.
Work at your own pace. Everything you keep lands in your kit to use later.
Seven systems. Build each one in your head here, then assemble the real thing in the Lab.
- 1→
Pick the right surface
When I'm not sure where to actually do the work, I want to match the job to the right Claude surface.
- 2→
You don't slay the dragon on Day 1
When the thing I want to build feels impossibly big, I want to break it into systems and pick the first one.
- 3→
Turn expertise into a Skill
When I keep re-explaining the same know-how every session, I want to package it once as a Skill Claude can load.
- 4→
Direct a team, don't do it all
When one mega-prompt tries to do everything and drifts, I want to split the work across specialist agents.
- 5→
Connect it to the real world
When the agent gives generic answers because it can't see my stuff, I want to connect it to my real data and tools via MCP.
- 6→
Build it to grow
When my AI project is becoming a mess of files, I want to lay it out so it can scale.
- 7→
Ship v1, then evolve it
When I expect to build the whole system perfectly up front, I want to ship a rough v1 and improve it in passes.