Workshop Day / S2 · 4D

Connect Your First Source.

The checkpoint that gives your brief something to say, and somewhere to live. Using the built-in connectors, you wire your first-light sources (like your email and calendar), add the official Claude Desktop Exa connector for research, and let the Supabase connector set up your database for you. No OAuth gymnastics, no custom code, no Smithery, no SQL editor. Want the deeper picture of how connectors and MCP servers actually work? Read the MCP Servers library card. Here, Claude wires it and you read along.

What you'll have

Your first-light sources the email/calendar (and any other) sources you picked in Session 1, connected through the built-in connector.
One research tool the official Exa connector, so your brief can reach past your own inbox and pull in what is happening out in the world.
Your database, set up for you the Supabase connector creates your project and tables through Claude, so your brief has somewhere to live. No SQL editor.

Step 2 · 4D

4D Build

4D goal Your first-light sources + official Exa + your Supabase database, set up

Done when Claude reads your first-light sources, Exa returns results, and your database exists

You use The built-in connectors (Claude does the setup, you read along)

Time ~20 min

The concept MCP Servers

One-click start

Connect it with Claude.

Paste this into Claude Code. It wires your sources and sets up your database for you, explaining each step as it goes and stopping only when you need to sign in or make a real choice.

How this card works.

New to this? Here's the whole idea: at the top of this card is a setup prompt. Copy it, paste it into Claude, and Claude does the work of connecting your tools and setting up your database, explaining each step in plain language as it goes. You read along. It only stops when there's something only you can do (sign in, or make a real choice), and at those moments it tells you exactly what to do and which option it recommends.

You don't have to read the rest of this card to succeed. Claude walks you through it live. Everything below is here for when you want to understand the why.

Your checkpoint.

This is the day-of execution path, and it's deliberately small: your first-light sources from Session 1 (for most people email and calendar), the official Exa connector for research, and your database, all set up for you through connectors. That's enough to give your Morning Brief real inputs and somewhere to live. Going wide, with more sources, is the 8D room's job.

4D goal

Your first-light sources (like email and calendar), the official Exa connector, and your Supabase database, all wired.

Done when

Claude can read your first-light sources, Exa returns a real result, and your database exists.

You use

The built-in connectors. Claude does the setup; you sign in and read along.

Want the how and why

This card is the checkpoint, kept tight for the day. For how connectors and MCP servers actually work, read the MCP Servers library card. On Claude Desktop these are called connectors; in the terminal you may see them called MCP servers. Same idea.

What happens, step by step.

Step 01

Connect your first-light sources

5 min

Claude connects the first-light sources you picked in Session 1, usually your email and calendar, through the built-in Claude Desktop connector, telling you exactly where to click and proving each one with a quick read of your real data. Just your first-light picks for today; going wide with more sources is an 8D move.

Asked to sign in? That's normal. Most built-in connectors use a sign-in flow, not a pasted key. Sign in where Claude points you. If a key is ever needed, you add it yourself; never paste it into the chat.

Step 02

Prove Claude can read it

2 min

Claude runs a quick test, like your next three calendar events or your five most recent unread emails. If it answers from your real data, the source is wired.

Step 03

Add research with official Exa

5 min

Exa is a web search and research tool. Connecting it lets your brief reach past your own inbox and calendar to pull in what's happening out in the world, and you'll sign in to Exa to connect it (a quick free sign-up if you don't have an account). Claude connects the official Claude Desktop Exa connector, then runs a test that returns a real result. Only the official connector, not Smithery, a community Exa MCP, or an Exa CLI; those live in the 8D or advanced lane.

Step 04

Set up your database

6 min

Your brief needs somewhere to store what it generates: each day's brief, and the record of what was delivered. That's Supabase, your database.

Setting one up normally means opening Supabase's SQL Editor, a page where you paste in commands that create the "tables" (the labeled containers your briefs live in). It works, but it's intimidating the first time, and one typo throws an error.

Two ways to do this. Recommended: if you've connected the Supabase connector, Claude creates your project and builds the tables for you, and you never touch the SQL Editor. By hand: if you don't have the connector, or you'd like to learn it, you create the project at supabase.com and run the schema in the SQL Editor yourself. Claude walks you through whichever you pick.

Your part: have a free Supabase account ready (supabase.com, which gives you an organization automatically when you sign up), and sign in when Claude asks. That's it. No data goes in yet; your actual briefs get written at the capstone (S5).

Your brief now has real inputs and a database to live in. In S5 it compiles everything into your daily Morning Brief.

Going to the 8D room?

8D checkpoint

Go wide: multiple sources (email, calendar, Slack, iMessage), Exa and Firecrawl, a sub-agent per source, and a memory-recall step, so your brief reflects your whole world. Start at Go Wide on Sources.

Where to go next.

Workshop Day