AI ENGINEERING
Customizing and Automating Claude
Customizing and Automating Claude is a practical course on taking Claude beyond a single conversation. It shows how to connect Claude to the apps where your work lives, teach it the way you work, and hand it tasks that run on their own.
The course begins with connectors and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open standard behind them, including how to add a connector from the directory or by its server address and how to control what Claude can reach. It then covers skills, from turning on the built-in ones to writing, uploading, and testing your own, and finishes with plugins that bundle skills and connectors into one package and scheduled tasks that run automatically, even while your computer is asleep.
Each feature is demonstrated live in the Claude app, and every step considers what you are trusting when you connect a service or install a skill or plugin, so Claude gets only the access a task needs.
Course Summary
Extend Claude with connectors, MCP, skills, and plugins, and automate recurring work with scheduled tasks.
Piotr Kaluzny
Domain
AI Engineering
Vendor
Anthropic
Status
Complete
Duration
1.5 hours
Level
- Connect Claude to apps and services through connectors from the directory
- Understand how the Model Context Protocol (MCP) works behind every connector
- Add custom connectors by server address and recognize when a desktop extension is needed
- Control what Claude can reach with per-conversation switches and tool permissions
- Enable and manage skills, including the code execution setting they require
- Write, package, upload, and test your own skills
- Install and use plugins that bundle skills, connectors, and commands
- Schedule recurring tasks and review, test, and manage their runs
This course is ideal for professionals who already use Claude and want it to work with their own tools and procedures, including IT professionals, network and security engineers, analysts, consultants, and team leads who want everyone on their team to use Claude the same way. It also suits anyone heading toward Claude Code who wants the core concepts of connectors, skills, and plugins first.
There are no formal prerequisites, but participants should be comfortable with the Claude basics covered in Starting with Claude. Plugins and scheduled tasks require a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise).