Free guide · Reel 45
An "agent" is just Claude doing a job for you with some freedom: it uses tools, follows a process, and decides the next step. There are seven common shapes, and each one solves a different problem.
You don't need all seven. Most businesses get far with the first two and add the others when a job gets bigger. Below, each type gets one plain sentence, one example from the same small business, and a prompt or file you can copy to build it today.
Business owners who keep hearing "build an agent" and want to know what that actually means in Claude, without writing any code.
Our example all the way through: a family bakery with two shops in Bristol. Orders come in by email, the owner writes a weekly newsletter, and wholesale cafés ask for prices.
Takes action in your apps through a connector: reads your inbox, adds a calendar event, updates a page.
You teach it a process once, and it repeats it the same way every time.
A chain: each stage finishes its part and hands the result to the next one.
Several agents work on separate parts at the same time, and Claude merges the results.
Reads whatever comes in and sends it down the right path. A receptionist for your workflows.
Does all the work, then stops and waits for your OK before anything goes out.
A main agent that hands tasks to specialist sub-agents and puts their work together.
Before you start: in Claude, open Settings > Capabilities and turn on Code execution and file creation and Skills. Types 4 and 7 work best in Claude Code.
Open Settings > Connectors and connect the app you want Claude to act in, for example Gmail, Google Calendar or Notion. Then ask for the job in one message. Claude asks for permission the first time it uses each tool.
Using my connected Gmail and Google Calendar: find every email from the last 7 days that asks for a cake or a large order with a date. For each one, list the customer, the date and what they ordered. Then ask me before you add anything to my calendar.
Write the process down once as a skill. Paste this into a new chat, fill in the brackets and write: "Save this as a skill exactly as written."
--- name: weekly-newsletter description: Writes my weekly customer newsletter in my tone from the notes I give it. Use when I say "newsletter" or "write this week's email". --- # Weekly newsletter ## Settings - Business: [e.g. family bakery, two shops in Bristol] - Tone: [e.g. warm, short sentences, no exclamation marks] - Length: [e.g. under 200 words] - Sign-off: [e.g. Sam and the team] ## Steps 1. Ask me for this week's news if I haven't given it: new products, opening hours, one story from the shop. 2. Write three subject line options, each under 8 words. 3. Write the email: one short story first, then the news as a short list, then one clear call to action. 4. Check: no prices I didn't give you, no promises, no invented details. 5. Show me the draft and wait for my changes.
Ask for the stages in order, and make Claude finish and show each stage before the next one starts. The output of one stage is the input of the next.
Work in three stages, one after another. Finish each stage and show it to me before you start the next. Stage 1, researcher: list 10 independent cafés within 5 miles of [area] that don't seem to sell their own pastries. Name, area, and why they might fit. Stage 2, writer: using only the list from stage 1, write a short, friendly wholesale intro email for each one. Stage 3, checker: read every email from stage 2 and flag anything that sounds pushy, generic or wrong. Give me the final versions.
In Claude Code, ask for sub-agents that run at the same time, one per part of the job. Each one works with a clean slate, and Claude merges the results at the end.
Use 5 sub-agents in parallel, one per file in the folder reviews/ (one file per month). Each sub-agent reads its month and returns: the 3 things customers praise most, the 3 most common complaints, and one quote for each. When all 5 are done, merge them into one table and tell me what changed from month to month.
Give Claude your categories and what happens to each one. Run it on every new batch of messages. Each category can point to a skill you already have.
You are my inbox router. Read every new email since yesterday and put each one in exactly one category: 1. Order or cake request: pull out the date and the order, then use my order skill. 2. Wholesale enquiry: draft a reply with my wholesale price list attached. 3. Complaint: summarise it in one line and flag it for me. Don't reply. 4. Supplier or invoice: list it for my bookkeeping. 5. Everything else: list it, do nothing. Show me one table: sender, category, what you did. If you are not sure, choose "Everything else".
Add this rule to any skill or prompt that sends, pays, books or deletes. It turns any agent into a type 6 agent.
Before you send, publish, pay, book, delete or change anything outside this chat: stop, show me exactly what you are about to do, and wait until I write "approved". If I write anything else, treat it as a change request, update the draft and ask again.
In Claude Code, each specialist is a small file in .claude/agents/ in your project folder. Create one file per specialist (for example an ads writer, a social media writer and a brand checker), then give the main agent the brief. It decides who does what.
--- name: ads-writer description: Writes short ad copy for the bakery's Facebook and Instagram ads. Use for any ad, promotion or offer text. --- You write ad copy for a family bakery in Bristol. - Read brand/voice.md before you write. - Give 3 versions: a headline under 40 characters and a main text under 125 characters. - No prices or dates unless they are in the brief. - Return the copy only, no explanations.
You are my head of marketing. The brief: we launch a new sourdough on Saturday 14 November, in both shops. Plan the launch, then hand each task to the right sub-agent in .claude/agents/ (ads-writer, social-writer, brand-checker). Run the ones that don't depend on each other in parallel. When they are done, put everything into one launch plan with a schedule, and wait for my approval before anything is published.
Type 7 is only as good as the specialists under it. Build one skill that works first, then a second, then let a main agent coordinate them.
If two categories overlap, Claude will guess. Give every category one clear rule and a catch-all like "Everything else".
Anything that sends, pays or books needs the type 6 rule, at least until the agent has proven itself for a few weeks.
Build the type you need this week, not the one that sounds most impressive.
A tool agent and one skill cover most of a small business's daily work. Add types when a job gets too big for one chat.