Vibe coding
for journalists

Everything today runs in Claude Code on the web. Claude works on a computer at Anthropic, not on your laptop, and saves your projects to GitHub.

1. Go to claude.ai/code and sign in with your AJI account.
2. Connect GitHub when it asks, and approve. When GitHub asks which repositories Claude can use, choose All repositories. If you pick only some, you’ll have to add each new project by hand at github.com/settings/installations (Configure, then Repository access).
3. Say hello first. Some features, like the / menu, show up only after your first message in a session.

Three words you’ll hear all day

• Repository: a project’s folder on GitHub, with every version kept.
• Commit: saving a version, with a note on what changed.
• Push: sending your saved versions up to GitHub. For your website, that’s when it goes live.

A one-page site with your name, your beat, your About text and your clips, published free on GitHub Pages.

Make your site’s repository

1. Open the site template and click Use this template, then Create a new repository. Give it a name and leave it Public: GitHub publishes public repositories as websites for free. The template already holds instructions for Claude: use your words exactly and never add facts.
2. In claude.ai/code, pick your new repository and start a session. Claude can see only the repository you pick.

Ask for your site

Fill in the parts in [brackets] before you send it.

Build me a simple one-page personal website. My name is [your name] and I'm a reporting fellow covering [your beat]. Include a headline with my name and beat, an About section, a Clips section for my stories, and a line saying people can reach me at [your email]. Leave the About section as a clearly marked empty spot; I'll give you that text later.

Then give Claude your About text. The words about you are yours.

Here's my About text. Put it in the About section exactly as I wrote it:

[paste your About text]

Turn on GitHub Pages: the one click Claude can’t do

1. On GitHub, open your repository’s Settings.
2. Click Pages.
3. Under Branch, choose main, then Save. Your address is yourname.github.io/your-repository. It can take a minute or two to appear. Open it on your phone, not signed in, the way anyone else would see it.

Make it look like you

Screenshot two or three sites you like and attach the pictures to your message. Say what you like the way you’d brief a designer: the type, the colors, how much space.

Here are some sites I like. I like [what you like: the type, the colors, how much space]. Make my site look more like that. Save the style in the project's instructions so future changes keep it, then push.

Don’t like it? Say what’s wrong, not how to fix it. Then refresh your site.

• “The header feels cramped”
• “Make my name bigger and the clips easier to scan”
• “Use colors like my newsroom’s site”

Add your headshot

Attach a photo to your message and say where it goes. No uploading on GitHub.

This is my headshot. Put it next to my About section.

Make your first skill: /add-clip

A skill is a standing checklist: written steps Claude follows the same way every time. Adding clips is the job you’ll repeat, so make it one line.

Make a skill called add-clip and save it in this project. When I use it with a link to one of my stories: open the link and copy the headline exactly as published, plus the outlet and the date. Never rewrite or shorten the headline. Add the story to the top of the Clips section, newest first. Then push the change so it goes live and tell me what you added. If you can't open the link, ask me for the headline, outlet and date instead of guessing.

1. Type /reload-skills so this session sees the new skill. A new session picks it up on its own.
2. Type /add-clip and paste the link to one of your stories.

If Claude can’t open your story

Claude can visit only the websites your environment allows. Add your outlet yourself:

1. In the panel on the right, click the gear next to the environment’s name.
2. Open Network access and add the site Claude named, one per line. *.example.com covers every part of a site.
3. Click Save changes, then tell Claude: “I added it, try again.” No new session needed. Add each outlet you’ve worked for. If it still won’t work, give Claude the headline, outlet and date yourself.

Who just got federal money for the first time? A company winning its first contract from an agency isn’t news on its own. It’s a place to start asking: who are they, how did they get it, and was anyone else allowed to bid?

Set up a separate, private project

1. Open the data template, click Use this template, then Create a new repository, and choose Private. This stays off your portfolio. Only you can see it.
2. Start a session on your data project and choose the Public records data environment. It adds the government data sites to what Claude can visit.

What’s inside the skill

The project comes with a skill called new-money. It’s one page of plain English: read it on GitHub, or find it in your own project at .claude/skills/new-money/SKILL.md. Look for:

• When to use it. Claude reads the description to decide whether your request calls for the skill.
• Same method for everyone. “Don’t write your own code, don’t change the script.” Claude runs a tested script.
• The settings you can change. $100,000 and up, the last 30 days, checked against five years.
• What happens when it breaks. “Don’t guess, don’t make up results.”
• No made-up numbers. The summary uses only what the script counted, and calls them leads to check, not findings.

Run it on your beat’s agency

Use the new-money skill for [your agency]

It takes a minute or two. Your leads open as a page beside the chat. The page is private to you; share it with your editor from its Share button.

While it runs, in pairs

• Open the top three leads on USAspending.gov.
• Is each company really new to the government, or only to this agency?
• Anything on the page you don’t understand: ask Claude.

Reading your leads

Each lead also links to the Federal Election Commission’s search for donations by people who named that company as their employer. Expect small, old and wrong-company matches. A match is a question to report out, not a connection.

Question your top lead

Why did you flag [company] as new? Show me the records you checked.

“New” means only no contract from this agency in five years. The company may have a long history elsewhere.

What this can get wrong

• One company can have more than one ID.
• A joint venture looks new even when its partners aren’t.
• Grants, loans and subcontracts aren’t counted.
• Small purchases often aren’t reported.
• Agencies report late, and amounts change.

Make the skill yours

You change a skill the way you changed your site: by asking. The script stays as tested.

Change the new-money skill so if I don't name an agency, it uses [your agency], with a $250,000 floor.

Then type /new-money on its own. For one run, you can also ask for “contracts over $25,000” or “for the last 60 days.”

Your next project may need a source that isn’t on today’s list. Make your own environment and add it.

1. Open the environment menu under the message box and choose New environment.
2. Give it a name and set Network access to Limited.
3. Under Allowed domains, add the sites, one per line. For House roll-call votes: clerk.house.gov
4. Click Add environment. It’s selected for your next session.

Bring it to your editor

Your newsroom’s policy says to talk to your editor if you have an idea for using AI in your reporting. If a lead turns into a story, substantial use of AI must be disclosed to the reader. Ask your editor how.

You can ask Claude for all of this

Pointing your domain at your site. Fixing an error. Explaining what the script does. Trying a new data source. Start by asking Claude.