Yesterday after a workshop, Chris (a fellow marketer) sat down with me and we remixed one of the skills I’d demoed. An hour later we had a native ad generator that neither of us could have built from scratch.
What we started with
The Ad Creative Variant Generator. Feed it a winning ad image, it figures out what’s working, generates variations at three divergence levels (subtle, moderate, dramatic). Runs on Google’s Gemini image model. I built this a few weeks ago by remixing an image generation skill from OpenAI.
Chris wanted to reshape it for native ad platforms. Taboola, Outbrain. With headlines. Running inside Claude Cowork.
The block
We set up the Gemini API key, installed the dependencies in our project folder, loaded the skill in Cowork, and ran it. Network restriction error. Claude couldn’t reach Google’s image API.
The fix
Claude has an “allowed domains” list in settings. We added the Gemini API URL, restarted Claude, ran it again.
Worked.
30 seconds in settings. That was the whole difference between a blocked session and a working tool.
What we ended up with
Two skills from one starting point.
The original generates ad variations you can split test across any platform. The remix produces native ads with headlines, tuned for that editorial look native platforms reward.
Chris isn’t a developer. I’m barely one. We just had a clear picture of what we needed, and the existing skill gave us something to start from. That’s what remixing is. You don’t start from scratch every time you cook. You find a recipe that’s close and adjust.
Try it
The creative variant generator is open source. It lives inside a Claude plugin, and has a few other skills in it too.
To install, add the Channel 47 marketplace and pick the media-buyer plugin.
In Cowork: Type /plugins to open the plugin browser. Add channel47/channel47 as a marketplace, then select media-buyer from the list.
In Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add channel47/channel47
/plugin install media-buyer@channel47If you’re in Cowork and hit the same network block, same fix from the story above.
The native ad generator is rough. We built it yesterday. It works, but it’ll get better.