Pick the rung: Artifact, Claude Code, or skill

Before you build a tool, you pick the surface — and Claude spans the whole spectrum, so this is one platform, not three vendors. An Artifact (describe it in chat, it runs, you never see a repo) is for fixed-math tools like a net sheet. Claude Code is for a business app a client sees or logic with real edge cases. A Cowork skill packages the ones you'll rerun weekly. The market calls these no-code, low-code, and full-code — Lovable, Base44, Replit — but you'll build all of them in Claude. The lesson is to match the surface to the app, not to your ego: a fixed-math calculator is an Artifact, a CMA a seller holds wants Claude Code, an underwriting model you rerun becomes a skill.