Claude Artifacts are genuinely great. You describe what you want, Claude builds it in real time, and you can interact with it immediately. It's one of the best prototyping experiences I've ever used.
But there's a problem: it lives in a conversation.
Yes, you can publish an artifact and share the link. But it's one public link with one mode: anyone who has it sees the same thing. There's no private setting, no invite list, no way to revoke access for one person and keep it for another. And behind the page there is nothing. No data store. Someone fills in your form and those answers go nowhere. A week later the artifact is buried under forty newer chats, and the only "dashboard" of your apps is your scroll finger.
What the missing layer looks like
Let's say you built an RSVP form in Claude. Perfect for your backyard BBQ. Forty people are coming and you want to collect names, headcounts, and dietary restrictions.
With Artifacts, here's what happens:
- You can interact with it in the conversation, and publish a public link
- Everyone with the link gets the same access. There's no "guests can submit, only I see results"
- Nobody can submit a response that you'll actually see. There's no data store behind it
- Tomorrow, it's buried in your chat history
What you actually need:
- A URL like
craig.shiplock.app/bbq-rsvpthat works for anyone - Submissions saved to a data store you can read from the dashboard
- Access control: anyone with the link can submit, only you can see the list
- A permanent home, not a conversation thread
The workflow that actually works
Build it in Claude. Copy the HTML. Deploy to ShipLock in 30 seconds. That's it. The app gets a subdomain, a data store, and access controls you set. Claude did the hard part of writing the code. ShipLock handles everything after that.
The two tools are complementary. Claude is a remarkable code generator. ShipLock is the missing runtime for what it generates.