Getting Started with Claude Cowork

1. SPSpeaker0:00

   [gentle music] Claude Cowork meets you where your work happens and allows you to delegate complete tasks to Claude. If it's on your computer, Claude can find and edit it. If it's in the cloud, Claude connects through services like Google Drive, Notion, and Slack. If it's in the browser, Claude is there, too, through Claude and Chrome. Describe what you need done, and Claude does it. You can watch it work, steer when it matters, or step away and come back to the results. Claude Cowork is generally available in the Claude Desktop app on macOS and Windows for Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise users. To get started, open Claude Desktop and click the Cowork tab. In a regular Claude chat, you work with Claude step by step. In Cowork, you hand off tasks, and Claude handles the rest while you focus on other work. First, give Claude access to a folder on your computer. Select the folder directory or project you want Claude to operate in. It asks permission before making changes to your file system. Claude can now read, create, and edit files in that folder directly. You can favorite the folders you go to most or select multiple folders to connect disparate data sources. Second, connect your tools. Cowork supports connectors that link Claude to services. These let Claude pull context from where your work already lives. Third, if you've set up Claude in Chrome, Cowork can use it for browser-based tasks, reading web pages, extracting data from sites, and navigating across tabs. Under Settings, you can also click the Cowork tab and set global instructions that apply to every session, like context about your role or directions to create files as Word docs instead of Markdown. One thing to keep in mind, your Cowork sessions are stored locally on your device, and the desktop app needs to stay open while Claude is working on a task. Let's start with something really simple to show how Claude can work directly with your local files. You have a Downloads folder full of months of accumulated files, PDFs, spreadsheets, screenshots, and duplicates. Just a ton of random stuff. You connect it and tell Claude, "Organize my Downloads folder. Scan the contents and propose a plan: categories to create, how files should be sorted, naming conventions to apply, and files to flag for review or deletion. Show me the plan before making changes." [gentle music] Claude comes back with a proposed structure: Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Images, and a Duplicates folder collecting redundant copies. It suggests date-based naming conventions and flags four files that look like duplicates for review. You look at the flagged duplicates and notice two of them are actually different versions you wanna keep. You tell Claude, "Move those two to a review folder instead of deleting them and go ahead with the rest of the plan." Claude adjusts and continues on. As Claude works, you can watch the progress in the top right corner. You can click on each task to see details or ask questions. Files actually move on your machine. When it finishes, your Downloads folder is organized, renamed, and cleaned up. In a regular chat, Claude could describe how to organize your files. In Cowork, Claude does it. That's the core Cowork loop. Claude proposes a plan and waits for your approval before taking action. You can adjust the plan, redirect the approach, or tell Claude to skip certain steps. Once you approve, Claude executes directly in your file system. Start with tasks that have clear boundaries, like this one, and always review what Claude produces. You're delegating the work, not the judgment. [gentle music]

Episode duration: 4:16