AI Guides › Step-by-step guides
By Nigel Guy · 8 min read
After a busy month of Claude releases, most people either skim the headlines and change nothing, or try to set up everything in one evening, hit a feature their plan doesn't have yet, and decide it's all hype. September 2026 brought five changes worth knowing about, each with a different plan, rollout state and catch.
The rule: check what your account actually has, match one update to the work already on your calendar this week, and try that one with Claude asking before it acts. Leave the other four for later.
| Update (date) | Who gets it, at time of writing | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Chat and Cowork in one window (16 Sept) | Pro and Max, web, desktop and mobile. Team and Enterprise later, with at least 30 days' notice | Rolling out gradually, and you can't opt out |
| Claude Opus 5.5 (22 Sept) | All paid plans | Generally available |
| Claude for Small Business plugin, now 43 workflows and 27 new integrations (15 Sept) | Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise, in the Claude desktop app | Available |
| Claude Code Projects with parallel threads (17 Sept) | Some Pro and Max accounts | Public beta, rolling out. There's a waitlist |
| Salesforce in Claude (15 Sept) | Paid plans, but only for organisations Salesforce has approved | Beta. Needs an admin |
Cost. None has a separate fee; all draw on your plan's usage limits. Anthropic lists Pro at US$20 a month (US$17 billed annually) and Max from US$100, excluding tax. Your UK checkout shows the local price with VAT, so check it there at time of writing. Salesforce in Claude also needs a Salesforce licence.
Look at the message box. If it still shows separate Chat and Cowork options, the unified experience hasn't reached you. If they've gone, you have it. Then check two more things:
Anything you don't have yet drops out of the next step.
| If this week involves... | Try | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| Turning notes into a deck or a shareable document | The unified window | Step 3 |
| One large, fiddly piece of work you keep putting off | Opus 5.5 | Step 4 |
| Running a small business across tools like Xero, Shopify or Stripe | Small Business plugin | Step 5 |
| Several code changes towards one goal, on GitHub | Code Projects | Step 6 |
| Sales calls, with Salesforce as your CRM | Salesforce in Claude | Step 7 |
Choose one row and do only that step.
Claude Slides and Claude Docs launched on 16 September. The release notes list them for Free through Enterprise; the help centre calls them beta, so expect rough edges. No mode switch needed.
Fill in the audience, colours, slide count and notes:
You are helping me present to [AUDIENCE, e.g. three prospective clients].
Goal: a short slide deck plus a matching document they can read later.
1. Read my notes below and list the single main point for each slide. Show me that list first.
2. Build [NUMBER, e.g. five] slides, one idea each, in [BRAND COLOURS as hex codes or names].
3. Then make a one-page document covering the same points in full sentences, ready to share by link.
Rules: use only what is in my notes. If a slide needs a figure or claim that isn't there, mark it [NEEDS SOURCE] rather than inventing one. If the audience or colours are missing, ask me before you start.
Before you finish, check every slide against my notes and say which ones you had to shorten.
My notes:
[PASTE NOTES]
Pick Opus 5.5 in the model picker. Anthropic says it matches Fable 5.1 on most work. The "40% less" figure is API cost against Opus 5; Anthropic hasn't said it stretches a Pro or Max allowance, so don't assume so. Sonnet 5.5 (28 September) suits routine drafting.
Fill in the project and what "done" means:
Act as a careful project planner. Don't take any action yet.
Project: [DESCRIBE THE PROJECT]
What finished looks like: [YOUR DEFINITION OF DONE]
Constraints: [DEADLINE, BUDGET, TOOLS I MUST USE]
1. Break the project into numbered steps, each one small enough to check in under ten minutes.
2. Mark the step most likely to go wrong and explain why in two sentences.
3. Complete step 1 only, show me the result, then stop and wait for my go-ahead.
If anything above is vague or missing, ask me up to three questions before you plan.
Before replying, check that every step has a clear output I can verify.
/smb-onboard, or simply ask Claude for setup help. It questions you about the business, walks you through linking your tools, and stores those answers for the plugin's other skills to draw on.Out of the box, the plugin prepares drafts and holds them for your sign-off, so no email goes out, no post is published and no payment is made until you say so. Leave that setting alone. The free training workshops Anthropic announced are for the US only.
You need code on github.com with the Claude GitHub App installed. Go to Projects > New project, name it, and add the repository under Context. New projects run every thread on Opus at high effort, the fastest way through your allowance, so lower Thread model or Thread effort in Project settings > General for a first trial.
Fill in the goal and the repository:
Goal: [OUTCOME, e.g. cut the home page's load time to under one second]
Repository: [OWNER/REPO]
1. Propose how you would split this into threads that can run at the same time. For each one, give its scope, the files it will touch and how it will check its own work.
2. Wait for my approval before starting any thread. Run no more than [NUMBER, e.g. two] at once.
3. Each approved thread opens one draft pull request, so I can review the changes separately.
If two threads would edit the same files, merge them into one thread and tell me why.
Before proposing, confirm you can reach the repository. If you can't, say so and stop.
Limits like "two at once" are preferences, not hard caps. Watch Overview for threads under Waiting on you.
An admin enables it first. You then go to Customize > Plugins, open Salesforce in Claude, click Add, then Add to Claude to reach the AgentExchange listing, and sign in to Salesforce.
Fill in the company and the date of the call:
I have a call with [COMPANY] on [DATE]. Help me prepare.
1. From Salesforce, summarise the account and every open opportunity, including stage, value and close date.
2. Summarise our last three logged interactions in one line each, with dates.
3. Suggest three questions for the call that would move the largest open opportunity forward.
After the call I'll paste my notes. Then draft a follow-up email and the matching Salesforce updates, and show me both. Write nothing to Salesforce until I approve each change.
If a record is missing or you can't access it, tell me. Don't fill the gap with guesses.
When Claude proposes a write, choose Allow once rather than Always allow until you trust the pattern.