Guide
How to share a Claude artifact with someone who does not use Claude
Claude built you a report, a dashboard or a one-pager as an artifact, and the person who needs it does not have Claude. You have two exits: Publish, which puts the artifact on a public page, or Download, which gives you the HTML file so you can share it on your own terms. For anything you would not post publicly, use Download and then a link you control.
Step 1: download the artifact
In the artifact window, use the download control in the lower right corner. Claude's own help describes the three controls there: copy the content to your clipboard, download files to use outside the conversation, and view the underlying code. Download gives you a .html file.
Step 2: check it stands on its own
Open the downloaded file from an empty folder. Most artifacts are already self-contained. The ones that break are those that reference files Claude never produced, or that fetch data from a local server that only existed in the sandbox. If you see broken boxes or an empty page, go back to the conversation and ask for a single self-contained HTML file with all styles, scripts, images and data inlined. Claude will regenerate it that way.
Artifacts that load a library from a public URL are fine: the recipient's browser fetches the library the same way yours did.
Step 3: decide what should happen if the link leaks
Publish is the right answer when the answer is "nothing". For a client deliverable, a board update or anything with numbers in it, you want a link with an access mode and a revoke button. That is the difference between a public page and a shared document.
When you change the artifact
Download the new version and upload it again as a new document, or if you work from Claude Code, publish updates through scrolly's MCP server so the same link serves the new version. The guide on publishing from Claude Code covers that route.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Why not just click Publish in Claude?
- Publish makes the artifact public. That is right for a demo you want anyone to see and wrong for a client deliverable. A share link with a password or an email gate keeps the same file private and tells you who opened it.
- The downloaded file looks broken. Why?
- Artifacts that load libraries from the internet keep working after download. Ones that reference files Claude never gave you do not. Ask Claude for a single self-contained HTML file with everything inlined and download again.
- Can the recipient edit it?
- They get a rendered page, not an editable canvas. If they need to edit, send the file itself or share the conversation; if they need to read, a link is the better experience.