No technical background needed, just follow these in order. It takes about ten minutes from download to your first working conversation.
Four quick checks. Tap any box for the step and why it matters.
Step: Go to Settings → Privacy in Claude and turn off "Help Improve our AI models."
Why: your System will handle real client names, budgets, and pre-approval amounts. If this is left on, that information can be used to train future AI models and kept for up to five years. Turned off, standard 30-day retention applies and nothing is used for training. This is your own account setting, not something we can set for you or something specific to Chatelaine, but it directly decides whether your clients' information stays private.
Step: In Settings → Capabilities, turn on "Cloud code execution and file creation" and "Artifacts." Both are usually on by default already, this is just a quick check before you install.
"Cloud code execution and file creation" is required for skills, Claude's own settings page marks it that way, and your System is built entirely out of skills. Without it, your System can't run.
"Artifacts" is what lets your setup dashboard actually display. Your System builds a live dashboard during setup and keeps it updated every time it runs, without Artifacts on, that dashboard has nowhere to show up.
After checkout, Gumroad gives you a file ending in .plugin (for example, buyer-system.plugin). Download it to your computer, you'll need it in the next step. Don't unzip it or rename it.
Go to claude.ai (or open the Claude desktop app) and switch to Cowork. Plugins only work in Cowork, they don't show up in a regular chat.
In the sidebar, click Customize, then the Plugins tab.
On the Plugins page, choose Add, then Upload Plugin, and select the .plugin file you downloaded. That's the install, there's nothing else to run.
Installing Command Center? Give it its own project, separate from your client work, something like Command Center. It's your personal daily dashboard, not tied to any one client, so it doesn't belong in the Clients project below.
Installing Buyer System or Seller System? In the sidebar, open Projects and create a new one called Clients. This is where every client-facing Chatelaine System you own lives, your Buyer System now, your Seller System later if you add it, together in the same project so conversations share memory and Claude keeps context between sessions instead of starting fresh every time you open a new chat. Already have a Clients project from another Chatelaine System? Use that one, don't make a second.
From inside your Clients project, tell Claude what you bought, for example: "Set up the Buyer System." It'll ask a short set of questions (your brokerage info, your usual lender, how you like things worded) and build your folders automatically. About ten minutes, one conversation, nothing to configure by hand.
Your System runs on tools you already have. Connecting them first makes setup go faster, but Claude will also prompt you for anything it still needs.
iMessage isn't a cloud connector like Gmail or Calendar, there's nothing to "connect" in the usual sense. Command Center reads your texts directly from your own Mac, so text scanning only works while you're running the Claude desktop app locally on that same Mac.
Step: open the Claude desktop app on your Mac. If macOS asks for permission to access Messages, allow it (System Settings → Privacy & Security). If you use Claude only in a browser, or on a different computer, texts won't be scanned, everything else in your System still works.
Command Center uses a dedicated calendar named "Claude" for one-off dated tasks, kept separate from your main calendar. Claude can read and write events to it, but can't create a brand-new calendar on its own.
With Zapier connected: Claude can create the "Claude" calendar for you automatically during setup.
Without Zapier: create it yourself first. In Google Calendar, click the + next to "Other calendars," choose Create new calendar, name it exactly Claude, then save. Once it exists, tell Claude during setup and it'll connect to it.
If you don't see Cowork as an option, double check you're on a Pro or Max plan, it isn't available on Free. If the upload option isn't where you expect, make sure you're inside Customize → Plugins specifically, not the regular chat window. Still stuck? Email hello@chatelainekey.com and we'll walk you through it.