Building with Claude Artifacts
Turn a chat into a working document, page, or small app you can see and refine.
Jamie Owen Updated 9 Jun 2026
Artifacts are a side panel where Claude builds something you can actually use (a formatted document, a chart, a small interactive web page) and keeps it separate from the back-and-forth of the chat. Instead of copying code or text out of a conversation, you watch the thing take shape and steer it.
When they shine
Anything you’ll iterate on. A one-page summary you want reformatted three ways, a simple calculator, a checklist for your team. You describe a change and the Artifact updates in place, so you keep one clean version instead of scrolling back through messages hunting for the latest.
How to drive them well
Start small and add. Get a basic version working, then ask for one change at a time, and be specific about each: “make the header sticky and the buttons larger” beats “make it nicer”.
Treat a code Artifact like any AI output. Read it, and test it before you rely on it, exactly as you would with coding help.
An Artifact is a live draft you and Claude edit together. Quick to shape, still yours to check.