Real-world things Claude can do
28 public accounts of people having Claude do real-world jobs: 3 calls & messaging, 10 make things, 1 earth, 3 mail & print. Each one links to the original post and says how to do it today.
The agent is named as the source wrote it. Some entries name more than one agent.
Calls & messaging (3)
- Have your Claude agent phone you when it is stuck or done
A developer had Claude wire up Twilio so their agent calls them when it needs an answer on a Jira ticket or finishes a job, and also rings them for appointments until they press a key to confirm.
- Let Claude or ChatGPT place calls from your own number
A maker launched a remote MCP server that lets Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT make outbound calls from the user's phone number, with examples like asking a restaurant about a 7 pm table.
- Have Claude create a voice agent that places outbound calls
ElevenLabs launched an MCP server for Claude Desktop and Cursor and showed it spinning up a voice agent that makes outbound calls, using ordering a pizza as the example task.
Make things (10)
- Have Claude build parts in an open-source parametric CAD tool
The author of Lobole, a parametric B-Rep CAD app, found Claude good at driving it through scripts; the engine, watch and bicycle shown in the README were each built by Claude.
- Design an ESP32 WiFi fan controller in KiCad with Claude
A PCB designer with 40 years' experience asked Claude Opus 5.5 for the schematic and ESP-IDF firmware of a WiFi fan speed controller; it finished in about 20 minutes. Claude also drew a board outline from photos of the case and caught issues in his mains-voltage layout.
- Design a rechargeable LED earring board with Claude
An experienced designer had Claude (Fable) design an RP2350 earring with an IMU and 45 LEDs. Two footprint mistakes were worked around with JLC's help and a dab of solder, and the earrings work. Six days of model use cost about $50 on his plan.
- Have Claude design a VGA logic board and fab it at JLCPCB for $6
Claude Opus 4.8 designed a 74-series logic and GAL circuit that outputs an EEPROM image over VGA. The owner routed it, JLC made it for $6, and it worked after one bodge wire.
- Design a 4-layer RP2040 board with Claude and have PCBWay build it
A maker had Claude design a four-layer RP2040 circuit board from scratch and ordered it from PCBWay; it worked first time apart from overlapping silkscreen. Claude then designed a 3D-printed case for it, also usable first go.
- 3D print a missing bike part from a photo and caliper readings
A user sent Claude photos of an empty cable-routing hole on a used bike plus caliper measurements. Claude returned a parametric OpenSCAD part, printed in TPU, that fit almost perfectly first time.
- Design and print stackable desk trays with Claude
Unable to find a stackable desk tray online, a user had Claude write OpenSCAD over lunch and iterated in the evening; by the next day three printed trays were on the desk.
- Design board game card holders with Claude for a Bambu printer
A Bambu P1S owner designs small parts with Claude in OpenSCAD, such as card holders for the board game Power Grid.
- Print enclosure parts from a Claude-written OpenSCAD file
A maker got a printable enclosure STL from Claude Opus in about five minutes, but as the parts got more complex, describing constraints in words got hard, so he finished the job by hand in FreeCAD.
- Check and pause your 3D printer from Claude
OctoEverywhere published a guide to connecting Claude Desktop to its cloud MCP server so the chatbot can read live print status, grab webcam snapshots and pause, resume or cancel jobs on OctoPrint, Klipper and Bambu printers.
Earth (1)
- Search, price and order satellite imagery from Claude or ChatGPT
SkyFi launched an MCP server so assistants like Claude and ChatGPT can search its archive, compare sources, task new captures and place orders in chat, paid at standard SkyFi prices.
Mail & print (3)
- Have an AI agent run a real retail store
Andon Labs opened Andon Market on Union Street in San Francisco, run by an agent named Luna that picks products and buys stock with its own cards. One logged order was 24 mugs from Printful at $7.13 each.
- Turn an AI-run shop profitable with a newer Claude
In phase two, upgrades and new AI colleagues made Claudius much better at sourcing items and pricing for a margin, though it could still be talked into bad deals by determined testers.
- Let Claude run a small office shop and order its stock
Anthropic and Andon Labs had a Claude agent called Claudius run a self-serve shop in the office, choosing stock, setting prices and handling requests. It lost money, partly by selling tungsten cubes below cost after staff asked for them.
Home & IoT (2)
- Add a timer and push alert to a smart plug in ten minutes with Claude
A Home Assistant user asked Claude for an automation that times a new candle warmer and asks by push alert whether to extend; it worked in under ten minutes and Claude suggested auto-off when nobody is home.
- Run a swamp cooler on humidity with Claude-written RF control
After capturing and decoding a swamp cooler remote's RF signals, a user built a controller that adds water only when humidity drops. Newer Claude models improved the control logic and are replacing the remote entirely.
Robots & drones (5)
- Have Claude set up and drive a robot dog without human help
In the follow-up, Claude Opus 4.7 worked without human assistance and finished the robot dog setup and control tasks about 20 times faster than the fastest human team, though precise ball handling was still hard.
- Fly an internet-connected drone from Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini
Researchers built an MCP server that exposes MAVLink so any MCP-capable model can command a drone, and showed it controlling a real internet-connected drone as well as simulated missions.
- Program a robot dog to fetch with Claude's help
Anthropic had two teams of non-roboticists program a quadruped robot to fetch a beach ball; the team with Claude got further, mainly because Claude made connecting to the robot and its sensors much faster.
- Test an LLM-controlled robot on fetching butter around the office
Andon Labs put LLMs in charge of an office robot and timed household delivery tasks. The best model completed 40% against 95% for humans.
- Diagnose an industrial robot's gripper with Claude over ROS
The ROS MCP Server team connected Claude to a production industrial robot with only the technician manuals; from one prompt it found the robot's custom topics, ran its own tests on the gripper and reported the root cause of a fault.
Radio (1)
- Control a Flipper Zero from Claude
A developer released an MCP server that lets Claude write, check, save and run BadUSB scripts on a Flipper Zero and load tunes to its speaker over USB or WiFi.
Vehicles & maps (1)
- Order the team pizza on DoorDash with Claude computer use
During an internal bug bash for computer use, hungry Anthropic engineers asked Claude to go to DoorDash and order food for the group. About a minute later it had chosen pizzas.
Cameras & sensors (1)
- Leave an agent overnight to bring up an e-ink screen it watches by webcam
Stuck writing Rust firmware for a mislabeled e-ink panel, a user pointed a webcam at it and had Claude (Fable) write a script to read the screen back. Left overnight with the goal of full control confirmed by camera, it was mostly done by morning.
Play (1)
- Have AI agents organize an in-person event
Four agents in the AI Village set out to celebrate a story they wrote with 100 people. After weeks of venue emails they settled on Dolores Park in San Francisco, and 23 people came.
Add Real World MCP to Claude (web and desktop)
- Click Add Real World MCP to Claude . Claude opens Add custom connector with the name and URL filled in. If you are signed out, sign in first.
- Or add it by hand: go to Customize → Connectors, click + Add, then Add custom connector. Name it Real World MCP and paste the URL below. Click Continue.
- Under Authentication, pick No sign in. Click Add.
- In a chat, click +, open Connectors, and turn Real World MCP on.
https://www.realworldmcp.com/api/mcp
Free plans can add one custom connector. On Team and Enterprise plans an Owner adds it first under Organization settings → Connectors → Add → Custom → Web (or with the admin install link ); members then click Connect under Customize → Connectors. Claude reaches the server from Anthropic's cloud, so it must be public. Ours is.
Sources: Anthropic help center · Claude install links . Other clients: all setup steps.
Related directory categories
Task pages
- Give your AI agent a phone number
- Order PCBs from Claude
- Buy satellite imagery with an AI agent
- Send a letter or postcard from your AI agent
- Control Home Assistant from Claude
- Run a robot with ROS from Claude
Questions people ask
What real-world things has Claude done?
28 public accounts of people having Claude do real-world jobs: 3 calls & messaging, 10 make things, 1 earth, 3 mail & print. Each one links to the original post and says how to do it today.
How do I add Real World MCP to Claude?
Open https://claude.ai/customize/connectors?modal=add-custom-connector&connectorName=Real%20World%20MCP&connectorUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.realworldmcp.com%2Fapi%2Fmcp or go to Customize, Connectors, + Add, Add custom connector. Name it Real World MCP, paste https://www.realworldmcp.com/api/mcp, pick No sign in and click Add. Free plans can add one custom connector.
Does every story use Real World MCP?
No. These stories used many different tools. Each page lists the tools named in the source and the ways to do the same job today.