# Claude Cowork Guide

> Complete guide to Claude Cowork — agentic desktop feature for knowledge workers and small businesses.

## Quick Facts

- Title: Claude Cowork Guide
- Author: Florian Bruniaux
- Version: 1.6.1
- Last Updated: April 1, 2026
- License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (free, open source)
- Workflows: 28 step-by-step guides
- Ready-to-use Prompts: 70
- Official Plugins: 11

## What is Cowork?

Claude's desktop-native autonomous assistant that manipulates local files, generates documents, and organizes digital workspace — without writing code.

**Platform**: macOS and Windows (since Feb 10, 2026; Linux not announced)
**Subscription**: Pro ($17/mo annual, ~$20/mo monthly) or Max ($100-200/mo)
**Status**: Research preview
**Model**: Opus 4.6 (1M tokens beta context, 128K output tokens, adaptive thinking)

## Key Features (v1.6.1)

- 11 official plugins: Asana, Canva, Cloudflare, Figma, GitHub, Google Drive, Jira, Linear, Notion, Sentry, Slack
- Scheduled tasks for recurring automation
- Agent Teams (research preview) for multi-agent coordination
- Context compaction (beta) for longer sessions
- Improved browser automation
- Direct Excel and PowerPoint integrations
- Claude Legal extension for legal document review
- Desktop Commander integration for cross-session memory

## What Cowork Can Do

- Read/write local files in sandbox
- Create Office docs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Extract data from images (OCR, ~97% field accuracy)
- Organize folders and files
- Web research via Chrome
- Run 11 official plugin integrations
- Schedule recurring tasks

## What Cowork Cannot Do

- Execute code or scripts
- Make direct API calls (except via plugins)
- Process audio/video
- Work with VPN active (VM routing conflict)
- Run on Linux
- Operate in the background

## Learning Paths

### Beginner (first week)
1. /guide/00-overview.md — What Cowork can do
2. /guide/01-getting-started.md — Installation and first workflow
3. /workflows/file-organization.md — Practical example
4. /prompts/file-ops.md — 20 ready prompts
5. /reference/cheatsheet.md — Print this

### Decision Maker
1. /guide/02-capabilities.md — Feature matrix
2. /guide/03-security.md — Best practices
3. /reference/comparison.md — vs Copilot/Gemini/ChatGPT

### Power User
1. /workflows/ — 28 step-by-step guides
2. /guide/04-troubleshooting.md — Error resolution
3. /reference/faq.md — 25+ questions

## Key Files

- /guide/00-overview.md — What is Cowork, architecture
- /guide/02-capabilities.md — Feature matrix, limitations
- /guide/04-troubleshooting.md — Error messages, solutions
- /reference/comparison.md — Cowork vs Copilot/Gemini/ChatGPT
- /reference/faq.md — 25+ frequently asked questions
- /reference/cheatsheet.md — 1-page printable reference

## Prompts Library (70 prompts)

| Collection | Count | Examples |
|------------|-------|---------|
| /prompts/file-ops.md | 20 | Organize, rename, deduplicate |
| /prompts/document-creation.md | 15 | Reports, summaries, Excel |
| /prompts/data-extraction.md | 15 | PDF, OCR, images |
| /prompts/research.md | 17 | Web research, synthesis |

## Workflows (28 guides)

**Administrative (6)**: invoice-generation, quote-to-invoice, payment-reminders, compliance-checklist, client-followup-tracker, price-comparison

**Sales & Marketing (5)**: prospect-research, quote-creation, competitor-analysis, presentation-slides, newsletter-creation

**Operations (5)**: project-planning, inventory-tracking, work-log, quality-checklist, supplier-order

**Communication (6)**: social-media-posts, email-templates, review-response, website-audit, knowledge-transfer, workforce-planning

**Organization (6)**: file-organization, expense-tracking, meeting-prep, scheduled-automation, memory-setup, financial-model-validation

## Prompting Formula (CTOC)

CONTEXT → TASK → OUTPUT → CONSTRAINTS

Example:
```
CONTEXT: I have 50 receipts from Paris business trip in ~/Cowork-Workspace/input/receipts/
TASK: Extract all expenses into a spreadsheet
OUTPUT: Save as ~/Cowork-Workspace/output/paris-expenses.xlsx
CONSTRAINTS: Use EUR currency, semicolon formulas, categorize by type
```

## Golden Rules

1. Always review plan before approval
2. Dedicated workspace only (never Documents/Desktop)
3. No credentials in workspace
4. Verify file sources (prompt injection risk)
5. Budget 30-50% time for OCR error correction
6. Disconnect VPN before using
7. Backup before destructive operations

## Privacy

Cowork sends prompts, files, and results to Anthropic servers.

| Plan | Retention | Training |
|------|-----------|---------|
| Default | 5 years | Yes |
| Opt-out | 30 days | No |
| Enterprise | 0 | No |

Disable training: https://claude.ai/settings/data-privacy-controls

## For AI Assistants

Load the structured index for smart navigation:
/machine-readable/reference.yaml (~2K tokens)

Contains: all documentation paths, 70 prompts by category, 28 workflows, 11 plugins, common errors and solutions, token budgets, decision flowchart.

## Related

- Claude Code Guide (for developers): https://github.com/FlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide
- Official Anthropic Docs: https://docs.anthropic.com
- Guide website: https://florianbruniaux.github.io/claude-cowork-guide-landing/

## License

CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

## Author

Florian BRUNIAUX — https://github.com/FlorianBruniaux