Build Guide · Outstep

How I built a live LinkedIn content dashboard with AI

The exact step-by-step: connectors, prompts, customizations, and how to swap any piece for tools you already use.

Muhammad Ashher
Muhammad Ashher Founder & CEO, Outstep · Top Rated Plus on Upwork
This is the full build guide for the AI LinkedIn content dashboard I demo'd. No code required. It runs entirely inside Claude's Cowork desktop app using connectors — Granola for meeting notes, Tavily for web research, and Excalidraw for visuals. The whole thing took one afternoon to build. This guide covers the exact setup, the prompts I used, and how to customize every piece for your own workflow, tools, and voice.
01 — What It Does
01
The Dashboard Overview
What was built · Why it works · What you get
LinkedIn Content Dashboard
Live Artifact
A persistent, AI-powered dashboard that turns your meeting notes and web research into ready-to-post LinkedIn content. It lives in Cowork and refreshes every time you open it. No copying and pasting between apps, no content calendar, no blank page.
Needs Attention
Action items tab — pulls your open tasks and decisions from Granola meetings, sorted by priority
LinkedIn Ideas
Ideas tab — generates post ideas from your real meetings + Tavily trending topics. Favorite, delete, or generate more on demand.
Draft + Visual
Per-idea drafting — choose a style (Punchy / Story / Listicle / Contrarian / Question), drag the length slider, get a full draft and a visual graphic instantly
▤
The 6 Tabs Explained
▼
🔴
Needs Attention. Pulls open action items, decisions, and follow-ups from your recent Granola meetings. Acts as your daily brief.
💡
LinkedIn Ideas. AI-generated post ideas from your meetings + Tavily web research. Each has a tag (Story, Hot take, Contrarian, etc.), a favorite button, and a delete button.
⭐
Favorites. Any idea you star moves here. Your personal shortlist of posts worth writing this week.
✦
Generate. Paste any raw context — a meeting transcript, a URL, a rough thought — and get 4 custom post ideas from it instantly.
📅
This Week. A summary of your week pulled from Granola — what you worked on, what got resolved, what's still open.
🧠
My Context. Your persistent profile — name, company, tone, audience, topics, things to avoid. Every draft and idea generation uses this to write in your voice, not a generic AI voice.
Want to see this built for your team's workflow? I build these as custom AI systems.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
02 — The Stack
02
Tools & Connectors Used
Claude · Cowork · Granola · Tavily · Excalidraw
Claude + Cowork
The AI brain and the canvas. Cowork is Anthropic's desktop app — it gives Claude file access, a Linux shell, and the ability to create persistent "artifacts" (live HTML pages that call your connectors and refresh on demand). Everything else plugs into this.
⚙
Setup
▼
1
Download the Claude desktop app and sign in with a Pro or Team account.
2
Enable Cowork mode — open the app, go to Settings, and switch on Cowork. This unlocks artifacts, file access, and the connector plugin system.
3
Select a workspace folder — Cowork will ask you to pick a folder on your computer. This is where your dashboard HTML files and outputs will live.
Claude Pro is $20/month. Team plan is $30/user. Both include Cowork.
Questions? DM me →
Granola
AI meeting note-taker that runs quietly in the background. The Cowork connector gives Claude direct access to your meeting transcripts, action items, and summaries — so the dashboard can pull real context from your actual week, not made-up examples.
⚙
Setup
▼
1
Install Granola on your Mac (currently Mac only). It sits in your menu bar and auto-records your calls.
2
In Cowork, open the Plugin / Connector marketplace and search for "Granola". Install the Granola connector.
3
Authorize the connection — Cowork will ask Granola for an API key or OAuth token. Follow the prompts. Once connected, Claude can query your meetings by date, topic, or keyword.
No Granola? You can swap this for Otter.ai, Fireflies, or even a plain folder of meeting notes. See the Customization section at the end of this guide.
✦
What Claude Queries From It
▼
Action Items Query
What are my open action items, follow-ups, and unresolved decisions from my meetings in the last 14 days? Group by project or client.
Ideas Query
What are the most interesting, unusual, or insightful moments, problems solved, or decisions made in my recent meetings? Pull anything that would make a good LinkedIn post.
Weekly Summary Query
Summarize my week based on my meetings. What did I work on? What got resolved? What's still in progress? What was the most significant moment this week?
Granola has a free tier with limited meetings. Paid plan is ~$18/month.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
Tavily
Connector
AI-optimized web search API. Used to pull trending topics so your ideas aren't just stuck inside your own bubble. When you click "Generate More Ideas", it searches for what's resonating in your space right now and blends that with your meeting insights.
⚙
Setup
▼
1
Get a free API key at tavily.com. The free tier gives you 1,000 searches/month.
2
In Cowork, search the connector marketplace for "Tavily" and install it. Enter your API key when prompted.
3
That's it. Claude can now do real-time web searches from inside any artifact you build.
Free tier is enough for daily use. No credit card required to start.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
Excalidraw
Connector
Open-source whiteboard tool. Used to generate visual diagrams and graphics for each post. Claude builds the diagram data, sends it to Excalidraw via the connector, and renders a downloadable visual alongside the draft.
⚙
Setup
▼
1
In Cowork, search the connector marketplace for "Excalidraw" and install it. No account needed — it's free and open source.
2
That's the full setup. The connector works out of the box. When Claude calls it, a visual diagram opens in the Cowork window and renders inline in your dashboard.
Excalidraw is fully free and open source. No account or API key required.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
03 — Build It
03
The Exact Build Steps
Step by step · Exact prompts · No code needed
Phase 1: Set Up Cowork & Connectors
~10 min
Do this once. Install everything before you send the build prompt — Claude needs the connectors active to wire them into the artifact.
⚙
Setup Checklist
▼
1
Install Claude desktop app and enable Cowork in Settings.
2
Install Granola on your Mac and let it record a few meetings so there's real data to pull.
3
In Cowork, open the Plugin Marketplace and install: Granola connector, Tavily connector, Excalidraw connector. Authorize each one.
4
Select a workspace folder when prompted. Your dashboard will save there.
Stuck on a connector setup? Drop me a message and I'll walk you through it.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
Phase 2: Send the Build Prompt
~30 min
Open a new Cowork session, paste the prompt below, and let Claude build the full dashboard. It will create a persistent artifact automatically — you don't need to do anything except wait and then interact with what it builds.
✦
The Full Build Prompt
▼
Paste This Into Cowork
Build me a live LinkedIn content dashboard as a persistent Cowork artifact. It should have 6 tabs: 1. Needs Attention — pull open action items and decisions from my Granola meetings (last 14 days), group by project, sort by priority 2. LinkedIn Ideas — generate 8 post ideas from my Granola meetings + Tavily trending topics. Each idea has a title, angle, tag label (Story/Hot take/Lesson/Contrarian/Behind scenes/Data/Question), and emoji icon. Include favorite (star), delete (x), and generate more buttons. 3. Favorites — ideas I've starred 4. Generate — a text area where I paste raw context and get 4 post ideas from it 5. This Week — a summary of my week from Granola 6. My Context — a persistent profile form with fields for: name, company, background, LinkedIn goal, target audience, known for, preferred tone chips, post format, topics to cover, things to avoid. Auto-save to localStorage. For each idea in tabs 2 and 3: - Clicking it expands a card with style chips (Default / Punchy / Story / Listicle / Question / Contrarian), a length slider (50-400 words), a "Draft Post" button that calls askClaude, a Copy button, and an Excalidraw visual button - The draft should use the My Context profile for tone and voice - Changing style or length should auto-redraft Use window.cowork.callMcpTool for Granola and Tavily. Use window.cowork.askClaude for all drafting and idea generation. Use inline SVG for post visuals (white background, clean typography). All data persists in localStorage between sessions.
Tip: After Claude builds the first version, iterate by telling it what to improve. I spent about an hour refining — fixing the visual style, adding delete/favorite behavior, improving the draft prompts. The first build is 80% there. The rest is iteration.
Claude will ask clarifying questions. Answer them and it'll build the rest. No coding needed at any point.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
Phase 3: Fill In Your Context Profile
~5 min
This is the most important step for quality output. The "My Context" tab is what makes every draft sound like you instead of generic AI content. Fill it in once — it persists forever.
▤
What to Fill In (and Why It Matters)
▼
👤
Name & Role. Sets the first-person voice. "Muhammad Ashher, Founder at Outstep" not just "founder".
🏢
Company & Background. What you build, for whom, how long you've been doing it. This gives Claude the domain expertise to write credible content.
🎯
LinkedIn Goal. Be specific. "Get 10 inbound sales calls per month from healthcare tech founders" beats "grow my network." This shapes the CTA in every draft.
🗣️
Tone Chips. Pick 3-5 words that describe your voice. Mine: Direct, Founder-ish, Honest, No fluff. These get injected into every draft prompt.
🚫
Things to Avoid. "No motivational fluff, no hashtag spam, no humble bragging, no 'excited to announce'." This one field eliminates 90% of the AI clichés.
◈
My Actual Context Profile (for reference)
▼
What I filled in
Name/Role: Muhammad Ashher, Founder at Outstep

Company: Outstep — AI Automation Agency. We build AI agents, automations, and custom dev solutions for SMBs and healthcare companies.

Background: Started as a developer, now running an agency. Built MedHelix (health tech SaaS). Top Rated Plus on Upwork.

LinkedIn Goal: Book 10 discovery calls per month from founders and operators who want AI automation but don't know where to start.

Target Audience: Founders, operators, and decision-makers at SMBs and healthcare companies.

Tone: Direct, Founder-ish, Honest, No fluff

Avoid: Motivational fluff, "excited to announce", generic AI takes, anything that sounds like it came from a content agency
The quality of output is 1:1 with the quality of your context profile. Spend 10 minutes on this and it pays off in every draft.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
04 — Daily Workflow
04
How to Use It Day-to-Day
Morning routine · Posting workflow · Maintenance
The Daily Routine
10 min/day
Once it's built, you don't need to think about content planning. Open the dashboard, hit refresh, pick an idea, draft it. That's the whole workflow.
▤
The 10-Minute Content Workflow
▼
1️⃣
Open the dashboard and click Refresh. It pulls your latest Granola meetings and refreshes the action items and weekly summary.
2️⃣
Scan the LinkedIn Ideas tab. Star anything interesting. Delete ideas that don't land. Click "Generate More" if you want fresh ideas from this week's meetings.
3️⃣
Click an idea to expand it. Choose a style chip (I usually start with Contrarian or Story), set the word count, and click Draft Post.
4️⃣
Read the draft and tweak. Copy it, paste it into LinkedIn, edit a few lines to make it yours. The draft is a starting point — not the finished post.
5️⃣
Optional: generate a visual. Click the Excalidraw button. A diagram appears below the post — download it as SVG or PNG to add to your LinkedIn post.
I use this every morning. Takes less time than scrolling LinkedIn looking for inspiration. The ideas come from your own week.
linkedin.com/in/muhammad-ashher →
05 — Customize It
05
Swap Any Piece for Your Own Stack
Alternative connectors · Prompt tweaks · Extensions
Alternative Connectors
Swap Guide
Every connector in this build is swappable. You don't need Granola, Tavily, or Excalidraw specifically. These are the equivalents that work the same way.
▤
Connector Alternatives
▼
🎙️
Instead of Granola: Otter.ai or Fireflies. Both have Cowork connectors. The query prompts work the same way — just swap the tool name in the artifact code. Or: paste your own meeting notes into the Generate tab manually.
🔍
Instead of Tavily: Brave Search API or Perplexity connector. Any web search connector in the Cowork marketplace works. The search query is just a string — drop in your industry keywords and it finds trending content.
🎨
Instead of Excalidraw: Canvas Design skill or pure SVG. The dashboard already generates inline SVG visuals. Excalidraw is optional — it adds an interactive diagram on top. You can skip it entirely and still get clean post graphics.
📅
Add a scheduling connector: Buffer or Hypefury. If those have Cowork connectors, you could add a "Schedule Post" button that pushes the draft directly to your queue. That's the next upgrade I'm building.
💬
Add Slack or Notion. If your team uses Slack for decisions or Notion for notes, both have connectors. You could pull from those instead of — or alongside — Granola.
✦
Prompt to Swap a Connector
▼
Tell Claude to Swap It
Update the dashboard artifact to replace Granola with [Otter.ai / Fireflies / etc.]. Use the [connector name] connector instead. The query logic should stay the same — just change the tool name in the callMcpTool calls.
Add a New Data Source
Add a new data source to the LinkedIn Ideas tab. When generating ideas, also pull from my Notion workspace using the Notion connector. Query the last 30 days of pages I've edited and look for anything that could become a LinkedIn post.
Already built something like this? I'd love to see what connectors you used.
Share it with me →
Quick Reference
Full stack at a glance
Claude + Cowork
AI brain + artifact engine
Granola
Meeting notes connector
Tavily
Web search connector
Free tier
Excalidraw
Visual diagram connector
Free
Build time
Setup + prompt + iteration
~1 hr

Want this built for
your team's workflow?

At Outstep, we build custom AI systems — agents, automations, and tools — for founders and operators who want to move faster without hiring more people. If you want a version of this wired into your specific stack, let's talk.

Connect on LinkedIn Schedule a Discovery Call
You're reading this because you commented on my LinkedIn post about building an AI content dashboard. This is the full guide — no email required, no upsell.
Outstep · AI · Agents · Automation · Dev · Cloud