# Claude Code wants to publish an artifact: what "new artifacts stay private until you share them" means · Stacktree Source: https://stacktr.ee/blog/claude-code-publish-artifact-private [Skip to content](#main) [stacktr.ee](/) [Examples](/#proof) [How it works](/#how) [Pricing](/pricing) [Security](/security) [Log in](https://app.stacktr.ee) [Publish one](https://app.stacktr.ee/?join=1) By [Steve Smith](/about) · Founder, Stacktree Last updated September 17, 2026 blog · 17 September 2026 # Claude Code wants to publish an artifact. The prompt says the tool uploads the file below from this task to claude.ai, that new artifacts stay private until you share them, and that a file already published in this task is updated instead and keeps its current sharing settings. People paste that sentence into Google several hundred times a month. Here is what each clause means, and what to do about the two situations it does not cover. [ Get started free ](https://app.stacktr.ee/?join=1&from=seo_blog_claude_code_publish_artifact_private) install npx stacktree-install Copy No card · 3 pages free · about a minute ## What happens when Claude Code publishes an artifact? Claude Code uploads the HTML or Markdown file it wrote to claude.ai, which hosts it as a live page at a private URL visible only to you. Sharing is a separate step in the browser. Re-publishing the same file in the same session updates that page in place and keeps whatever sharing you set. In Auto mode this can happen without a prompt. ## On this page - 01 [ The sentence, clause by clause ](#sentence) - 02 [ When it asks and when it does not ](#permission) - 03 [ Who can see it, by plan ](#plans) - 04 [ Update in place, and the catch ](#update) - 05 [ Getting it to someone outside the org ](#outside) - 06 [ Stopping it ](#stop) ## The sentence, clause by clause "Uploads the file below from this task to claude.ai." Claude writes the page to a file, in a temporary directory unless you named a location, and sends it to Anthropic's servers. The page is hosted there, at a claude.ai URL, not on your machine. After the first publish Claude prints the URL and your browser opens it. "New artifacts stay private until you share them." The new page is visible only to you, signed in. It is not visible to your organisation yet, and not to anyone with the link. Sharing is a control in the page header in the browser, not something Claude Code does for you. "If this file was already published in this task, that artifact is updated instead and keeps its current sharing settings." Publish the same file again and you get the same URL with new content, not a second page. Whatever audience you set stays set. That is convenient and it is also the one clause to read twice, below. ## When it asks and when it does not Publishing goes through the session's permission mode. In Manual and Accept-edits modes Claude Code asks, with a prompt along the lines of "Claude wants to publish deploy-failures.html to claude.ai to host as the page 'Deploy failures by service', private to you until you share it", and you choose Yes or No. In Auto mode the classifier reviews the publish instead of prompting, so a page can appear without you seeing a prompt. Anthropic's docs also say Claude may publish an artifact on its own when the output suits a page, so a request for "a dashboard of last week's failures" can come back as a URL rather than a file. Which mode a session starts in depends on your plan. If you have been surprised by a link, that is where to look. ## Who can see it, by plan - Before sharing, every plan: only you. - Team and Enterprise: specific people in your organisation, or everyone in it. A public link is possible only after an Owner enables public sharing for the organisation. - Pro and Max: a public link is the only way to share. There is no org audience because there is no org. - Any plan, artifact that uses a connector at runtime: on Pro and Max it stays private to you; on Team and Enterprise it stays within the organisation. None of those options is "one person outside the company". A contractor, a client, a partner: the choice is org-only, which shows them [a Page not found screen](/blog/claude-artifact-page-not-found), or public. ## Update in place, and the catch Keeping the URL stable across re-publishes is the right behaviour for a page that is being worked on. The catch is in "keeps its current sharing settings". Once you have shared an artifact, every later publish in that session is shared the same way the instant it lands. A half-finished revision of a page you made public is public. If a page is going to be seen by others, do the sharing last, or work on a copy until the version is right. The docs also list cases where Claude asks for permission again even for an update: when the page declares a runtime capability such as connector calls or file downloads, when you have shared it publicly, and when you have shared it with people or your organisation with the latest version selected as the one viewers see. Those prompts are worth reading rather than approving by reflex, since they are the moment a change goes live for an audience. ## Getting it to someone outside the org Tell Claude Code to publish the page to Stacktree instead. Claude Code can make that request itself, with no account and no key, and hands back a private link that opens for anyone you send it to, with no Claude account and no organisation check. If the content warrants it, add a passcode or a company email gate; if it goes onward to a client under your name, put it on [your own domain](/custom-domains). Updates work the same way, in place at the same link, and the paying-nothing route keeps a page for 24 hours unless you claim it into an account, so claim the ones that matter. This is the same page Claude Code would have published to claude.ai, hosted where the audience is defined by the link rather than by membership. One practical difference: a Stacktree page can offer a file download the page itself generates, a CSV of the table or a PNG of a chart, with an ordinary download link. The claude.ai artifact viewer blocks any download a page starts on its own unless Claude declared a downloads capability when it published, which is one more prompt to approve and one more thing to get right. ## Stopping it Say No at the prompt. Run the session in Manual or Accept-edits mode if you want to be asked every time. Setting `CLAUDE_CODE_ARTIFACT_AUTO_OPEN=0` in your environment stops the browser opening after a publish; it does not stop the publish. The dependable way to steer output is to say where it goes: a local file, a path in the project, or another host. Claude Code follows an explicit destination over its own judgement about what suits a page. Fix it now You've read why the public link is a problem. Paste the artifact here and get a private one, no account, and a passcode if you want it. Paste HTMLDrop a fileno account · 24 h linkHTML to publishAdd a passwordPublish private link Publish it where the link is the audience From Claude Code, one sentence: publish this page to Stacktree. A private link that opens for anyone you send it to, no Claude account, a passcode if you want one, updated in place. Three pages free, no card. [ Publish from Claude Code → ](https://app.stacktr.ee/?from=blog_cta_claude_code_publish_artifact_private&join=1) Free to try: 3 pages, each live for 7 days. Own domain from $19/mo. FAQ ## Frequent questions What does "new artifacts stay private until you share them" mean? + That the page Claude Code is about to publish will be visible only to you, signed into your own Claude account, until you open it in the browser and use the Share control. Nobody else can open the URL before that, not even people in your organisation. Private here means private to the author, not private to a group. What does "if this file was already published in this task, that artifact is updated instead" mean? + Publishing the same file again in the same session updates the existing page at the same URL rather than creating a second one, and the update inherits whatever sharing you already set. If you had shared it publicly, the new version is public the moment it is published. If you want a change reviewed before anyone sees it, do not share the artifact until the version is final. Why did Claude Code publish an artifact without asking me? + Because the session was in Auto mode, where a classifier reviews the publish instead of prompting you. Anthropic's docs say Claude may publish an artifact on its own when the output suits a page. In Manual and Accept-edits modes it asks first. Which mode a session starts in depends on your plan. Who can see a published Claude Code artifact? + Only you, until you share. Then it depends on the plan: on Team and Enterprise you can grant specific people or everyone in your organisation, and a public link only if an Owner has enabled public sharing; on Pro and Max a public link is the only way to share, and an artifact that uses a connector at runtime stays private to you regardless. How do I stop Claude Code publishing artifacts? + Say no at the permission prompt, or run the session in a mode that prompts. Setting CLAUDE_CODE_ARTIFACT_AUTO_OPEN=0 only stops your browser opening after a publish; it does not stop the publish. Telling Claude where to put the output, a local file or a different host, is the reliable way to steer it. How do I send the page to a client or contractor without making it public? + Publish it somewhere that does not need a Claude account. Tell Claude Code to publish the page to Stacktree and it will, with no account and no key, returning a private link that opens for anyone you send it to and that can carry a passcode or a company email gate. That avoids both the org wall and the public link. Keep reading ## Related guides - [ Claude Code artifacts: publish, plans, private sharing The wider explainer: what ships on which plan and what Anthropic says about sharing externally. ](/blog/artifacts-in-claude-code-explained) - [ Claude artifact "Page not found" What the person outside your organisation sees, and what to send them instead. ](/blog/claude-artifact-page-not-found) - [ Stacktree for Claude Code The publish path from a Claude Code session: private link, passcode, your domain. ](/claude-code) - [ Are Claude artifacts private? How to share one without making it public The claude.ai side of the same question. ](/share-claude-artifacts) - [ Deploy HTML from Claude Code The one-call publish, and how updates keep the same link. ](/deploy-html-from-claude-code) References ## Sources and further reading - [ Artifacts (Claude Code docs) ↗ Permission modes and the Auto-mode classifier, the sample publish prompt, sharing rules by plan, update in place, and the environment variable. ](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/artifacts) - [ Publish and share artifacts (Claude Help Center) ↗ Audience options, attachments shared with a chat artifact, and the permanence of unpublishing. ](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9547008-publish-and-share-artifacts) ## Private to you, or private to the people you name Claude keeps the first. Stacktree gives you the second: a link, a passcode, a domain, from the same Claude Code session. 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