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What are Claude artifacts, and can one be an app?

An artifact is a page Claude builds for you in the Claude app, such as a document, a small tool or a dashboard. With storage turned on it can keep data, which is enough to make it work like a small app. RoutineOS uses one as the Desk, a private page where you check what your routines found, on a phone or a laptop.

Get startedSee the Desk
docs-stateddatabase pilot-verified
What an artifact is

Claude artifacts, in short

For the definition, features and plan limits, use Anthropic's own help article, What are artifacts and how do I use them. We summarise only what RoutineOS depends on. The plain definition in the first paragraph above is our summary and is unverified here.

That article says persistent storage is available on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, on web and Desktop. Storage is either personal or shared for each artifact, it holds text only, and it gives 20 MB per artifact. This was read on 2026-10-30. Anthropic can change it.

Made byClaude, in the Claude app (unverified here, see Anthropic's article)
StoragePersistent storage on paid plans (docs-stated)
Shared or privatePrivate by default for the Desk
StatusCheck Anthropic's docs for the current rules
The database

Artifacts as apps: the artifact database and its limits

A routine needs memory, because every scheduled run starts on a fresh machine. RoutineOS keeps that memory in the artifact's own database. The people who use the page and the run that writes it share one source, and there is no server to run.

A real scheduled run writing into the artifact database was checked in a pilot. The same pilot found 25,000 documents per artifact and 256 KiB per document. Anthropic's artifact docs describe artifacts without a backend, and their help article gives 20 MB per artifact. These figures do not agree and we have not reconciled them. Plan for the smallest until we do.

ClaimHow we know
A scheduled run can write to the artifact databasepilot-verified
25,000 documents per artifact, 256 KiB eachpilot-verified, in conflict with Anthropic's wording
Persistent storage on paid plans, 20 MB, text onlydocs-stated
Heads upThe conflict above is on record in the RoutineOS docs. If a routine gets close to the limit, its README should say what to prune.
Worked example

The Desk is a Claude artifact used as a mobile dashboard

The Desk is one bundled HTML page, published privately as an artifact. It shows what each routine found, what it dropped and why, every run, and any approval waiting for you. You keep or drop records, accept or reject what the routine learned, and change settings. Every decision is stored where the next run reads it.

It is published with the database, user and downloads capabilities. Without the database capability the page tells you to republish it.

  • Publishing is your decision. RoutineOS does not publish it for you.
  • The page writes only the paths people own.

Read the pages in detail on the Desk, and how decisions flow back in approvals.

Source: the RoutineOS docs pages Storage and The Desk.

Use an artifact as your routine's desk

Install the plugin in Claude Code. The Desk comes with it. Free (MIT). Needs a paid Claude plan.

Get startedRead the Desk docs