AI Guides
Plain-English guides for getting real work out of an AI agent. Each one reads like a normal article, and copies or downloads cleanly for your AI.
New to AI agents
Set up Claude Code or Codex
Pick a plan, install it, and have your first conversation in about ten minutes.
Start the setup guide →Already set up
Plugins, skills, and MCP
Give your agent new skills and connect it to the apps you already use.
Read the guide →Running on Zo
Zo in 10 minutes
Your own server, your files, your AI. The mental model and the first steps.
Read the guide →Already have an AI?
Paste one line and it picks the right guide and walks you through it. You need a paid plan: Claude plans ↗ or ChatGPT plans ↗
Start with an AI agent
Set up Claude Code or Codex and put it to work. No Zo needed.
7 min readAny agent
Claude Code and Codex: Setup for Beginners
A zero-experience walkthrough for installing Claude Code or Codex: which plan to buy, opening a terminal, the one-line installers, signing in, your first conversation, and fixes for the common snags.
4 min readAny agent
Plugins, Skills, and MCP
The plain-English difference between skills, MCP connections, and plugins, how to add each in Claude Code and Codex, and how to install them safely.
Working principles
How to prompt, structure, and safely share AI systems on any platform.
7 min readAny agent
Prompting and Persona Craft
Prompt structure that works, the build loop from aspirational end result to GitHub baseline, designing a persona as a job description, and the failure modes behind vague or confidently wrong output.
8 min readAny agent
The Classified Method
How Classified approaches building AI operations: files as memory, briefing docs, boring stacks, guardrails as architecture, and verification before done.
5 min readAny agent
Personas, Scopes, and Guardrails
How to expose an AI to other people safely: allowlist scoping, separating knowledge from access, and why instructions are not a security boundary.
Building on Zo
For builders running their AI on Zo: primitives, schedules, and cost.
5 min readZo
Zo in 10 Minutes
The plain-English mental model of Zo (your own server, your files, your AI), the two setup steps that matter most, and the first things a new builder should do.
5 min readZo
Skill vs Automation vs Site vs Service
A decision tree for picking the right Zo primitive, the escalation ladder from conversation to service, and the common wrong picks.
6 min readZo
Automations That Fire
Scheduling judgment: timezones, rrule patterns, per-run cost, idempotent run design, and how to debug an automation that went silent.
6 min readZo
Cost and Usage
How to not get surprised by the bill: the four spend multipliers and the habits that keep AI usage boring and predictable.
Games and mods
Make a first game, or mod PC games without breaking them. No Zo needed.
6 min readAny agent
Build Games with an AI Agent: Claude Code or Codex + Unity
Install Unity's official plugin in Claude Code or Codex, give your agent live control of the Unity Editor, and follow a 30-day plan to your first playable game.
8 min readAny agent
Set Up Your Gaming PC for Modding with an AI Agent
Turn Claude Code or Codex into a careful modding assistant: a workshop folder, checked backups before every change, a frozen game version, mod installs, and switchable mod setups.
6 min readAny agent
When a Modded Game Crashes: Let Your Agent Investigate
Save the crash evidence, let your agent read the logs, check the usual causes, test mods in halves, and prove a cause before you blame a mod.
6 min readAny agent
Make Mods Your Own: Read, Tweak, and Write Mod Content with an Agent
Find out what is really in a mod, get exact console commands, edit files safely, and write your own lore and characters, including for AI-driven NPC mods.
Community
The Classified AI Builders Discord and how to get help.
3 min readAny agent
Start Here
The Classified AI Builders Discord and Friday, the community's backup AI. Get answers from your own agent first; bring questions to the humans when you want a second set of eyes.
For your agent
Hand your AI the whole set in one paste, or point it at a URL. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Zo, or any agent that reads pasted text.
Single guides
Every guide is also raw markdown at /guides/<name>.md, plus the site map for AI.
These guides cover judgment. For product mechanics, the official docs win: Claude Code ↗, Codex ↗, and Zo ↗.
Want it built for you?
These guides teach the craft. Classified also designs, builds, secures, and runs custom AI systems end to end. You ask for it, we build it, you own it.