How-to Guides

How to Connect Google Trends to Claude Code

Google Trends can now be read by whole category, with no keyword, so I added it to my seo-audit MCP. In today's post we're connecting Google Trends to Claude Code, running the three ways of asking on real data, and having Gemini MCP draw the report, with every prompt included.

claude-code · mcp

CLAUDE.md: How to Write One That Stays Lean

In today's post, I'm taking a real CLAUDE.md from one of my projects down from 180 lines to 67. The review I ran on it came back with 23 findings, four of them serious, and I'm sharing the prompt so you can run it on your own repo.

Claude · claude-code

How to Make a PDF Report with Claude

In today's post I'm showing how I make a monthly PDF report in Claude from a CSV, and why I think it's a perfectly legitimate way to report, provided Claude checks every number against the file. A house-style Skill sets the look, and the outline is agreed before anything is built.

Claude · Automation

How to Make a Presentation with Claude

In today's post I'm sharing how I make presentations with Claude, a way of working that keeps my time on the data and my insight rather than on PowerPoint. Claude writes the storyline first and puts every number in one data file, Gemini draws the charts, and the same source builds both a PDF and an editable PowerPoint file. When next month's numbers arrive, the deck rebuilds in under three minutes.

claude-code · gemini

How to Benchmark vLLM: Find the Best Model, Quant and Settings for Your GPU

In today's post I'm sharing how I benchmark local models on vLLM by changing one thing at a time, along with the traps that quietly skew the numbers and my results from 21 setups on two 48GB RTX 4090Ds. The harness, vllm-bench, is free, so you can run the same tests on your own card.

local-llm · vllm

Claude Code Memory: How to Keep It Useful

In today's post I'm going through Claude Code memory: how CLAUDE.md and auto memory work, why they go stale, and the lint and retire-don't-delete prune that keep mine useful, plus my designs for a scheduled skill and a small knowledge graph keyed to Wikidata.

Claude · claude-code

How to set up an MCP gateway with Docker

A lot of MCP servers get pulled straight off npm and run with your permissions, which makes them a supply-chain risk. In today's post we're taking a closer look at why I run mine in Docker containers, how to set up Docker's MCP gateway for Claude Code and Claude Desktop, and what a container won't stop.

Claude · mcp

How to Use the Gemini API (and Why I Run It Next to Claude)

Get a Gemini API key, make your first call in curl and Python, dodge the thinking-token trap that returns an empty answer, and see why running Gemini next to Claude is the real unlock. Written from production - and the bills.

Claude · mcp

How to do an SEO audit with Claude

SEO Audit Console is a free, open-source MCP server that pulls your crawl and your Search Console data into a database on your own PC, and Claude runs the audit from it. In today's guide we're taking a closer look at what an SEO audit covers and how the fixes get ranked and written, run for real on houtini.com with no Semrush or Screaming Frog.

mcp · claude-desktop

Claude Code API Key Security with 1Password: A Guide to Token Hygiene

The simplest possible setup that keeps your production tokens out of AI chat windows. 1Password CLI, op run, and the conversational discipline that makes the rest of it work.

Swapping the Engine: How to Run Claude Code on Local Silicon for Zero Pennies

Claude Code's real power isn't the Anthropic model sitting behind it, it's the agentic loop: the file-system access, the tool use, the way it chains tasks together without you babysitting every step. I figured this out the expensive way. I ran…

A Beginner's Guide to Claude Computer Use

I've been letting Claude control my mouse and keyboard on and off to test this feature for a little while, and the honest answer is that it's simultaneously the most impressive and most frustrating AI feature I've used. It can navigate…

DGX Spark Alternatives and AI Mini PCs: Do You Actually Need One?

NVIDIA's DGX Spark and a wave of tiny AI mini PCs promise local LLMs in a gold box. I've run local models on everything from water-cooled 3090s to a dual-4090 vLLM rig, so here's my read: the real DGX Spark alternatives, the one spec that decides it, and whether you need any of them.

How to make SVGs and images in Claude with Gemini MCP

Gemini MCP gives Claude Google's Nano Banana Pro image model, Veo video and SVG generation, with the results shown in the chat. In today's guide we're taking a closer look at where it came from, how to set it up in Claude Desktop and Claude Code, and what it made: a photoreal desk, a printed label that came back letter for letter, and the three showcase pieces from Paper's Quiver launch, traced to SVG from Nano Banana Pro images.

The Best MCPs for SEO and Content Marketing (Research, Publish, Measure)

I ran an SEO agency for sixteen years, so I know exactly where the billable hours go - and it's not the clever part. In today's post I'm sharing the content-marketing and SEO MCP stack I now run through Claude, organised by the phase of work where each one earns its keep, including seo-audit, the one I built to kill the grunt.

How to set up LM Studio: GPU offload, developer mode and your first local model

Turn a gaming GPU into a working local AI model with LM Studio - free, no billing, no API key. In today's guide, we install it, point it at the GPU, download a first model, and then go through the settings: GPU offload, context length, Flash Attention, temperature and top-k, and the Developer mode that unlocks them.

claude-code · local-llm

Cut your Claude Code bill with houtini-lm, and get a second opinion

We built houtini-lm so Claude Code can stay the orchestrator while other models do the work: a cheaper frontier model, a local model on your own GPU, or a specialist with a skill Claude doesn't have. In today's post we're taking a closer look at what my average Claude Code day costs, what the same work costs elsewhere, and what a second model on the job adds besides the saving.

claude-code · openrouter

How to Create LinkedIn Carousel Slides with Gemini and Claude

A developer workflow for turning blog posts into LinkedIn carousel slides using Gemini SVG generation, Puppeteer PDF conversion, and a four-line Python merge script. No Canva, no SaaS tools.

How to Run a Free AI Content Detector Locally

The #1-ranked AI detector is free, runs on your own PC, and never uploads your text - unlike Originality.ai or GPTZero. Here's how to run it, or the tool I built.

Claude for Excel: How to Add It, Use It and Check Its Work

I first tested Claude for Excel in its February beta, and this week I ran it again on 20,000 rows of product data made messy on purpose. This guide covers how to add it, the edit setting to check before you start, and why it does its best work one simple step at a time.

Working with AI: Using the Gmail MCP in Claude

I've got a client over in Australia who are *just* warming up after a lengthy Christmas break. It's an SAP B1 integration with Shopify and Onetimpim - many moving parts! My client emailed this morning asking for a catch-up meeting and…

RAG Without RAG: How to Make a Content Research Index for Claude

This weekend's project started with a simple need: collect the transcripts from around 20 YouTube videos from my client's Youtube channel, for a research corpus. The goal was to accurately use the Youtube data to reference in the content…

Desktop Commander MCP: Give Claude Full Control of Your Computer (2026)

Desktop Commander is the MCP that gives Claude full read-write access to your computer - files, terminal, code. The setup guide that's missing from the docs, plus the gotchas that catch people on day one.

Claude Desktop Tutorial: a Beginner's Guide

In today's guide, we're starting from scratch with Claude Desktop, the app where AI stops being a chatbot and starts doing jobs for you. We install it, change a few settings, connect Gmail for an email summary, then cover Projects, context and letting Claude work on files on your own disk without putting anything at risk.

claude-code · claude-desktop

How to connect Google Search Console to Claude with an MCP server

SEO Audit Console is a free MCP server that pulls your Search Console history into a database on your own machine, joins it to a crawl of your site, and lets Claude query both. In today's guide we're taking a closer look at how to set it up in Claude Desktop or Claude Code, run the first sync and crawl, and ask your first SEO questions.

claude-code · mcp

How to Set Up the DataForSEO MCP with Claude Desktop (2026)

In today's guide we're connecting the official DataForSEO MCP (v3) to Claude Desktop: there's a zero-install hosted option, a local setup if you'd rather hold the keys, and a new docs-plus-gateway model worth understanding before you start.

Chrome DevTools MCP: What It Does, and When to Use Something Else

Google's Chrome DevTools MCP gave coding agents a real Chrome to debug in. These days I use Claude's own browser for debugging and design, so here's what the MCP does now, how to install it, and where each of the alternatives fits.