Show your butler your calendar

What you’ll do: make sure every calendar your family uses shows up in the Mac’s own Calendar app. Butler reads from there.

Steps

1. Open the Calendar app. It’s in Applications, or press Command Space and type “Calendar”.
2. Look at the list of calendars on the left. If you don’t see a list, choose View > Show Calendar List.
3. Are your family’s calendars all there? Check work calendars, the family calendar and any shared ones.
4. If a calendar is missing, add its account:
   1. Open System Settings (the gear icon in the Dock or the Apple menu).
   2. Click Internet Accounts in the sidebar.
   3. Click Add Account and choose Google, Microsoft Exchange or another service.
   4. Sign in, and make sure Calendars and Reminders are switched on for that account.
5. Back in Calendar, the new calendars appear within a minute or two.

What you’ll do: start your butler’s calendar setup in Claude Code. Your butler already has the small helper that reads Calendar; it came with the download.

Steps

1. Open Claude Code in your butler’s folder: in Terminal, type butler claude. (If it’s already open, use it.)
2. Type this and press Return:

3. Claude checks that your butler’s calendar helper is there. It’s a small program called butler-ek that reads Calendar and Reminders for your butler, and it came inside your download, ready to use.
4. Claude tells you it’s about to ask macOS for permission. That’s the next lesson.

What you’ll do: give your butler’s helper permission to read your calendars and Reminders lists.

Steps

1. Claude runs the helper for the first time. Your Mac shows a window: “butler-ek” would like to access your calendars.
2. Click Allow. If it offers Allow Full Access, choose that. Your butler needs to read your events and, when you reply, add new ones.
3. Claude runs it once more for Reminders. Click Allow again.
4. Claude lists the calendars and Reminders lists it can now see.

What you’ll do: tell your butler which calendars to read, whose each one is, and where your to-dos and shopping list live.

Steps

Claude asks you these questions. Here’s what each one means:

1. Which calendars go in the brief? Choose the ones that matter to the household. Leave out noisy ones, such as a shared team calendar.
2. Whose is each calendar? Butler shows each event under the right person. “Sam Work” belongs to Sam. The family calendar belongs to everyone.
3. Nicknames in event titles. If an event called “Mia swimming” should appear under Mia, Butler needs to know Mia is a name to look for. Add nicknames too: if your son is Benjamin but the calendar says “Ben dentist”, tell Claude “Ben” is Benjamin.
4. Holiday calendars. Public holidays appear as a short note on the day.
5. Where new events go. When you reply “dentist for Mia Thursday at 10”, which calendar should it land in? Usually the family calendar.
6. To-do and shopping lists. Claude creates two lists in Reminders if they don’t exist. The to-do list is named after your butler, and the shopping list is called Shopping. Share them with your family in the Reminders app if you’d like everyone to see them.

What you’ll do: preview the brief again. This time it shows your real calendar.

Steps

1. Say:

2. Your browser opens the new brief. Look for:
   • Today, person by person, each in their own colour.
   • This week, the days ahead.
   • To-dos, from your butler’s Reminders list.
3. Add something to test it. Open Reminders, add “Test the butler” to your butler’s to-do list, and ask Claude to preview again. It appears in the brief.

Remove “Test the butler” from Reminders when you’re done.