Skip to main content

​
Set Up Your Tools

Before we start building, let’s make sure you have everything you need. This page walks you through each account and tool, step by step.
You will need: a laptop with internet access. No coding experience is required — we will guide you through every step.

​
Step-by-Step Setup

1

Create or log into your GitHub account

GitHub is where your code lives and where the bot will run automatically each morning.
  1. Go to github.com
  2. Click Sign up if you don’t have an account, or Sign in if you do
  3. Follow the prompts to create your account (free plan is fine)
Choose a professional username — it’s visible to employers and colleagues.
2

Install Claude Code

Claude Code is the AI coding assistant that will write all the code for us. It runs in your terminal.Open your terminal (Terminal on Mac, PowerShell or Git Bash on Windows) and run:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Then start it by typing:
claude
Follow the on-screen instructions to log in with your Anthropic account.
npm comes with Node.js. Download and install Node.js from nodejs.org (choose the LTS version). After installing, close and reopen your terminal, then try the install command again.
3

Install Claude in Chrome

Claude in Chrome is a browser extension that helps you research documentation and debug errors without leaving your browser.
  1. Open Chrome and go to the Chrome Web Store
  2. Search for “Claude” by Anthropic
  3. Click Add to Chrome
  4. Pin it to your toolbar for easy access
4

Get an OpenAI API key

The bot uses OpenAI’s API to turn your git commits into a human-readable daily update.
  1. Go to platform.openai.com
  2. Sign up or log in
  3. Navigate to API keys (in the left sidebar or under your profile)
  4. Click Create new secret key
  5. Give it a name like daily-report-bot
  6. Copy the key immediately — you won’t be able to see it again
  7. Save it somewhere safe (a password manager is ideal)
An API key is like a password that lets your code talk to an external service. When your bot needs OpenAI to summarise your commits, it sends the API key along with the request so OpenAI knows who’s asking and can charge the right account. Keep your API key secret — anyone with it can use your account.
OpenAI gives new accounts a small amount of free credit. For this project, you will spend only a few cents per month — each daily report costs roughly $0.01.
5

Create a Slack app and webhook

A webhook is the address your bot sends messages to. We’ll create two: one for testing and one for production.
A webhook is a URL that accepts incoming messages. When your bot sends data to this URL, Slack automatically posts it as a message in the channel you chose. Think of it as a letterbox — your bot drops a letter in, and Slack delivers it to the right room.
Create the Slack app:
  1. Go to api.slack.com/apps
  2. Click Create New App → From scratch
  3. Name it Daily Report Bot
  4. Select your workspace
  5. Click Create App
Add incoming webhooks:
  1. In your app settings, click Incoming Webhooks in the left sidebar
  2. Toggle Activate Incoming Webhooks to On
  3. Click Add New Webhook to Workspace
  4. Choose a test channel (e.g. #bot-testing) and click Allow
  5. Copy the webhook URL — this is your test webhook
  6. Repeat steps 3–5, but choose your production channel (e.g. #daily-standup) — this is your production webhook
Save both URLs somewhere safe.
Never commit webhook URLs to your code. We will store them as GitHub secrets later.
6

Create a GitHub repository

This is where your bot’s code will live.
  1. Go to github.com/new
  2. Name it daily-report-bot
  3. Set it to Private (recommended, since it will contain your work commits)
  4. Tick Add a README file
  5. Click Create repository
Then clone it to your computer:
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/daily-report-bot.git
cd daily-report-bot
Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your actual GitHub username.

​
Verify Your Setup

Before moving on, check that everything is ready:
You can log into github.com and see your new daily-report-bot repository.
Run claude --version in your terminal. You should see a version number.
You see the Claude icon in your Chrome toolbar. Clicking it opens the extension.
You have an API key saved somewhere safe (it starts with sk-).
You have two webhook URLs saved: one for your test channel and one for your production channel.
You have the daily-report-bot folder on your computer and can cd into it.
All set? Head to Build it with Claude Code — the fun part.