Up to this point, you have been the one driving every interaction with Claude. You open the app, write a prompt, wait for a response, and decide what to do next. That is how most people use AI today.

Now the workflow changes. Claude can operate in the background, running on a schedule, monitoring events, gathering relevant information, and surfacing it automatically. Once you experience this style of automation, you will start finding opportunities to apply it throughout your daily work, turning Claude from a reactive assistant into a proactive one.

How Routines Work

There are two ways to use Claude. In a reactive workflow, you open the app, write a prompt, and wait for a response. In a proactive workflow, Claude runs automatically on a schedule or when a specific event occurs, processes information from your connected tools, and prepares the results before you even open the app.

Every routine follows the same basic pattern: a trigger, an input, a process, and an output. The trigger defines when the routine runs, the input determines which data Claude uses, the process specifies what Claude does with that data, and the output decides where the final result is delivered. Understanding these four components makes it much easier to design your own automations.

The real value of routines comes from repetition. A prompt saves time once, but a routine saves time every time it runs. Instead of manually repeating the same task each day, you invest a few minutes building an automation that continues working in the background. This approach transforms Claude from a tool you occasionally use into an assistant that actively supports your daily workflow.