Blog · July 21, 2026 · James Forrester
Why I build threndle.ai on Claude
Update, September 2026: Anthropic has renamed Claude Cowork. It is now just Claude. This post keeps the name it had when it was written.
Before threndle.ai had a name, I had a decision to make. If I was going to connect an AI to a small business's books, inbox and CRM, whose platform was I willing to trust with someone else's livelihood?
We did not land on Claude on the first try. We had worked with agentic frameworks for some time before that. We started with n8n. It is fantastic for simple automations, but back then building in it meant writing JSON files by hand, which was tricky. That has since changed. Next came OpenClaw, which lasted a while until we ran into security issues we were not willing to put in front of a client. They were not the kind you patch and move past, and they made us rethink the whole stack.
Around then, I received a scholarship from Amii, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. Separately, I came across Hermes online. Hermes is capable, but it assumes you are comfortable configuring an open agent stack from scratch, and most small business owners are not going to sit down and learn that. I also did not want to become the person explaining it to them every time.
That is the background to why Claude Cowork and the Small Business skill set became the answer. I spent that spring reading security documentation instead of marketing pages. This is where I landed, and why.
Why did you choose Claude?
I wanted a platform with a serious security posture, from a company whose reputation depends on building AI carefully. The job puts an AI inside a client's real accounting, email and customer records, and that is not a decision to make from a demo, especially after OpenClaw. I was not going to take anyone's word for it. Anthropic built its name on safety research. Under its business terms, your data is not used to train its models by default. Claude connects through official APIs, with permissions you approve, and no one has to get under the hood.
What is Claude Cowork?
Claude Cowork is the Anthropic mode that turns Claude into a coworker connected to the tools you already use, rather than a chatbot on the side. Of everything I tested, it was the best product to bring to small businesses. threndle.ai sets it up inside your business to reconcile transactions, draft follow-ups and keep records current, always under your control. The business keeps its software, and Claude learns the workflow.
What are Small Business skills?
A skill is one specific job Claude knows how to do in your tools. Examples include reconciling yesterday's Stripe payouts against QuickBooks, chasing invoices more than seven days overdue, or drafting a follow-up to a lead that has gone cold. Small Business skills are the starter set, built around the software Fraser Valley businesses already pay for: accounting, payments, CRM, email, files and team operations.
What does that mean for your data?
Your data stays yours, in your tools. We do not store your credentials or raw business data on our servers. Claude connects through official APIs and OAuth where available, using read and write permissions you approve. Any automation can be paused or revoked at any time.
Would you choose it again?
Yes, I would choose it again. Everything we have built since has confirmed the same thing. What matters in a platform is less what it can do in a demo and more what it can be trusted with on a Tuesday morning in someone else's books. Security posture and reputation were the right criteria then. After n8n, OpenClaw and Hermes, I am even more convinced they are the right ones now.
Update, July 24
A few days after this went up, I had to slow down. threndle.ai did not yet have any infrastructure for Claude to connect to. All the platform research in the world does not help if there is nothing on the other end. So I chose a CRM and an accounting tool to standardize on and built a custom market research MCP using MIT-licensed repositories from GitHub. I will write more about that later.
Update, August 4
After the long weekend, I returned to work on branding and our website, threndle.ai. Since then, we have also connected our workflows to our social media channels.
This is the first entry in the threndle.ai build log. The next entry will cover what the first diagnostic surfaced. Until then, start with the three-minute diagnostic or email us at hello@threndle.ai.