By Jereme Strange · also on Strange Intel
This is the full checklist behind this week's two-part TikTok series. If you commented STACK or CONTROL — this is the thing. Bookmark it.
Everybody thinks you install Claude Code and boom, it runs your business. Here's what it actually takes — every layer, with the real artifacts.
Layer 1: The rulebook (CLAUDE.md). A rules file that seeds your brand voice, your pricing, your hard no's. Sections like `## Brand Voice`, `## Hard Rules`, `## Pricing`. Without it, your AI writes like a chatbot. With it, it writes like you. This file is the single highest-leverage hour you'll spend.
Layer 2: Persistent memory. One fact per file, frontmatter on each, an index loaded at session start. Without this layer your AI wakes up every morning with amnesia and you re-explain your business daily. Ours is at 250+ files and counting.
Layer 3: A session-start hook. A `SessionStart` hook in `settings.json` that runs a script compiling your calendar, your trackers, and yesterday's handoff into the conversation before you say a word. You start every day briefed instead of briefing.
Layer 4: MCP servers. The hands. `claude mcp add playwright -- npx @playwright/mcp@latest --cdp-endpoint http://localhost:9222` gives it your real browser. Desktop control, file ops, socials — each one is one line to add and a day to dial in safely.
Layer 5: API wiring. Real access to your Gmail, your calendar, your store. CLI tools + OAuth, scoped to what the business actually needs.
Layer 1: Telegram bridge. `/plugin install telegram` — your AI lives in your pocket. Voice notes in, transcribed, executed.
Layer 2: Voice back. Every reply returns as audio in a voice you pick (edge-tts, free). You run a terminal without ever looking at one.
Layer 3: Scheduled routines. Task-scheduler jobs that triage email at 6am, check content at 9, sweep follow-ups at 2 — and ping your phone only when something matters.
Layer 4: Permissions. An allowlist so it works without asking, and hard walls around anything dangerous. Trust is configured, not assumed.
Layer 5: Background tasks. Kick off a long job, close the laptop, get pinged when it's done.
This took us literal months to dial in — the slurred edge cases, the silent failures, the security walls. Every layer above has ten gotchas this checklist doesn't have room for.
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