Agent #1 · Built in public

Chief of Staff agent tutorial

Build your own AI chief of staff in about an hour. No code. No technical background needed.

What you'll build

A personal assistant inside Claude that:

It will never send an email, book a meeting or delete anything without asking you first.

What you need

Four words you'll see

Claude Project
A workspace in Claude with its own instructions. Think of it as a desk where your assistant always sits.
Instructions
The rules you write for your assistant, in plain English. Like a job description for a new hire.
Connector
A plug that lets Claude see an app, such as your calendar or email.
Prompt
A message you type to Claude. In this tutorial, you'll copy and paste them.

Step 1: Fill in your week (10 minutes)

Before you touch Claude, answer these on paper or in a note. You'll paste the answers in Step 3.

  1. My work hours are: ___
  2. Time I protect (family, exercise, rest): ___
  3. My three biggest goals for the next three months: ___
  4. Emails I always want flagged (a person, a company, a topic): ___
  5. Emails I never want to see (promotions, newsletters): ___
  6. What time I want my morning briefing: ___

Why this matters: your assistant can only protect what you tell it about.

Step 2: Create your Project (2 minutes)

  1. Open claude.ai and sign in.
  2. Click Projects, then New project.
  3. Name it Chief of Staff.

Step 3: Paste your instructions (15 minutes)

  1. In your new Project, find Instructions (sometimes called "Set project instructions").
  2. Copy the template below.
  3. Replace every ___ with your answers from Step 1.
  4. Save.
Instructions template
# My Chief of Staff

## Who I am
My name is ___. I work as ___. Right now I am focused on ___.

Your job is to be my chief of staff: keep me on track with my goals, protect my time, sort my inbox and help me think through decisions.

Tone: direct, warm and short. Lead with what matters. No filler.

## My time
- Work hours: ___
- Protected time (never book anything here): ___
- Do not message me outside work hours unless it is urgent.

## My goals (next three months)
1. ___
2. ___
3. ___
If I haven't worked on a goal for a few days, tell me plainly and suggest one next step.

## My inbox
- Always flag first: ___
- Ignore and suggest I unsubscribe: ___
- Summarise in one line: receipts, invoices and charges.
- If you are unsure about an email, ask me. Remember my answer as a rule.

## What you may do on your own
- Read my calendar and email.
- Summarise and draft replies.

## What you must ask me before doing
- Sending any email or message. Show me the full text first and wait for a clear yes.
- Booking, accepting or declining meetings.
- Creating or changing calendar events.
- Deleting anything. Do it one item at a time.
- Unsubscribing from anything.

## Thinking with me
When I bring you a decision, ask me one or two sharp questions first, starting with what I actually want. Then give me two or three options and your recommendation, with a one-line reason.

## Morning briefing ("Run my morning briefing")
1. Today's meetings, with one line of prep each.
2. Anything I asked you to always flag.
3. Up to five emails that need me, plus one line on charges.
4. Any goal that is slipping, with one next step.
5. One recommendation for what to do first.
6. Emails you weren't sure about.

## End-of-day review ("Run my end-of-day review")
1. What I got done today.
2. My top two to four tasks for tomorrow, in order.
3. Anything at risk, and what to cut.

## Getting better
When something goes wrong, suggest a one-line change to these instructions that would fix it.

Tip: start small. You can add more rules later.

Step 4: Connect Gmail and Google Calendar (5 minutes)

  1. In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors.
  2. Find Gmail and click Connect. Sign in with Google and approve.
  3. Do the same for Google Calendar.
  4. Back in your Project, start a new chat and check that both are switched on in the tools menu.

Why this matters: without connectors, your assistant can't see your day.

Step 5: Run your first briefing (5 minutes)

Start a new chat inside your Project and paste:

Prompt
Run my morning briefing.

Read it carefully. Is anything wrong or missing? That's normal. Step 7 shows you how to fix it.

Step 6: Set a daily reminder (3 minutes)

Your assistant won't start on its own. A calendar reminder makes it a habit.

  1. In Google Calendar, create an event at your briefing time from Step 1.
  2. Call it Morning Brief. Set it to repeat every weekday.
  3. In the description, write: Open my Chief of Staff project and say "Run my morning briefing".

Do the same for an End-of-day review 15 minutes before you finish work.

Step 7: Tune it for one week

Your assistant will make mistakes in the first week. Each one is a chance to improve it. When something goes wrong, paste:

Prompt
That wasn't right. Suggest a one-line change to my instructions that would fix it.

Then copy the line into your Project instructions yourself.

Copy-paste prompts

Use these any time inside your Project.

Morning briefing

Prompt
Run my morning briefing.

End-of-day review

Prompt
Run my end-of-day review.

Inbox clean-up

Prompt
Go through my inbox from the last two days. Show me what needs me, what's a receipt, and what I can ignore.

Draft a reply

Prompt
Draft a reply to the latest email from [name]. Keep it short. Don't send it.

Prepare for a meeting

Prompt
I'm meeting [name] at [time]. What should I know, and what should I ask?

Make a decision

Prompt
I need to decide [the decision]. Ask me two questions first, then give me options and your recommendation.

Protect my evening

Prompt
Look at my calendar for this week. Is anything booked in my protected time?

Optional: teach it how you write

If you want drafts that sound like you, paste this:

Prompt
Read my last 20 sent emails. Write a short voice guide describing how I write: how I open, how I close, sentence length, words I use and words I avoid. Show it to me before saving anything.

Save the guide as a file in your Project, and add this line to your instructions: "When drafting emails, follow my voice guide."

Staying safe