Lesson 151 · 2 min
A map of Claude's tools
Claude is one model with several doors: a chat app, workspaces, a browser helper, a coding tool and more, and picking the right door saves time.
Most people meet Claude as a chat box on the web or in a phone app. That is the front door. You type, it answers, and you can attach files or photos for it to read.
Around that chat sit extra rooms. Projects keep related chats and files together. Artifacts open a side panel where Claude builds a document, chart or small app you can use straight away. Connectors let it read from apps you already use, like your drive or calendar, once you allow it.
Further out are tools for doing things. A browser extension can help on the web page you have open. Claude Code works with the files in a folder on your computer and can make changes there. Developers can also reach the same model through an API to build it into their own apps.
You do not need all of them. Start with chat, add a project when you repeat the same kind of work, and try the others when a task asks for it. Features change often, so check the help pages of the app for what is available on your plan.
Do it now
Draw your own map
- 1. Open the AI assistant you use most and look through its menus and settings.
- 2. Write down every feature you find: chat, files, projects, connectors, extensions.
- 3. Mark one you have never tried and use it for a small task this week.
List the main features you offer in this app, in plain words, with one example task for each. Then tell me which one fits this job best: [DESCRIBE A TASK YOU DO OFTEN].
Quick check
Words from this lesson
- LLM
- An AI trained on huge amounts of text to predict the next word, which lets it write, summarise, translate and chat.
- Tool use
- An AI's ability to call outside tools, such as a calculator, web search or calendar, to do things it cannot do alone.
- API
- A doorway that lets one program send requests to another, for example an app asking an AI model for an answer.
- MCP
- An open standard that lets AI assistants plug into apps and data sources, like a universal adapter for tools.