This guide has moved. Use the per-track Cohort PreWork docs. They carry the full pre-Boot-Camp installs plus your track's tool stack: Cohort PreWork: Brand · Cohort PreWork: Interactive. The steps below are kept for reference.

AlabamaCreates Studio

Cohort Setup Guide — Claude + Your Skills

Brand & Interactive (Web) tracks · Prerequisite before Boot Camp

Complete before Sat Jul 25, 2026 · ~30 minutes

Get from a new laptop to a working AI studio setup. Do this before Boot Camp so Saturday opens on the work, not installs. Both tracks, Brand and Interactive (Web), use the Claude desktop app as home base; it is where your skills live. (Motion has its own setup in the Motion guide.)

Step 1 · Install Claude

Sign in to the Claude account provided by the program (or your own Pro/Max plan).
Install Claude from docs.claude.com/claude-code. On a Mac it is a one-line terminal install.
Open it, confirm you are signed in, and run /help to see it is live.

Step 2 · Get the skills bundle

Get the AC-cohort-0 folder from the program (shared drive or repo).
Save it somewhere findable, e.g. ~/AlabamaCreates/AC-cohort-0.
Read COHORT-CONTEXT.md inside it: the frame every skill assumes.

Step 3 · Install your track's skills

Claude loads personal skills from ~/.claude/skills/. Install only your track's skills by copying their folders there.

Brand (8): ac-branding-discovery, ac-branding-creative-direction, ac-branding-strategy, ac-branding-messaging, ac-branding-guidelines, ac-brand-implementation, ac-brand-presentation, ac-brand-logo-production.

Interactive / Web (9): ac-web-discovery, ac-web-strategy, ac-web-design-brief, ac-web-sitemap, ac-web-content-collection, ac-web-copywriting, ac-web-design-review, ac-web-build, ac-web-qa.

# Brand shown — swap "brand" for "web" on the interactive track
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R ~/AlabamaCreates/AC-cohort-0/brand/ac-* ~/.claude/skills/

Recommended once available: the program may ship AC-cohort-0 as a Claude plugin for one-command install. If your mentor gives you a plugin link, use that instead. It keeps everyone on the same version.

Step 4 · Verify

Restart Claude (new session) in any folder.
Ask: "What skills do you have available?": your ac- skills should list.
Smoke-test: "Start a brand discovery for a test client" (Brand) or "Start a web discovery for a test client" (Web) should engage the matching skill.
Not showing up? Confirm the path is ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md and restart. Still stuck → Friday Office Hours.

Step 5 · Also required before Boot Camp

Figma account + desktop app (both tracks).
Brand: Khroma and FontJoy accounts.
Interactive: GitHub and Vercel accounts (you deploy from Claude).
Hardware kit confirmed operational (see your track's Hardware Guide).

How your skills fit the 12 weeks

Skills follow the arc. Each one gates the next, and nothing downstream starts until the upstream piece is approved at Friday Office Hours.

Brand: discovery → creative direction → strategy (gate) → messaging → guidelines → implementation → presentation. Logo files as needed.

Web: discovery → strategy (the gate, which needs an approved Brand Strategy) → design brief → sitemap → content collection → copywriting → design review → build (Next.js) → QA.

Skills accelerate the work. The judgment and the quality bar are yours.