CoWork setup
Claude CoWork is Claude's desktop agent. It works inside a folder on your computer — reading files, writing documents, and taking action across your apps. It's the shift from "chatbot you paste things into" to "AI that sits alongside your actual work."
What makes it different
Standard Claude (and ChatGPT) works like this: you open a chat, explain the context, paste something in, get a response, copy it back out. Every session starts from scratch.
CoWork is different. You give it a folder with your context — who you are, how you work, your priorities — and it reads that before doing anything. It remembers across sessions. It works inside your files directly. It can connect to your apps.
The result: you describe what you need, and it already knows your business.
What you need
- Claude desktop app (Mac or Windows) — claude.ai/download
- Claude Max subscription (£90/month) — CoWork requires this tier
- 20–30 minutes to set up your folder the first time
Folder structure
Create one dedicated folder for CoWork. Keep it clean. A simple structure that works:
CoWork/
├── ABOUT ME/
│ ├── about-me.md
│ ├── tone-of-voice.md
│ └── working-style.md
├── TEMPLATES/
│ └── (examples of good outputs you want Claude to replicate)
├── PROJECTS/
│ └── (one subfolder per live project)
└── OUTPUTS/
└── (where Claude saves finished work)
About Me — who you are, how you work, what the business does. Claude reads this before every session.
Templates — examples of good outputs. A well-written email you want replicated. A report format you always use. A proposal structure that lands well. Claude uses these as patterns.
Projects — one subfolder per active project. Drop in the brief, reference material, relevant emails. Claude reads what's relevant.
Outputs — where Claude saves finished work. Read-only for you, write-only for Claude. Keeps things tidy.
Your context files
The most important thing you'll create is your about-me.md. Think of it as your brief for a new hire — enough that they can do good work without asking you the same questions every time.
A simple about-me covers:
- Who you are and what the business does (one clear paragraph)
- How you work — what matters, how you make decisions
- Current priorities — what you're focused on this quarter
Keep it to a single page. Use plain language. Update it as things change.
tone-of-voice.md — how you write. Formal or casual, words you use, words you'd never use, how your tone shifts between contexts (client emails vs internal notes vs social). Claude uses this whenever it's writing anything on your behalf.
working-style.md — how you want Claude to work with you. Should it ask before acting or just get on with it? Should it give you options or a single recommendation? How much explanation do you want? Getting this right saves a lot of back-and-forth.
The setup prompt
Paste this into a new CoWork session to build your folder from scratch. Claude will interview you for each file, show it to you before saving, and build the whole thing step by step.
You're going to help me set up my CoWork workspace so every future session
starts with the right context about me and my work.
We're building three files. Interview me for each one, write the file,
show it to me, and get my approval before moving on. Don't rush.
Don't assume. Ask before you build.
---
Step 1 — About Me
Create about-me.md. Ask about:
- What the business does, in plain language
- How I make money (products, services, pricing)
- My team — who does what
- Key tools I use daily
- My customers — who they are
- Current priorities — what I'm focused on this quarter
One page. Sections and bullet points. No fluff.
Show me the file and get my approval before moving on.
---
Step 2 — How I Write
Create tone-of-voice.md. Ask about:
- How I write to different audiences (formal, casual, direct, warm)
- Words or phrases I use often
- Words or phrases I'd never use
- How my tone shifts between contexts (customer emails vs internal notes)
Show me 2–3 example sentences in different tones. Ask which sounds like me.
Half a page. Dos and don'ts format.
Show me the file and get my approval before moving on.
---
Step 3 — My Workflows
Create workflows.md. Ask about:
- The 3–5 tasks I do most often that AI could help with
- For each: what's the input, what's the output, what does good look like
- Any recurring tasks (weekly reports, monthly invoices, regular content)
For each workflow, write a short brief: what the task is, what context
Claude needs, what the output should look like.
Show me the file and get my approval before moving on.
---
Rules:
- Interview me one step at a time
- Show each file before saving — I need to approve it
- If you're not sure, ask — don't guess
- Keep files short and scannable
- Use my words, not corporate language
Global instructions
In Claude desktop: Settings → CoWork — add a short instruction that tells Claude to read your folder before every session. Something like:
Before every task, read my ABOUT ME folder. Read the relevant PROJECT folder if there is one. Write all outputs to my OUTPUTS folder using the format: project_content-type_date.
This runs automatically. You don't need to include it in every prompt.
Start small. One about-me file and one project folder is enough for the first week. Add to it as you discover what's useful — don't try to build the whole system on day one.