The Problem: The Daily Attachment Sorting Nightmare
A small team run by non-developers at a trading company receives dozens of email notifications with attachments every day. They need to sort them by buyer, product type, and month, but the process takes forever.
「I spent 30 minutes every morning just sorting files. There were constant human errors, and files from the same buyer got scattered across multiple folders.」
The Solution: Claude Code + Google Sheets Combo
The non-developer team used Claude Code and Google Sheets to build an automated file classification system.
Step 1: Analyze File Name Patterns
First, they manually recorded files received over several weeks in Google Sheets.
Example file names:
• BUYER_ABC_Order_2024_Jan_Details.xlsx
• ProductType_Tshirt_BUYER_XYZ_Invoice.pdf
• Shipping_BUYER_ABC_2024.csv
They fed these file names into Claude Code and asked it to automatically recognize and extract buyer names, product types, and dates.
Step 2: Auto-Create Folder Structures on Windows Device
Based on Claude Code's pattern recognition, folder structures are automatically generated on the Windows environment.
Whenever the 「Folder Path」column in Google Sheets updates, the backend automatically creates matching folders.
Step 3: Auto-Move Files and Rename Them
Claude Code detects new arriving files daily, reads their names, and automatically moves them to the correct folders.
Input: Original folder (Downloads)
Process: File name analysis + folder structure check
Output: Files moved to corresponding buyer/product/month folders
Results: Done in 3 Days
Initial setup took 3 days.
• Day 1: Learn file name patterns and write Claude Code prompts
• Day 2: Connect Google Sheets backend and test
• Day 3: Deploy to actual file folders and fix errors
Now files sort themselves automatically every morning, freeing the team to focus on important work.
「At first I was worried it would be too complicated, but Claude Code understood everything right away.」
Unexpected Discovery: File Name Standardization
Interestingly, as they ran this automation system, the entire team unconsciously started following the file naming rules. Whenever Claude Code failed to recognize a file, team members would voluntarily rename it to the standard format.
Within two weeks, over 95% of files were being sorted automatically.
Key Takeaways
1. **File names are data**: Structured file names make it much easier for AI to recognize patterns.
2. **Small failures help**: You don't need perfection from day one. Failed file sorts teach you how to improve the rules.
3. **Non-developers can do this**: Google Sheets + Claude Code is enough.
Next goal: automatically summarize the content inside these files (Excel cells, PDF text).