Claude Code Routines: The No-Code Way to Automate Your Work
Claude Code Routines let you automate work by writing a prompt — no nodes, no code. See 3 real examples with demo, 100 ideas, and how to build your first one.
If you’ve ever tried to build an automation as a non-technical person, you've probably felt it: the curve is steep.
You open n8n, or Zapier, or Make. You watch a tutorial. You connect three nodes. Something breaks. You read a blog post, try again, and something different breaks.
And it’s not that automations aren’t worth it. They save real time once they work. The hard part is everything that stands between “I need this” and “it’s running”.
Even when someone hands you a finished workflow (like I used to share with you), you still have to set up API keys and OAuth permissions for every tool it touches. And if you’re building from scratch, you also get webhook configs, node logic, and debugging errors you don’t fully understand.
This is why I'm so excited about tools like Cowork or Claude Code, and why I'm not sharing n8n workflows as much as I used to.
Anthropic is turning tools that were originally built for engineers into something non-technical people can use to take repetitive work off their plate, more easily.
And just two days ago, they shipped two major updates to Claude Code, and both of them are really cool:
A redesigned Claude Code Desktop app. More friendly for non-technical people, with a cleaner interface that’s much better suited for working with parallel agents and managing multiple sessions.
Routines. Saved automations you set up once and let run in the cloud on a schedule, from an API call, or in response to an event. They run on Anthropic's infrastructure, so your laptop doesn't need to be open for them to work. No Mac mini in a closet, no OpenClaw, no stitched-together setups to keep Claude running 24/7.
Today, I’ll focus on Routines because I find them much more exciting for us.
I’ve spent the last two days testing Routines pretty much non-stop: 8 different Routines, with multiple variations of each one (adding steps, removing them, swapping connectors, changing inputs) to dig into what they’re good at, where they break, and how they compare to the automation tools we already use.
That’s what you’ll find in the rest of this article: what worked, what didn’t, and how I’d use Routines today.
So let’s get into it.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
How to create your first Claude Code Routine (step by step, with a real example)
My honest verdict: what Routines are (and aren’t) good for today
Claude Code Routines limitations and bugs (as of April 2026)
If you want to figure out what to automate before you worry about how, I wrote the 4-part system to find your biggest time wasters a while ago. Start there if you’re not sure which tasks to hand off. Otherwise, you’ll have a few ideas by the end of this article.
Anthropic describes Routines from an engineering perspective. I’ll describe them from the perspective of someone running a content and consulting business, and multiple products.
In fact, the biggest thing I've built on Routines is an AI agent that runs my entire content distribution while I sleep — six automations firing in the cloud, four times a day.
What are Claude Code Routines?
A Routine is a saved Claude Code automation that you set up once.
Each Routine includes three things:
a prompt (the most important part)
the tools you give Claude access to (Anthropic calls these connectors, their word for cloud-hosted MCP integrations like Slack, Notion, Linear, Google Drive, or custom ones like Amplifiers, the AI Blew My Mind MCP)
a trigger that decides when it runs
There are three trigger types, and you can even combine them on a single Routine:
Scheduled. Runs on a recurring cadence. A morning briefing of your day at 9 AM. A weekly summary of what your team shipped. A monthly expense categorization based on your invoices. The setup form gives you presets for hourly, daily, weekdays, or weekly, with a minimum custom interval of one hour.
API. Fires when something happens in one of the tools you use. A customer support message comes in and you want it triaged. A lead fills out your contact form with their LinkedIn profile and you want a background check before the sales call.
GitHub. Runs when something happens in a code repository, like a new update being submitted or a release going out. This one is mostly for developers. If you’re not pushing code, you can skip it.
Claude Code Routines pricing and plan limits
Routines are available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. Daily run limits by plan:
Pro: 5 Routines per day
Max: 15 Routines per day
Team and Enterprise: 25 Routines per day
A “Routine run” is one execution. A scheduled Routine that runs every morning counts as 1. An API Routine you fire 5 times counts as 5. Routines also draw down your regular subscription usage, the same way a Claude Code session does.
If you hit either limit, extra usage (enabled under Settings > Billing) keeps runs going on metered overage. Otherwise runs are rejected until the window resets.
But since this is a research preview, the limits may change. More on the spending and how fast Routines burn through resources in the limitations section.
Where to create a Claude Code Routine (3 places)
There are three places you can create a Routine.
1. On the web at claude.ai/code/routines.
2. In the Desktop app
Make sure you're on the new Claude Desktop app and that your version is updated so you see the new redesign.
Click on Code in the left sidebar, then click Routines. From there, click New routine and you'll see two options:
Remote creates a Routine that runs in the cloud without you.
Local creates a scheduled task that runs on your machine. Your computer needs to be awake and the app open for it to fire, but it can access your local files and tools.
They look similar but they’re different things. To create a Routine (that runs even when you sleep), pick Remote.
3. In the terminal
Run /schedule from a Claude Code session. That’s it.
One important thing to know: Routines belong to your individual account. Once you create one in the terminal, it shows up automatically in the Desktop app and on claude.ai/code/routines. They’re not shared with teammates, even on a Team plan.
Now that you know where Routines live, let's get set up so we can start building them.
What you need before building a Routine
Two things need to be set up first, so that Claude has what it needs to run your Routine automatically.
Connect your tools (mandatory)
Routines pick up whichever connectors you already have on your account.
So if you want a Routine that reads your Gmail and posts to Slack, you need to connect Gmail and Slack first, so it can read information or write files inside those tools.
Claude has dozens of official connectors in its directory, and the list is growing. It's best to connect them all from the start, because you won't need to pick them one by one when you build a Routine. Claude figures out which ones to use based on what your prompt mentions.
If you’ve never set up a connector before, here’s the path:
Open Claude.ai → Customize → Connectors → + → Browse connectors → pick your tool → + → log in → set permissions. Done.
If the tool you want isn’t in the official directory, you can also add a custom connector by pasting in an MCP server URL.
This is how you can add Amplifiers, the AI Blew My Mind MCP to your Claude account to access all my prompts and skill builders, and supercharge Claude with tools it doesn’t have by default, like image generation.
Add a GitHub repo (if you’re working with code or want the Routine to use files)
You need to connect a GitHub repo in three cases:
You’re building software with Claude Code and want your Routine to work on that codebase (review pull requests, run tests, update documentation, port changes between versions).
You want to use a GitHub trigger, meaning the Routine fires when something happens in a repository (a new pull request, a release, etc.). This is a developer-specific use case.
Your prompt alone isn’t enough and you need the Routine to read extra files — your Claude skills, reference docs, brand assets, templates. Routines run in the cloud, so anything on your local machine doesn’t travel with them. The repo is how you hand those files over.
If your prompt has everything the Routine needs, skip the repo. (In a second, I’ll show you examples of Routines both with and without one.)
If not, here’s the 5-minute setup: sign up at github.com if you don’t have an account, create a new empty repository (call it something like claude-code-routines), install the Claude GitHub App on it (the Routine setup will prompt you), and then connect it when you create your Routine.
How to create your first Claude Code Routine (step by step)
Let’s create a Routine that checks daily what new prompts and tools are inside the Amplifiers library (the AI Blew My Mind MCP), organizes them by category, picks the 3 most relevant to you and your work based on what Claude knows about you, and sends it all to you in Slack. So you never miss anything new that could help you.
Here’s the result in Slack before I show you how to build it.
Now let’s build it.
Step 1: Check your Connectors
This Routine needs two connectors: Slack and Amplifiers (the AI Blew My Mind MCP). Let’s make sure both are set up before we touch Routines.
Connect Slack. Open Claude.ai or the Desktop app, go to Customize from the left side panel, click Connectors, then the + icon. Find Slack in the directory, click + next to it, log in, and pick the workspace you want Claude to use. Once connected, grab your Slack channel ID so you can tell the Routine where to send the message.
Connect Amplifiers. Amplifiers is a custom connector, so the setup is slightly different. In Customize → Connectors, click the + icon, select Add custom connector, name it AI blew my mind, paste this URL: https://mcp.aiblewmymind.com, and click Add.
Then go back to the Connectors section, scroll down to Not Connected, find AI blew my mind, and click Connect. This takes you to auth.aiblewmymind.com where you’ll create your account (use the same email you subscribed to AI Blew My Mind with). Click Always allow for all tool permissions.
Both connectors are ready now. You won’t need to redo this next time you build a Routine that uses them.
Step 2: Create the Routine
Go to claude.ai/code/routines or open the Claude Desktop app, navigate to Code → Routines in the left sidebar, and click New routine. Pick Remote.
The setup form has a few fields. Fill them in top to bottom:
Name. Give it something descriptive. I used Daily Amplifiers Digest.
Prompt. This is the most important part. Paste in the prompt below. It’s the exact one I used, so the only thing you’ll want to change is the paragraph about my work in step 4 and the Slack channel ID.
You are helping [Daria] stay on top of her Amplifiers prompt and tool library (the AI Blew My Mind MCP).
Every day when you run:
1. Connect to the Amplifiers MCP and fetch the full list of available prompts and tools. For each item, get: name, category, description, type (prompt or tool), and the date it was added or last updated.
2. Organize all items by category. Within each category, sort by most recently added first.
3. Identify any items that were added in the last 7 days. These get a 🆕 NEW tag next to the name.
4. Pick the 3 items you think are most relevant to [Daria]'s current work. Use this context about her:
[Daria runs AI Blew My Mind, a Substack newsletter and consulting business focused on helping non-technical professionals work with AI. Her core work includes: writing long-form articles about practical AI tools, building lead magnets and downloadable resources, managing a paid community called Boomies, running a MCP prompt and tool library, consulting with clients on AI implementation, creating branded PDFs and visual content, handling subscriber communications and sponsor relationships, and testing new AI tools to write about them.]
Explain why each of the 3 picks is relevant to her work in one short sentence.
5. Send a Slack message to channel ID [YOUR_CHANNEL_ID] with this structure:
*Daily Amplifiers Digest — [today's date]*
*Your library, organized by category:*
*[Category name 1]*
- [Name] 🆕 NEW — [one-line description]
- [Name] — [one-line description]
*[Category name 2]*
- [Name] — [one-line description]
- [Name] 🆕 NEW — [one-line description]
(continue for all categories)
*Top 3 picks for you today:*
1. *[Name]* — [why it's relevant to Daria's work right now]
2. *[Name]* — [why it's relevant]
3. *[Name]* — [why it's relevant]
Use Slack formatting: asterisks for bold, bullets for list items. Keep it readable. No links unless they're in the Amplifiers data itself.
If the Amplifiers connector fails or returns no items, send a short Slack message to [YOUR_CHANNEL_ID] explaining what went wrong instead of a full digest.Trigger. Under Select a trigger, pick Schedule and set it to daily at 9:00 AM (or whenever makes sense for you). Times are in your local zone, so whatever you pick is when it’ll fire for you.
Click Create to save the Routine.
Step 3: Test the routine (optional)
Before letting it run on schedule, test it manually. Click into the Routine and hit Run now.
Click on the run itself and you’ll see everything Claude Code does, step by step. This is where you’ll catch anything that needs fixing in the prompt.
Done. Your first Claude Code routine is up and running.
2 more Claude Code Routine examples I built for my business (+100 routine ideas)
Now that you’ve got the pattern down (name, prompt, trigger, connectors), the next Routines are faster to set up. I’ll walk you through 2 more I’ve built for my own work.
I’ve also put together a document with 100 more Routine ideas organized by work domain: content and newsletter, sales and outreach, customer support, project management, finance and admin, marketing and SEO, HR and people, product and design, engineering, and research and learning.
Ten domains, roughly ten Routines per domain, each with the trigger type and connectors you’d need, so you can pick the ones that fit your work and build them.
To see the next Routine demos + prompts, download the 100 Routine ideas document, and read my full verdict and the limitations I encountered through stress testing them for two days in a row (so you don’t repeat my mistakes), upgrade to premium.