You know the spreadsheet I mean. It’s the volunteer schedule with tab after tab. One person on staff understands it, and that person is on vacation.

Or it’s the budget request form your ministry leads fill out each spring. A few of them email you a Word doc.

You’ve wanted a better tool for years. You never had a developer, or the money to hire one.

You can build it yourself now. You describe it to Claude, and Claude builds it.

WHAT AN ARTIFACT IS

An artifact is a piece of work Claude makes that stands on its own. It can be a document, a single-page website, a diagram, or a working tool you can click and type into.

Artifacts open in a window right next to your chat. You can use the tool right away. To change something, just ask, and Claude updates it.

Claude keeps each version. You can flip back to an older version with the version selector if you liked it better.

Some artifacts can also save data. A tool can keep data for each person, or keep shared data that everyone who opens it can see. That’s how a tracker can save what your team enters.

HOW TO TURN IT ON AND USE IT

These steps come from Claude’s help center.

1. Click your initials or name in the lower left corner.
2. Find Artifacts and make sure it’s turned on.
3. Find your artifacts later in the artifacts space in the Claude sidebar.

To make one, start a chat and ask for the tool you want. Tell Claude what it should do and who will use it.

To share an artifact:

1. Open the artifact and click “Share.”
2. Under “Who has access,” pick who can open it.
3. Copy the link and send it to your team.

You can give people one of 3 access levels. “Can view” lets them open it.

“Commenter” also lets them leave comments. “Can edit” lets them make changes.

You’ll need the web or the desktop app to change sharing settings. The mobile apps can’t do it.

3 TOOLS A CHURCH COULD BUILD THIS WEEK

Start with a budget calculator for ministry leads. Ask Claude for a tool where a leader enters their ministry name, their line items, and their amounts. It totals everything and shows the change from last year’s number.

A volunteer schedule tracker is another good one. Ask for a simple grid of Sunday shifts where team leads can add names. With shared data turned on, every leader who opens it sees the same schedule.

You could also build an event checklist for your fall festival. List every task, the owner, and the due date. Your events team can check items off as they go.

When something isn’t right, say so in plain words, like “Make the totals bigger” or “Add a column for the campus.” Claude updates the tool.

If you see an error, click “Try fixing with Claude.”

GUARDRAILS FOR CHURCHES

Artifacts start private. Nothing is shared until you share it.

Be careful with shared data. Anyone who opens the artifact can see it.

First names and shift times in a volunteer tracker are fine. Leave out phone numbers, home addresses, and anything about a person’s health or giving.

Keep pastoral care notes and donor details out of artifacts completely. A tool that stores those needs much tighter controls than a shared link.

On a Team plan, your artifacts stay inside your organization by default. An owner decides if anyone can share outside the organization. I’d keep that turned off until your staff agrees on when outside sharing makes sense.

Some artifacts use Claude inside the tool. When someone else uses one of those, it runs on their own Claude account and their own usage limits. On Team and Enterprise plans, your team can use these shared tools at no extra cost to the person who built them.

WHO CAN USE IT

Artifacts work on every Claude plan, including the free plan. Sharing with everyone in your organization, or with specific people in it, is on Team and Enterprise plans. Sharing by link with anyone is on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise.

Think of the tool you wish you had, and ask Claude to build it.

If you want to see what other leaders are building, come join us in The Builder Collective. It’s a community of executive leaders learning how to put AI to work. You can find us at thebuildercollective.ai.