Designs, slides & docs
At most ten steps, in order of how much they help. Each step is from Anthropic's own pages, linked. Re-checked against those pages every week; anything that can't be confirmed is marked unverified rather than removed.
- 01
Set up your design system before anything else
A design system holds your colours, typography, components and layout patterns, and Claude applies it to every new design and deck. Build it from a codebase, a deck, brand guidelines or design files, and include finished examples, not just specifications. Test it with prompts such as "Create a landing page", then publish it so your organisation can use it. Anthropic's admin guide calls having an experienced designer set this up "the single most important thing" before a rollout. (design system, admin guide, artifacts)
- 02
Do the thinking before you prompt
Say what it is for, who will read or use it, and what it must cover. "A two-page launch brief for our sales team covering pricing, timing, and the top three customer questions" beats "a launch brief". For a design, add the layout. For a deck, the brief says what it covers and who it is for. Tell Claude what a design should look like (fonts, colours, a mood board) rather than leaving it to defaults, and raise mobile, tablet and desktop early. Claude asks clarifying questions when it needs to. (get started with Claude Docs, get started with Claude Design, artifacts in Claude Code, designer's tips)
- 03
Give Claude your real context
For docs, Claude can draw on your files, memory, projects, skills and connected apps; name the file or app it should use. For decks, give it your notes, a report or the work already in the chat. For designs, add screenshots, existing assets or a codebase, or connect GitHub so Claude starts from your actual components. Very large codebases can cause lag; link them from Claude Code instead. (get started with Claude Docs, artifacts, get started with Claude Design, designer's tips)
- 04
Start with wireframes and build up
When fidelity does not matter yet, ask for wireframes: they are much faster and keep Claude on the structure. Get the core layout and content right, then add interactions, edge cases and polish. (designer's tips, get started with Claude Design)
- 05
Ask for many options, then remix the best
Ask for several variations (the designer who built Claude Design asks for ten), pick the strongest and ask Claude to combine them. To try another direction safely, say "Save what we have and try a completely different approach." In a chat you can also edit an earlier message to branch off a new version with its own artifacts. (designer's tips, get started with Claude Design, artifacts)
- 06
Match the edit tool to the change
Use chat for broad or structural changes. Use comments for targeted ones: an inline comment on a design element, or a comment for Claude on a slide. Edit directly for quick fixes: type in a doc, edit a slide, or drag, resize and align on the design canvas. In a doc, highlight text and click "Edit with Claude" so you need not say which section you mean. Be specific ("Tighten the spacing between form fields to 8px", not "This doesn't look right") and name components when you know them. (get started with Claude Design, artifacts, Cowork launch post)
- 07
Write docs together, with Claude in the room
Nothing is locked while Claude works: you and anyone with edit access can type at the same time, and every change is credited to whoever made it. Select text and leave a comment; mention @Claude in it and Claude replies in the thread, makes the change and explains why. Claude also leaves its own comments while drafting. Ask for charts, diagrams or timelines instead of pasting screenshots, but they do not refresh themselves, so ask Claude to pull the latest data. Claude only ever acts with the permissions of the person who asked. (get started with Claude Docs)
- 08
Build decks with Claude Slides, from the same work
Slides builds a presentation from your notes, a report or an earlier conversation. Ask for a report and its slides in one conversation and the slides match the report; you can also ask Claude to turn a finished doc into a deck. Present without leaving Claude, and export to PowerPoint or PDF. In Claude Code,
/slideswith a brief does the same; open the result in a desktop browser to edit or present. (artifacts, Cowork launch post, get started with Claude Docs, artifacts in Claude Code) - 09
Move between these and Claude Code
In Claude Code,
/designwith a brief drafts a design, and/design-syncuploads your repo's React design system so designs use your real components (a first sync can take a few hours on a large repo). When a design is ready, hand it off to Claude Code from Export. With the Claude Docs connector on, ask Claude Code for a spec, runbook or readout and it goes to Claude Docs; a README that belongs in the repo stays a file./slidesand/designneed Claude Code v2.1.265 or later;/design-syncis not available through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud's Agent Platform or Microsoft Foundry. (artifacts in Claude Code, commands, get started with Claude Design, feature availability)
Worth watching and reading
Picked from around the web, with a one-line takeaway. The originals are by their creators.
- instagram
Nate, a designer at Anthropic, used to start a presentation by staring at a blank slide ↗
Claude (@claudeai) · still works (checked 6 Oct 2026)Shows a way to start a deck: talk the idea into a voice memo, then give Claude the transcript and ask it to organize your exact words into slides.
Unverified
What Anthropic's own pages disagree on, or could not be confirmed.
- Slides guide: no official "Get started with Claude Slides" article was found on the help centre. The Slides advice above comes from the artifacts article, the admin guides, the Cowork launch post and the Claude Code docs. (artifacts, Artifacts admin guide, Cowork launch post)
- Status: the Claude Design launch post calls it a research preview; the help centre and Claude Code docs call Design, Slides and Docs a beta. (launch post, get started with Claude Design)
- Who has it switched on: the help centre says all three are on by default for Pro, Max and Team and off for Enterprise until an owner turns each on; the Claude Design product page says it is in all paid plans and "Admins must turn it on". The release notes say artifacts "including Claude Design, Claude Slides, and Claude Docs" are on every plan "including Free", while the artifacts article says the templates are on paid plans only. Standalone claude.ai/design has its own separate setting. (artifacts, product page, release notes, get started with Claude Design)
- Design export targets: pages list different partner tools, Google Slides export is only at claude.ai/design, and a design drafted with
/designin Claude Code exports each artboard as PNG or PDF. Check the Export menu for what you have. (get started with Claude Design, on-brand update, artifacts in Claude Code) - Sharing by email: the sharing article lists email invitations (beta) on paid plans, but the Docs article says docs cannot be shared by email invitation on any plan. The sharing article's line on which artifacts get only "Can view" or "Can edit" appears cut short. (sharing artifacts, get started with Claude Docs)
- Docs in Claude Code: the Claude Code docs say Docs arrives as a claude.ai connector ("claude.ai Claude Docs" in
/mcp), not a command. The/docsshortcut the help centre mentions is for chat; it is not in the Claude Code command list. (artifacts in Claude Code, get started with Claude Docs, commands) - Name: Claude Design launched on 17 April 2026 as "Claude Design by Anthropic Labs"; later pages just say "Claude Design", so it is not clear whether the Labs label still applies. (launch post, release notes)