Skip to main content

Skills, plugins & commands

Once CoWork is set up, three things make it significantly more powerful: skills, plugins (connectors), and commands.

Skills​

A skill is a saved instruction set for a specific, recurring task. Instead of writing the same detailed prompt every time you need a particular type of output, you write it once as a skill file and reuse it.

A skill file is just a markdown file in your CoWork folder that describes exactly how Claude should approach a task:

# Weekly Report Skill

When I ask you to write a weekly report:
- Format: 3 sections — Progress, Blockers, Next Week
- Tone: direct and factual, no padding
- Length: no more than one page
- Use the data I give you; don't fill gaps with assumptions
- Include a one-sentence summary at the top

Drop this in a SKILLS/ folder and reference it when you need it: "Use my weekly-report skill to turn these notes into a report."

Good candidates for skills:

  • Weekly or monthly reports
  • Proposal structures
  • Client update emails
  • Social media posts in your brand voice
  • Any output type you produce more than once a month

Plugins (connectors)​

Plugins connect CoWork to your other apps. Claude can then read from and act on those apps directly — without you copying and pasting between windows.

Available connectors include:

  • Gmail / Outlook — read emails, draft responses, summarise threads
  • Google Calendar — read your schedule, prep for meetings, summarise the day
  • Slack — read channels, draft messages
  • Notion — read and write pages
  • Google Drive / Docs — access files without downloading them
  • Salesforce — read CRM data, update records

To connect a plugin: Settings → CoWork → Plugins → Add

You don't need all of them. Connect what you actually need for a specific task — Claude will only access what you've authorised.

Practical example: Connect Gmail and ask Claude to read your inbox from the last 24 hours, summarise the key things that need a response, and draft replies for the top three. That's a 15-minute morning task that takes 2 minutes.

Commands​

Commands are shortcuts — short phrases that trigger a specific behaviour without writing a full prompt.

You can define them in your global instructions or in your about-me file:

Commands:
- /brief → turn whatever I give you into a project brief
- /summarise → give me a 3-bullet summary of the document
- /tone → rewrite this in my brand voice
- /plan → turn these notes into an action plan with owners and dates

Then in CoWork: just type /brief followed by your content and Claude knows what to do.

The most useful command for beginners: configure Claude to ask you questions before starting any task.

Add this to your global instructions:

Before starting any task, use the ask_user_question tool to clarify anything that would change the output. Don't guess — ask.

This single change dramatically improves output quality. Claude will ask one or two focused questions before it starts, rather than making assumptions and giving you something you have to heavily edit.

Putting it together​

A CoWork session with all three working looks like this:

  1. Claude reads your About Me and the relevant project folder (context)
  2. You type /brief and paste in a few rough notes
  3. Claude asks one clarifying question
  4. It generates a full project brief using your template
  5. It saves the output to your OUTPUTS folder

No copying and pasting. No re-explaining your business. No reformatting the output. Just describe what you need and it works.

tip

Build skills gradually. After each session, if you produced something you want to be able to reproduce easily, write it up as a skill file. After a month, you'll have a library that makes every session faster.