This is the same AI-powered, human-led studio ContentWorks runs for you … now sitting on your own desk, for the jobs that can't wait for a request to go through us. About 30 to 45 minutes to set up, once. Follow the steps in order, and if anything doesn't match what's described, stop and email us rather than guessing.
ContentWorks already runs your wider Vidalux marketing machine behind the glass … the strategy, the daily publishing engine, brand and fact checking, the bigger builds. This is that same studio, put directly in your hands for the moments a request through us would just slow you down: a banner you need in the next ten minutes, a reply to a review before you close the laptop, a second opinion on a line of copy you're not sure about.
You're not picking up extra work. You've been running Vidalux long enough, and working with us long enough, that it made sense to hand you a working copy of the same tools … speed and control over the quick stuff, with the wider machine still running underneath exactly as it does today.
Nothing about how ContentWorks operates changes. This studio adds a second, faster lane for the jobs that suit doing yourself … everything strategic, scheduled or client-facing at scale stays exactly where it is.
Five things. Only your Claude subscription costs anything … the rest are free. Have them ready and the whole setup runs in one sitting.
Eight steps, in order. Each one ends with a line telling you exactly what "done" looks like before you move to the next.
Three of these steps ask you to sign in to something … GitHub, Claude, and Google. A brand-new private folder plus a string of sign-ins is exactly the shape the internet has taught everyone (and every AI assistant) to treat with suspicion … so if a warning, or even your own Claude chat, pauses to ask whether this is legitimate, that instinct is healthy. Here's the truth of it: this is a real private folder built for you by ContentWorks, every sign-in is to your own account on your own billing, and nothing in this guide ever asks for a password or a payment on our behalf. If anything on screen seems to, stop and email dan@contentworks.ai before going further.
Your studio needs two small pieces of software that Apple provides for free, and there's one easy way to check you've got them. Open Terminal (search for it with Spotlight … the magnifying glass, top right of your screen), type this, and press return:
git --version
If a window pops up offering to install "command line developer tools", click Install, wait a few minutes, and you're done. If a version number appears straight away instead, it's already installed. Now type python3 --version and press return … you should see a version number here too, since it installs alongside the first check.
Once this step is done, you never need to open Terminal again. Everything else happens inside VS Code.
Both commands print a version number, not "command not found".
Your studio needs two small pieces of free software. Both are quick installs with no sign-up.
Git … go to git-scm.com, click the Windows download, run the installer and accept every default (there are a lot of screens … just keep clicking Next).
Python … go to python.org/downloads and click the big download button. On the installer's first screen, tick the box marked "Add python.exe to PATH" before you click Install … that tick-box is the one thing on that screen that matters.
Once these two are in, everything else happens inside apps with buttons.
Open the Start menu, type cmd, open Command Prompt, and type git --version then python --version … both print a version number rather than an error saying the command isn't recognised.
GitHub Desktop is the app that gets your studio folder onto your Mac, and it's also what makes the double-click update work later on… so it's a required part of setup, not an extra.
Go to desktop.github.com, download and install it, then open it and sign in with your GitHub account through your browser.
Check your email for the invitation from ContentWorks and accept it … that's what gives your GitHub account access to your private studio folder.
Back in GitHub Desktop, open the File menu and choose Clone Repository… (Clone is GitHub's own word for "download my working copy" … the only place in this whole guide you'll see it). Find vidalux-studio in the list, and look for the box marked Local Path in the window that appears.
GitHub Desktop defaults to putting your folder inside Documents/GitHub. Change that path so your folder lands directly in your Home folder instead … the one Finder shows with your username, not inside Desktop and not inside Documents. To do it: click Choose… next to the Local Path box, and in the window that opens press ⌘⇧H (or click your username in the sidebar) to jump straight to your Home folder, then click Select.
Here's why it matters: if your Mac syncs Desktop and Documents to iCloud (most do), that syncing quietly breaks a folder like this one. Your Home folder doesn't sync that way, so it's the one safe place for it to live.
GitHub Desktop defaults to putting your folder inside Documents\GitHub. Change that path so your folder lands directly in your user folder instead … the one with your name on it, not Desktop and not Documents. To do it: click Choose… next to the Local Path box, and in the window that opens go to This PC → Local Disk (C:) → Users → your name, then click Select Folder.
Here's why it matters: if your PC syncs Desktop and Documents to OneDrive (most do), that syncing quietly breaks a folder like this one. Your user folder itself doesn't sync that way, so it's the one safe place for it to live.
Once the path is changed, click Clone.
Finder shows a folder called vidalux-studio sitting directly inside your Home folder … not inside Desktop, not inside Documents.File Explorer shows a folder called vidalux-studio sitting directly inside your user folder … not inside Desktop, not inside Documents.
VS Code is the free app you'll open your studio folder in every time. Download and install it from code.visualstudio.com, then open it and choose File → Open Folder, and select the vidalux-studio folder from your Home folder (press ⌘⇧H in the choose-folder window to jump straight to Home)from your user folder (This PC → Local Disk (C:) → Users → your name).
The first time it opens, VS Code may offer a sign-in … for syncing settings, or for an AI helper called Copilot. Your studio uses neither. Pick whichever option lets you continue or skip without signing in, and carry on.
VS Code's sidebar shows the contents of your studio folder … folders like tools, knowledge and outputs.
Click the Extensions icon in VS Code's left-hand sidebar (it looks like four small squares), search for Claude Code, and install the one published by Anthropic.
A Claude icon appears in the sidebar … click it, and sign in with your own Claude account (Pro or Max), the one you set up in the "before you start" step. It opens your browser to log in.
The Claude panel shows you're signed in, with a box ready for you to type into.
The first time you open your studio folder, a few one-off questions appear. All of them are normal and expected … none are a sign anything's wrong.
Click Yes, I trust the authors. This is VS Code's standard check on any new folder, and your studio folder is safe.
You may also see one or two of Claude Code's own first-open prompts, and possibly a macOS window asking for a permissiona Windows security question. Read each one and allow it … they're part of getting set up.
No more prompts are appearing, and you have a chat box ready to type into.
In the Claude Code chat box, type:
/orient
This gives you a plain-English tour of your studio … what's inside, what the tools do, where your work ends up. It's read-only … it doesn't change anything.
The tour also introduces your board … six people who sit above the tools: Priya (finance), Rowan (marketing), Gareth (product truth), Bex (operations & customer), Fiona (consumer law), and Sid, your studio guide … the one to ask any "how do I…" question about the studio itself. Ask for any of them by name, the way you'd put a question to your own team … there's a whole section on them further down this page.
If your picture key isn't set up yet, the tour starts by walking you through adding it … that's the same job as step 7 below, just guided from the chat. Do it whichever way suits you … either way it takes about two minutes.
The reply ends with this line, on its own: "✓ Your studio is set up and ready."
This key is what lets your studio render pictures directly, rather than handing you a written brief to paste elsewhere. It's free to create and takes about two minutes. One thing worth knowing: in the studio chat this same key is just called your picture key … if the chat ever asks “is your picture key set up?”, this key is the one it means.
Go to aistudio.google.com and make sure you're signed in with a Google account. Click the key icon in the bottom-left corner ("Get API key"), then create a new key and copy it.
Now go back to VS Code … and use its file list on the left, not Finder.
FinderFile Explorer hides files that start with a dot, so you won't be able to see this one there at all. VS Code shows it.
In VS Code's file list, right-click .env.example → Copy → Paste → rename the new copy to .env. Open it, and paste your key straight after GEMINI_API_KEY=, then save (Cmd+SCtrl+S).
VS Code's file list shows a file called .env sitting next to .env.example, with your key pasted in and saved.
Paste this into the Claude Code chat box exactly as it's written … it's the studio's built-in first prompt, aimed at one of your flagship products:
"Give me a hero image for the Ashford 1350 Easy Access Walk-In Bath. I want a warm, reassuring lifestyle shot … installed in a bright, modern family bathroom, soft natural light, the door open and inviting. Landscape, banner-ready. Nothing in the shot that isn't part of the real product."
Your studio will draft the image brief and ask you to approve before it renders anything … approve it, and it sends the brief to Google's image model on your behalf, using the key you just added.
Once it's done, open the outputs folder in VS Code, then the folder named with today's date (for example outputs/2026-08-02) … your picture is inside.
You can open that dated folder and see a real picture file sitting inside it.
You don't need to remember any tool names. Say what you want, in plain words, and the right one fires itself.
| Say this | What happens |
|---|---|
| "Give me a hero image for the [product name] … warm lifestyle shot, home garden setting, banner-ready." | Drafts an image brief, shows you it, and renders it the moment you say go … using your own key. |
| "Write me a blog post about why infrared saunas help with recovery after exercise." | A full blog draft in your voice, checked against your real product data. |
| "I've had three new five-star reviews come in … draft me replies, and pull out the best lines for social captions." | Reply drafts plus caption-ready lines, all in real customer language. |
| "Draft a reply to this one-star review about a late delivery." (paste the review in) | An on-brand reply draft, ready for you to read and post yourself. |
| "Give me a technical diagram brief showing how Complete Heat works." | A diagram brief that explains the mechanism, stopping cleanly at what the product actually does. |
| "I've landed a guest article slot on a home improvement blog … write it, with a link back to our walk-in bath range." | A publish-ready guest article … genuinely useful to that site's readers, with your links placed naturally and every product claim checked against your real facts. |
| "Rewrite the product description for the walk-in bath range … it reads flat." | A refreshed set of product copy, using only what's already in your data. |
| "Take this photo I like and give me an on-brand Vidalux version of that look." | Rebuilds a scene or style you like into a Vidalux-branded brief … nothing borrowed, nothing copied. |
| "Priya, what did we sell last September … build me this September's push around it." | Real answers from your own sales history … it's delivered into the studio automatically, month by month and product by product, back to January 2024. |
| "Sid, how do I update my studio?" … or "Sid, where did yesterday's banner end up?" | Plain-words answers about the studio itself … how things work, where files live, and the simple fixes, one step at a time. |
| "I need a stress-test on this draft before it goes on the site … is anything going to cause a problem?" | A tough second-opinion pass that checks a draft before it's used anywhere. |
| "Write me a short standard procedure for how we handle a damaged-in-transit claim." | A clean, structured procedure, built only from what you actually describe. |
| "Build me the brochure content pack for the walk-in bath range." | The whole range brochure content … range story, per-product copy, comparison table and an image plan … ready for layout. |
| "Catch me up." … or, at the end of the day, "Wrap up." | Catch-up: where you left off, anything new in the studio, what's next on your goals. Wrap-up: what you made, where it sits, anything half-done, saved as a short note in today's outputs folder. |
| "Connect my site." … or "Change the headline on the [page name] page." | Works on your WordPress site through WPVibe. It shows you the change first and only does it on your yes. |
| "Fiona, this customer's demanding a refund on a sauna he's used for two months … where do I stand?" | The legal position in plain English, plus a ready-to-send reply in Vidalux's voice. |
The 29 October update. It arrives the usual way … Fetch origin, then Pull origin, or say "get the latest updates" in the chat. Six things:
outputs) no longer ask each time. Anything that changes your live site always does./catch-up) to start the day: where you left off, anything new, what's next on your goals. Say "wrap up" (/wrap-up) to finish: what you made, where it sits, anything half-done, saved as a short note in today's outputs folder.WPVibe is a WordPress plugin, made by a third party, that lets the studio read and work on your site. These steps are taken from WPVibe's own page for Claude Code: wpvibe.ai/connect/claude-code (read 29 October 2026). If WPVibe changes its steps, theirs win … follow WPVibe's own connect steps on its site.
Go to wpvibe.ai/start, enter your site address and follow the installer. It installs the free WPVibe plugin from WordPress.org and opens a one-click authorisation screen in your WordPress admin. Approve it.
Say "connect WPVibe" in the chat. The studio tells you in a line what it's doing (it adds WPVibe to your studio), shows you one command and asks for your yes before it runs it:
claude mcp add --transport http wpvibe https://mcp.wpvibe.ai/mcp/claude
WPVibe says this adds it to this studio only. If the studio says it doesn't recognise claude, or WPVibe doesn't show up in the next step, close and reopen the studio and try again. If it's still not there, follow WPVibe's own connect steps on its site and email us a screenshot.
In the chat, type /mcp (Claude's connections menu), pick WPVibe and choose to authenticate. A browser tab opens WPVibe's sign-in. Enter your email, then the 6-digit code from the email WPVibe sends you (the code is in the subject line). Back in the studio, WPVibe shows as connected.
Ask: "Use WPVibe to list my connected sites." The studio should name your site.
The studio lists your site by name.
Anything that changes the live site … publishing, editing a page, theme or global styles, products … is shown to you first and only done on your yes. Design changes go through Kadence's Customizer and global settings, never edited theme files. Before the studio changes a global colour or font, it tells you that every page and article on the site uses them, so changing them changes all of them. WPVibe also says it puts theme changes in a draft with a private preview, and shows a dry run before bulk or deleting jobs. Nothing is typed into the chat that looks like a password or code … the sign-in happens in your browser.
If the sign-in window doesn't open, or WPVibe isn't listed, close and reopen the studio and run /mcp again. If WPVibe can read your site but changes fail, a screenshot to dan@contentworks.ai is all we need.
The tools make things. The board helps you decide what's worth making, and whether it's right … six people, always available, each with one job … five advisors for the business, and Sid for the studio itself. Ask for them by name, or just ask the question … the right one turns up on the subject alone.
sales-data folder carries your own orders … month by month, product by product, back to January 2024 … refreshed automatically from your Linnworks feed within a couple of hours of new orders landing. "What did we sell last August … plan me this year's version" just works. For anything extra (a price list, supplier quotes), drop it into the your-data folder … that one never leaves your machine and is never sent to anyone.Your priorities live in a file called GOALS.md, right at the top of your studio folder … your list, in your own words. The advisors weigh everything against it. Say "update my goals" in the chat any time the list drifts from reality … it's one of the two places that are always yours to edit directly (the other is your-data).
And the names are yours … if you'd rather your finance lead were called something else, say so and we'll change it.
Real examples land here once your studio's been through its first proper run.
A hero banner rendered for the Ashford walk-in bath range
Social captions built from real five-star reviews
A technical diagram brief for how a product's heating works
The outputs folder, with a day's work inside
A finished product-description rewrite
A review reply draft, ready to post
outputs for you to review and use, and with WPVibe connected any site change is shown to you first and only done on your yessales-data folder, updated automatically from your Linnworks feed) … but never your costs or margins. Those only ever come from you, so margin questions start with Priya asking for your landed cost.env in VS Code, remove any spaces before or after the key, and save again.If something looks broken, ask Sid first … type "Sid, this doesn't look right" and he'll walk you through the simple fixes one step at a time. If his steps don't sort it, stop where you are and email dan@contentworks.ai … a photo of the screen is all we need. Trying to fix it yourself beyond Sid's steps is the one thing that can turn a small hiccup into a real problem.
Open VS Code … your studio folder is already there … open the Claude chat, and ask for what you want. Your work files itself into outputs, by date, as you go. When you're done, just close the laptop … or say "wrap up" first if you'd like a short note of where you got to, ready for tomorrow's "catch me up". There's nothing to save, nothing to send, nothing to shut down properly … your work is already filed, and it stays on your machine unless you choose to send something on. The setup steps and /orient were a day-one thing … you won't need them day to day.
Open GitHub Desktop … the same app that gave you your folder on day one … and click Fetch origin, then Pull origin if it appears. That's the whole job: your copy now matches ours. If you'd rather ask than click, say "get the latest updates" in the chat box and it does the same thing.
There's also a double-click file inside your studio folder … update-studio.commandupdate-studio.bat … which does the same again. One thing to know if you use it: double-click it in FinderFile Explorer, not in VS Code's file list … inside VS Code it just opens as text, like any file.
The whole routine on one hand … nothing here takes longer than a minute:
outputs. Everything stays on your machine until you decide where it goes.GOALS.md, cross off what's done, reorder what's changed. The advisors steer by that file, so thirty seconds here keeps every answer pointed at what actually matters.