My A/C unit got here with a cruddy handbook. Claude made a greater one

Um, what does this button do?

Our new air conditioner had simply arrived, a necessity for a sure-to-be-sizzling New York summer time, and already I used to be scratching my head. What’s the “Swing” button for? How does the “Timer” button work? And I couldn’t make sense of the icons on the distant management.

I flipped by way of the handbook for assist, but it surely was something however useful. Many of the consumer information was dedicated to putting in the in-window unit, a job already accomplished by our pleasant A/C supply group. The slim working directions supplied solely transient descriptions of every button, equivalent to noting that the Quiet button “activates/off the QUIET mode.” Gee, thanks!

Clearly, AI is a pure for a case like this, and it’s a no brainer to snap a photograph of the unit, add it to ChatGPT, and ask, “What does the Quiet button do?”

However I needed an precise handbook to go together with my new air conditioner, one which I might stick in our junk drawer for simple reference. The extra I considered it, the extra this appeared like a job for Claude, particularly its Cowork characteristic, which lets it run initiatives immediately in your PC.

I’d lengthy struggled to give you good concepts for what Claude Cowork might do. I used to be detest to set it unfastened on my private recordsdata, so I’ve primarily relegated myself to Cowork performing scheduled net searches and spitting out day by day summaries of its findings.

However making a consumer handbook for my new A/C unit appeared like an excellent problem. I figured I’d create a brand new desktop folder, drop in a PDF of the generic consumer handbook that got here within the field, and add a snapshot of the label on the aspect of the unit with the particular mannequin quantity.

I did all that, fired up Claude Cowork (simply click on the “Cowork” tab on the Claude desktop app), pointed it at my new “AC Handbook” listing, and gave it a immediate (not my greatest effort, I’ll grant you):

We simply bought a brand new air conditioner. Within the mission listing is a snapshot of the particular mannequin quantity on the aspect of the unit. I additionally included a PDF handbook for the general A/C collection. The included handbook just isn’t very useful. Are you able to devise a pleasant, complete how-to-use information, full with visuals, about fundamental options and performance, together with ideas and tips?

For the actual Claude mannequin, I went with Opus 4.8, essentially the most highly effective of the publicly obtainable Claude variations (at the very least till the mysterious Claude Mythos arrives). That’s plenty of AI firepower for a job like this, however my weekly Claude utilization allowance was about to reset and I nonetheless had loads of gasoline within the tank. (I’m on the Claude Professional plan, which prices $20 a month, and a paid Claude plan is required to make use of Claude Cowork.)

I clicked the submit button, and Claude requested me a couple of questions earlier than beginning:

Did I need set up directions, working procedures, or each?

Would this handbook be only for my household or for renters and different customers?

And what format did I need the handbook in?

I selected “Simply operation,” “Solely my household,” and “PDF,” after which Claude went to work (“I’ll begin by what’s in your mission folder — the photograph of the mannequin quantity and the PDF handbook. I see a service handbook PDF and a photograph. Let me take a look at each.”)

Claude started by scouring the handbook and working a couple of fast net searches. It then began constructing the handbook itself (“Let me mark analysis achieved and skim the PDF ability to construct a refined, visible information… I’ll construct this as a richly-illustrated HTML doc with customized SVG diagrams, then render to PDF”).

All advised, it took Claude about 10 minutes to finish the handbook. The completed product is each beautiful and informative: 12 pages lengthy, with a slick gradient-blue cowl and a 60-second quick-start information. It additionally consists of particulars on the 4 cooling modes, a primer on the Quiet, Sleep, and Timer capabilities (thanks!), plus money-saving ideas and upkeep routines.

I rigorously checked over Claude’s directions and ideas, and so far as I can inform, they’re correct. Claude even famous the place it was not sure of some particulars and defined the way it dealt with the uncertainties:

A few small issues I intentionally framed gently relatively than invented: I pointed to friedrich.com/help for guarantee/registration relatively than printing a telephone quantity, and I described filter/vent areas generically since actual placement varies — in case you inform me the place yours sit, I could make these steps extra particular.

That is once I realized I’d didn’t take snapshots of the entrance management panel and the distant itself; I added these pictures to the mission folder and requested Claude to revise the handbook with correct button layouts, with the edits taking roughly 5 extra minutes. As soon as that was achieved, the buttons in Claude’s consumer handbook have been all in the correct locations.

My Claude A/C handbook mission took about half an hour and used rather less than half my five-hour Claude utilization allowance. It produced a pleasant, informative, and — crucially — correct information that ought to are available in fairly helpful.

You could possibly, in fact, run by way of this course of with any product, not simply with Claude. ChatGPT customers might do the identical factor. I’d suggest utilizing OpenAI’s Codex software, which may construct PDFs and apps. Gemini customers might give it a whirl too with the standalone Antigravity software.