Claude Code for Everyone

Recipe Cookbook

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🎯 What this is: A grab-bag of copy-paste starting prompts for common tasks. Find something close to what you need, paste it into Claude Code, and adjust the specifics. This is the page you'll come back to most.

How to use a recipe: the prompts use placeholders in [brackets] and assume your files are in ~/work-automation/inbox. Change those to match your real folders and field names — you know what your documents contain; tell Claude Code.

Two rules before every recipe#

  1. Work on copies, never your only copy of a file.
  2. Ask for a dry-run / preview before anything gets moved, renamed, or overwritten — then check it before saying go.

A safe opener you can paste before any risky recipe:

Work only on copies in ~/work-automation/inbox, never touch originals elsewhere, and always show me a preview (dry-run) of what you'll change before doing it. When you rename or move files in bulk, also write a simple log of what changed so I can undo it. Don't connect to any online service — only the local files I point you at.

(And the umbrella rule: only run this on data your company's policy allows — locally downloaded files, nothing regulated unless you've checked. See Module 10.)

👥 Pick your path#

Not sure where to start? Find the role closest to yours below. Each lists the two or three tasks people in that job automate first, with one ready-to-paste prompt. The full recipes those tasks come from are further down this page — this is just a map to get you there faster. Your real job won't match perfectly; pick the nearest one and adjust.

💰 Finance & Ops#

You live in exports, statements, and month-end reconciliations.

  • Pull numbers out of PDF invoices/statements into one spreadsheet → PDFs
  • Compare this month to last month to spot what changed → Spreadsheets & Excel
  • Produce a recurring summary report you can re-run each period → Reports & documents

For every invoice PDF in ~/work-automation/inbox, pull out the vendor, invoice number, date, and total, and put them in invoices.xlsx with one row per file. Show me what you read from ONE invoice first so we can confirm the fields.

🧑‍💼 HR & Recruiting#

You handle candidate files, offer letters, and roster spreadsheets.

I have a template offer.docx with placeholders like {{name}}, {{role}}, and {{start_date}}, and a spreadsheet hires.xlsx with one person per row. Generate one letter per row with the placeholders filled in. Make one sample first so I can check it.

You work with contracts, filings, and documents that must be exact.

  • Split, merge, or pull specific pages from long contract PDFs → PDFs
  • Read scanned/imaged documents with OCR so the text is usable → PDFs
  • Validate IDs, dates, or reference numbers against a rule → Data checks & quality

From master-agreement.pdf, save just pages 12 to 18 as indemnity-clause.pdf, and don't modify the original. Then tell me what those pages contain in plain English.

📣 Sales & Marketing#

You wrangle CRM exports, lead lists, and numbers that need a write-up.

Combine every .xlsx in ~/work-automation/inbox into one sheet, add a column for which file each row came from, then remove rows that are duplicates based on the email column. Show me how many duplicates you found before removing them.

Don't see your role? These are just on-ramps — the recipes below work for any document-heavy job. Skim the categories; if nothing fits, use When nothing here fits.

📄 PDFs#

Extract fields into a spreadsheet

For every PDF in ~/work-automation/inbox, pull out [the client name, the date, and the reference number] and put them in an Excel file called summary.xlsx with one row per file plus a column for the source filename. First show me what you read from ONE pdf so we can confirm where those fields are.

Merge many PDFs into one

Combine all PDFs in ~/work-automation/inbox into a single packet.pdf, in alphabetical order, with a divider page before each showing its filename.

Split one PDF into many

Split [big-file.pdf] into one file per page, named page-01.pdf, page-02.pdf, and so on.

Read a scanned (image) PDF

These PDFs are scanned images — the text isn't selectable. Use OCR to read them, then [extract the fields above / give me the text].

Pull specific pages

From [report.pdf], save just pages [3 to 5] as a new file [excerpt.pdf].

Fill a PDF form from a spreadsheet

I have a blank form [form.pdf] and a spreadsheet [people.xlsx] with one person per row. Create one filled-in PDF per row, named after the person. Do one as a sample first so I can check the fields line up.

📊 Spreadsheets & Excel#

Clean up a messy export

Open [export.xlsx] and describe its columns. Then: remove the columns [sys_id, internal_ref], rename [u_name] to [Name], format all dates as MM/DD/YYYY, and save as [export-clean.xlsx] — keep the original untouched.

Remove duplicate rows

In [data.xlsx], find rows that are duplicates based on the [email] column, show me how many there are, then save a de-duplicated copy.

Combine many spreadsheets into one

Combine every .xlsx in ~/work-automation/inbox into a single sheet, adding a column that records which file each row came from.

Compare two files

Compare [last-month.xlsx] and [this-month.xlsx] on the [member ID] column. Tell me which IDs are new, which disappeared, and which changed.

Summarize / count

From [tickets.xlsx], give me a summary: how many rows per [status], and the total per [category]. Put it on a new summary sheet.

Split one sheet into many files

Split [all-clients.xlsx] into one file per [region], each named after the region.

📁 Files & folders#

Batch rename to a standard

The PDFs in ~/work-automation/inbox have inconsistent names. Each file's first page has [the client name and year]. Rename them to [LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_YEAR].pdf. Do a DRY RUN first: a table of old name → new name, no changes yet. Also keep a log of the renames so I can reverse them.

Sort files into folders

Sort the files in ~/work-automation/inbox into subfolders by [file type / the month they were last modified]. Preview the plan first.

Find files by date

List every file in [folder] that was modified in the last [7] days, newest first.

Find duplicates

Find files in [folder] that are duplicates (same name or same contents). Just list them in a table — don't delete anything.

Bulk convert

Convert every [.xlsx] in ~/work-automation/inbox to [.csv], keeping the same names, into a new converted folder.

📝 Reports & documents#

Generate a recurring summary report

Read all PDFs in a folder I specify, pull out [these fields], count how many are [pending vs. complete], and produce a one-page summary as both an Excel sheet and a readable PDF. Then tell me the single command to run it again next time.

Mail-merge style document generation

I have a template [letter.docx] with placeholders like {{name}} and {{date}}, and a spreadsheet [recipients.xlsx]. Generate one document per row with the placeholders filled in. Make one sample first.

Turn data into a readable write-up

From [results.xlsx], write a short plain-English summary of the key numbers and any notable changes, suitable for pasting into an email.

🔎 Data checks & quality#

Find missing or invalid data

In [data.xlsx], flag every row that's missing [a name or a date], or where the [date] isn't a valid date. Give me just those rows so I can fix them.

Validate against a rule

Check [file.xlsx]: every [ID] should match the pattern [ABC-12345]. List any that don't.

Spot anomalies

Look at the [amount] column in [file.xlsx] and point out anything that looks off — blanks, negatives, or values far outside the normal range.

💡 When nothing here fits#

You don't need a recipe for everything. Just describe your task plainly, lead with a dry-run, and let Claude Code propose an approach:

Here's what I'm trying to do: [describe it]. The files are in [folder]. Suggest a plan first, flag anything risky, and don't change anything until I say go.

See also: Module 09 — Real Workflows · Cheat Sheet · Security & Good Habits