Claude · Module 05 of 8

Workflows

Multi-step systems that chain prompts into a repeatable outcome.

2 lessons8 exercises
Topics & techniques

Build a SaaS

From idea to shipped product with Claude in the loop.

4 cards →
Workflow
Build a SaaS With Claude in Vertical Slices
Building a SaaS with Claude by shipping thin vertical slices — one complete user story from database to UI — instead of building whole horizontal layers before anything runs.
L4 · Multi-AI systems
Workflow
Design the Data Model First
Working out the data model — the core entities, their fields, and how they relate — with Claude before building features on top. You settle the shape of the data first, because everything else (APIs, UI, business logic) is built against it, and getting it wrong later is expensive.
L4 · Multi-AI systems
Best practice
Don't Let Claude Hand-Roll Auth and Billing
A guard rail for AI-assisted SaaS builds: for the security- and money-critical parts — authentication, session management, password handling, payments — use a proven provider or library and have Claude write the integration, rather than letting it generate a bespoke implementation from scratch.
L4 · Multi-AI systems
Workflow
Write the Spec Before You Build the SaaS
Starting a SaaS build by having Claude help you write a short product spec — the core user, the problem, the must-have features for v1, what's explicitly out of scope — and approving it before any code. The spec becomes the reference every later build decision is checked against.
L4 · Multi-AI systems

Prompt chaining

Break a big task into linked steps where each output feeds the next.

4 cards →
Workflow
Add a Check Step Between the Links
Inserting an explicit verification step between the stages of a prompt chain: before a step's output becomes the next step's input, check it against clear criteria — and only proceed if it passes. It's a quality gate at each handoff rather than trusting every link to be perfect.
L3 · Workflows
Workflow
Fan Out Independent Work, Then Merge
A chaining shape for when a task divides into independent parts: instead of one long sequential chain, run each independent sub-task on its own — each in a fresh, focused context — then use a final step to synthesise the results into one coherent output. Fan out to do the parts, fan in to combine them.
L3 · Workflows
Workflow
Pass Structured Handoffs Between Chain Steps
A reliability technique for prompt chains: have each step emit its result in a defined structure — a labelled list, a table, JSON — that the next step consumes, instead of piping loose prose from one prompt into the next and hoping it parses.
L3 · Workflows
Workflow
Split a Task at Its Natural Seams, Not Arbitrarily
A chaining principle: break a large task into steps at its natural seams — points where the job genuinely changes, like extract → analyse → draft → refine — so each prompt does one thing well and hands a clean result to the next.
L3 · Workflows
Claude workflows

From chat to system

A workflow is what happens when you stop treating Claude as a place to ask questions and start treating it as a component in a repeatable process. The gains are consistency and scale: the same job runs the same way every time, and multi-step work stops depending on you remembering the right sequence of prompts. This is where Claude's reliability and large context genuinely pay off — it can hold a long, staged task together.

Chain the steps, ground the context

The core technique is prompt chaining: break a complex job into stages and let each build on the last, rather than overloading one prompt. For ambitious builds — like standing up a small SaaS feature — the same discipline applies at a larger scale, with design, generation, and review as distinct phases. Throughout, context engineering matters: curate what each step sees so the signal is not buried, and the whole chain stays reliable.

The workflow topics to explore

This section covers building a SaaS (staged, ambitious builds) and prompt chaining (multi-step tasks done reliably). Start with the cards below once you have work that recurs or has several dependent steps.

Frequently asked
What is a Claude workflow?

A workflow is a repeatable, multi-step way of using Claude for a recurring or complex job, structured so it runs consistently rather than depending on ad-hoc prompting. It is how you scale beyond one-off chats.

What is prompt chaining with Claude?

Prompt chaining breaks a complex task into stages and feeds each step's output into the next, instead of cramming everything into one prompt. It produces more reliable results on multi-step work because each stage stays focused and checkable.

Can Claude help build a whole application?

Yes, when you run it as staged work — design, then generate one layer at a time, then review — rather than asking for everything at once. The build-a-SaaS cards below show how to structure an ambitious build with Claude.

Why do my multi-step Claude prompts go wrong?

Usually because too much is packed into a single prompt. Breaking the task into a chain of focused steps, and curating what context each step sees, keeps the model on track and makes failures easy to locate and fix.

Test yourself

Can you build a real workflow with Claude?

Six questions on chaining prompts into something repeatable — where to split a task, how to pass work between steps, and how to ship a product without letting Claude near the dangerous parts. No sign-up, instant score, and you can share how you did.

  1. Q1 Where should you break a large task into chain steps?
  2. Q2 What should a chain step hand to the next step?
  3. Q3 Every link in your chain looked fine, but the final output is wrong. What was missing?
  4. Q4 Your task splits into genuinely independent sub-tasks. What's the efficient shape?
  5. Q5 You're building a SaaS with Claude. What's the first thing to produce?
  6. Q6 Which parts of a SaaS should Claude *not* hand-roll?
0 / 6 answered