Your Automation Toolkit

What you've covered

This module took you from spotting tasks worth automating to building reusable workflows you can run with a single command. The core pattern: do a task once, notice you'll do it again, ask Claude Code to save it. Along the way you renamed files in bulk, processed text across dozens of documents, generated personalized output from templates, and turned all of it into slash commands. You also learned what goes wrong — silent overwrites, permission fatigue, scope creep, the automation trap — and how to protect yourself.

Now let's organize all of that into something you can reach for when you're staring at a repetitive task and wondering whether Claude Code can handle it.

The automation workflow

Earlier in this module, you learned a three-step pattern: do it once, notice the repetition, save it. Here's the expanded version for when you're working through a new automation from scratch:

1. Identify the pattern. Notice a task you do repeatedly with clear inputs and outputs.
2. Do it once interactively. Walk Claude Code through the task, checking results as you go.
3. Refine the approach. Adjust the instructions until the output is what you want.
4. Save it as a slash command. Put the instructions in a file so you don't have to re-explain next time.
5. Test the command. Run it on a small sample and verify the results.
6. Use it for real. Run the command on your actual files, with a backup in place.

Not every task needs every step. A one-time bulk rename doesn't need a slash command. A weekly report doesn't need much refinement if the format is always the same. Think of this as a mental framework, not a rigid checklist.

Prompt quick reference

Here are starter prompts for the most common automation tasks. Adapt them to your own files and folders — the exact wording matters less than being specific about what you want.

You'll develop your own phrasing after a few sessions. The pattern stays the same: describe the input, describe the output, ask to see the plan first.

The safe batch operations checklist

Before any bulk operation — renaming, moving, converting, replacing — run through this list:

1. Back up first. Copy the folder to a safe location. If you're working with originals you can't re-download, this is non-negotiable.
2. Test on a few. Ask Claude Code to process five files first. Check the results by hand.
3. Ask for the plan. Say "show me what you're going to do before doing it." Review the list of files and actions.
4. Set boundaries. Tell Claude Code exactly which folder, which file types, and whether to include subfolders. Don't leave scope to interpretation.
5. Review the results. After the full run, spot-check several files at random. Open them, verify the content or naming is correct.
6. Keep the backup until you're sure. Don't delete your backup copy until you've confirmed everything worked.

Two extra minutes up front. Saves you the hour of cleanup when something goes wrong with 200 files.

Setting up an automation project folder

If you're automating regularly — weekly reports, monthly data processing, recurring file cleanup — a dedicated project folder keeps everything in one place:

my-automation-project/
├── CLAUDE.md              # Project instructions Claude Code reads every session
├── .claude/
│   └── commands/          # Your saved slash commands
│       ├── weekly-report.md
│       ├── organize-files.md
│       └── feedback-summary.md
├── inputs/                # Raw files go here (originals stay untouched)
├── outputs/               # Claude Code saves results here
└── backups/               # Copies before bulk operations

The CLAUDE.md file (which you first saw in Module 2) tells Claude Code what it needs to know about this project so you don't have to re-explain every session:

# Weekly reporting project

## What this project does
Processes customer feedback files and generates weekly summary reports.

## Folder structure
- inputs/ — New feedback files go here each week
- outputs/ — Reports and summaries are saved here
- backups/ — Copies of input files before processing

## Rules
- Never modify files in inputs/ — always read from there, write to outputs/
- Categorize feedback as: bug report, feature request, praise, complaint
- Include exact quote counts in all summaries
- Save reports as HTML files with today's date in the filename

Write it once. Every session after that starts with Claude Code already knowing your categories, your folder layout, and where to put the results.

The automation decision guide

Not every task should be automated. Here's how to decide:

Automate with Claude Code when:

• You do the task at least twice a month with the same general steps
• The inputs and outputs are files you can point to
• The task takes more than five minutes to do by hand
• You don't need your own judgment for every decision in the process

Do it manually when:

• It's a one-time task that won't repeat
• The task requires nuanced judgment on every item (performance reviews, sensitive communications)
• Setup would take longer than just doing it by hand
• You can't verify the results easily

Ask a developer when:

• The automation needs to run on a schedule without you being present
• It involves connecting to outside services or databases
• Multiple people need to use it and it needs to be reliable for all of them
• The scope has grown beyond a single slash command into something with many moving parts

Here's the honest version: if you've spent more than 15-20 minutes perfecting an automation and it still isn't working, step back. Either simplify what you're asking for, or hand it to someone who builds tools for a living. Knowing when to hand off is a skill, not a failure.

Your slash command starter kit

If you only create three slash commands, make them these:

A weekly report command. Whatever report you generate most often — feedback summaries, ticket counts, pipeline updates. Save the instructions in .claude/commands/weekly-report.md and run it with /weekly-report new-data.csv.

A file organization command. The way you sort incoming files — by project, by client, by date. Save it once, and every time a new batch arrives, type /organize-files instead of spending 20 minutes dragging and dropping.

A text processing command. The format conversion or extraction you do repeatedly — pulling key fields from invoices, standardizing names in a contact list, converting between file types. Save it in .claude/commands/process-text.md and run it with /process-text invoices-folder.

Start with one. Get it working the way you like. Then build the next. Before long, your Monday morning goes from an hour of repetitive work to three commands and a cup of coffee.

What's ahead

Before you move on, there's one more page in this module: the exercise. You'll build a real automation from scratch — categorizing feedback files, generating a summary report, and saving it all as a slash command you can reuse.

After that, Module 5 is about building small tools — going from automation workflows to things you can open in a browser. Dashboards that display your data, calculators your team can use, prototypes you can show in a meeting.

Everything from this module carries into that work. Slash commands, project folder structure, CLAUDE.md — all of it still applies. You're just adding a visual layer on top of what you already know.