Set up Claude for building

Claude is the subject matter expert on your team. You use it to think before you build and to diagnose problems when you get stuck.

1. Create your account

Sign up at claude.ai. The free plan works for light use. Pro is worth it once you are building regularly; see What the tools cost.

2. Make a project for your app

Create a project in Claude for each app and add the background it needs: your one-sentence problem statement, your data map, and any recipe Markdown files you are working from. Every chat in that project starts with that context, so you stop repeating yourself.

3. What to ask Claude

• "Here is my idea. Ask me the questions you need, then propose the tables and screens for version one."
• "Turn this into a brief for Lovable with a Done when checklist."
• "Here is the error and what I expected. What is the most likely cause, and what prompt should I give Lovable to fix it?"
• "Review this table and its security rules. Can one user see another user's data?"

4. Keep secrets out

Never paste secret API keys, passwords or real customer data into any AI tool. Use placeholders like YOUR_KEY_HERE.