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In Plain Sight

AUGUST 9, 2026  |  A TOOL IN THE INDEX

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DC Rentals in plain sight.

A renter’s operating system for the DC, Maryland, and Virginia market. The rental process is built to favor property owners. This evens it up.

§ 01

What it is

You open it in Claude, run the setup once, and you get a personalized rental hunt: a daily listing feed scored on your priorities, an application packet built before you tour, plain-language tenant-rights coaching keyed to your jurisdiction, outreach drafted in your voice, one living tracker, and shareable decks so the people you live with can weigh in.

It came out of a real DC-area search. The whole point is to give a renter the kind of organized, rights-aware help that landlords already have on their side of the table.

§ 02

The kit

11 skills
  1. 01

    renter-setup

    A short interview that learns your budget, areas, must-haves, pets, and commute, then builds your search folder and a rights briefing for your jurisdiction.

  2. 02

    daily-sweep

    Pulls fresh listings in your areas, drops the ones you have seen, scores the rest on your priorities, and hands you a yes / maybe / no board.

  3. 03

    build-packet

    Assembles an application-ready packet so you can apply on the spot: income proof (redacted), references, pet and assistance-animal profiles, and a cover summary in your voice.

  4. 04

    rights-primer

    Knows your rights in DC, Maryland, or Virginia, spots the common tricks landlords use, and gives you calm, sourced lines to respond with.

  5. 05

    outreach

    Drafts messages to owners and agents in your own voice, only ever offering times you can actually keep.

  6. 06

    tracker

    Keeps one living tracker: schedule, side-by-side compare, notes, and commute, all in a single file.

  7. 07

    review-deck

    A plain-language deck so the people you live with can weigh in without driving the search themselves.

  8. 08

    tune-preferences

    Checks what you said you wanted against what you actually pick, and proposes small adjustments for your approval.

  9. 09

    lease-review

    Reads a proposed lease in plain language and flags clauses that are illegal, unenforceable, or worth negotiating, with the exact ask for each.

  10. 10

    move-in

    Walks you through a deposit-protecting move-in: a dated condition inventory, how your deposit must be handled, utilities, and a first-week checklist.

  11. 11

    negotiation-helper

    Helps you negotiate rent, deposit, and fees from real comps and your jurisdiction’s rules, then hands the asks to outreach to send.

All eleven read from one shared, sourced tenant-law reference (DC, MD, VA), so the rights coaching stays in one place and every figure carries a “current as of” date.

§ 03

How to install it

Before you start, you need

  • A Claude account on a paid plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise). Plugins are not available on the free plan. If you are on the free plan, skip to the note below.
  • Claude Desktop or Claude Cowork. A plugin is an add-on you install once; after that it just works.

This plugin is made of skills only. It does not run any program on your computer and nothing you enter is uploaded. Your files stay on your machine.

  1. Download the file

    Click Download the plugin (at the top of this page, or here). Your browser saves a file named plain-sight-rentals-0.1.0.plugin, usually to your Downloads folder. You do not need to open it yourself.

  2. Open Customize in Claude

    Open Claude. In the left sidebar, click Customize. (If you are in Cowork, open the Cowork tab first, then Customize.) Customize is where your plugins, skills, and connectors live in one place.

  3. Go to the Plugins tab

    In the Customize menu, click the Plugins tab.

  4. Add the file you downloaded

    In the Personal plugins section, click the + button and choose the option to upload a custom plugin file. Select the plain-sight-rentals-0.1.0.plugin file from your Downloads. It saves locally to your computer.

  5. Start with the setup

    The plugin is now active. To begin, type / (or click the + button), choose renter-setup, and answer its questions. That builds your search folder. After that, run daily-sweep for fresh listings, rights-primer whenever a landlord asks for something that feels off, and the others as you need them.

Exact button labels can shift as Claude updates. The current official walkthrough is Use plugins in Claude ↗. And once it is installed, you can simply ask Claude to help you get started.

No paid plan? You are exactly who this next part is for.

A plugin needs a paid Claude account, which not everyone has or wants, and trusting an AI tool with housing details is a reasonable thing to be careful about. So there are now no-account, no-AI versions of the same help — nothing you type on them leaves your browser:

§ 04

The fine print

Your data stays yours. The kit handles income, credit, and identity documents, and it is local-first by design: your files stay on your machine and nothing personal is uploaded. For a domestic-violence survivor it holds an even higher bar and stores no new address or identifying detail.

Not legal advice. The rights coaching summarizes public law and points you to the real authorities. For an actual dispute, talk to a tenant attorney or your local housing office: in DC, the Office of the Tenant Advocate, Legal Aid DC, or the DC Office of Human Rights, or the Maryland and Virginia equivalents.

Laws change. Every legal figure carries a “current as of” date. Verify before you rely on it.

The negotiation features lean on Josh Jacobson’s DC Rent Registry ↗, so you can anchor on real ward-level comps. Plain Sight Rentals is one node in a wider commons of DC civic tools.