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What Claude Cowork is, and how to start.

We are all busy, and most of us do not have an assistant. The work still piles up, and a lot of it is not hard. It is scut, the small repetitive work that quietly eats an afternoon.

That part you can now hand to AI, but only if you know how to use it. This page is the short version of how. The other guides on this site are worked examples once you are set up.

Claude is not the only tool that does this. ChatGPT and Gemini do similar things, and they are fine. I started with Claude, so it is what I know best, and it is what these guides use. I may fold in NotebookLM pieces later, but for now the focus is Claude.

The whole path, in one view

1
Install the appMac or Windows
2
Turn on CoworkTasks tab
3
Connect your stuffFiles and apps
4
Give it a taskIn plain words
5
It does the workPlan first

Twenty minutes to set up. After that you are describing a job in a sentence and getting finished work back.

1

What it actually is

Claude Cowork is a mode of the Claude desktop app made by Anthropic. The ordinary chat box answers a question. Cowork does the job. You give it an outcome, and it works on your own computer, on the files and apps you allow, and hands back finished work.

It is the difference between asking how to do something and having it done. It can read and write your files, build documents, search the web, and run a sequence of steps on its own, not one reply at a time.

The thing that makes it safe to use is that it shows you a plan before it acts, and it asks before it deletes anything. You stay in front of every change that matters. More on that at the end.

2

What you need

Two things, and one of them costs money. Worth being clear up front so you do not hit a wall.

  • A paid Claude plan. Cowork is on the paid tiers, Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise. It is not on the free plan. Current pricing is at claude.com/pricing.
  • The desktop app, on a Mac or Windows computer. Cowork runs on the desktop app only, not in a browser and not as a standalone phone app.

If you want it on your phone

On Pro and Max you can message Cowork from the Claude mobile app. It still runs on your desktop, using your files, and sends the result back to you. So the work happens on the computer, but you do not have to be sitting at it.

3

Install it and turn it on

  1. Download the desktop app. Go to claude.com/download and install Claude for your computer. If you already have it, update to the latest version.
  2. Open the app and find the mode selector. Near the top you will see Chat and a Cowork tab.
  3. Click the Cowork tab. That switches you into Tasks, which is where Cowork lives.
  4. Leave the app open while it works. Cowork runs on your computer, so the app has to stay open and the computer awake for a task to finish. Close the app and the task stops.

Not sure your computer can run it? Anthropic has a small readiness check you can download from the same getting-started page. It just tells you yes or no.

4

Connect your files and apps

Cowork can only touch what you hand it. That is the point. You decide what it sees, and it sees nothing else.

There are two kinds of access:

Your folders

Point it at a folder on your computer and it can read and edit the files inside. It cannot reach anything outside the folders you give it.

Your apps

Connect tools through connectors: your calendar, your email, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and more. Add only the ones a task needs.

Start with one folder and one app. You can always add more later from the same settings, and disconnect any of them just as easily.

5

What you can hand it

The honest test for a good Cowork task is this: would it take you an hour of clicking and copying, but no real judgment? That is exactly the work to delegate.

  • Clean up and organize files. Sort a messy Downloads folder by type and date, rename a batch of files to a consistent format, turn a pile of receipts into one expense sheet.
  • Make things from rough material. Turn scattered notes into a clean Word document, an Excel sheet with working formulas, or a set of slides.
  • Pull and synthesize. Gather information from the web, your files, and your notes into one summary you can actually use.
  • Run jobs on a schedule. Set a task to run on its own, every morning or every week, and hand you the result.

A good first task to feel how it works, paste it in once your folder is connected:

Try this
Organize my [Downloads] folder. Sort the files into subfolders by type, and rename each one with its date in front, as YYYY-MM-DD. Show me your plan before you move anything.

Two of these jobs already have their own step-by-step guide on this site:

GuideBuild a morning briefOne short brief that lands every morning, on its own. GuideKeep your CV currentNew papers pulled for you, formatted any way you need.
6

You stay in control

This is the part that should make you comfortable handing over real work. Cowork is built so you are never surprised by what it did.

  • It shows a plan first. Before it acts, you see what it intends to do, and you can change it or stop it.
  • It asks before deleting. Nothing gets permanently deleted without you clicking allow.
  • It only sees what you grant. Your folders and your connected apps, nothing else on your machine.
  • You pick how closely to watch. Have it pause for approval at each step while you are learning, or let it run on its own once you trust the task.

Start in the cautious mode. Watch it do a few small jobs. Once you have seen it think, you will know which tasks you are happy to let it finish on its own.

Where to start

Do not try to automate your whole life on day one. Pick one piece of scut you do every week, hand it over, and watch how it goes. The point is not to replace your judgment. It is to take the work that never needed your judgment off your plate, so the time goes to the work that does.

When you are set up, the other guides walk through specific jobs end to end.

More guides as I build them. They go out through RadBrief.

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