Feature walkthrough Open Q&A Access & install
Claude Cowork rollout

Cowork
office hours.

Session 1 — Thursday 6 August 2026. Finding your way around the app, setting a project up once, and what's coming.

30 minutes

Today's agenda.

Feature walkthrough — three parts

Then

Open Q&A
Applying Cowork to the work you're actually doing. Bring a real example.
Access & install issues
Bring them here. Anything we can't close on the call gets followed up directly.

Can't get in at all? Use the help form — it's open any time, and it's how we track issues instead of losing them in DMs.

01
Part one · Finding your way around the desktop app

Getting acclimated

Where Cowork sits in the app, what the connectors will give you, and the one folder Cowork works in.

Claude Desktop

Where to find Cowork.

  1. 1Open Claude Desktop. Two tabs at the top of the sidebar: Home and Code.
  2. 2In Home, click New. The message box has a Chat / Cowork toggle.
  3. 3Switch to Cowork, then pick your project folder — project-aurora here.
  4. 4Type what you want and send it.
Where to find it 0:12
Connectors Not yet available

Connect the tools you already work in.

Connectors let Claude reach into your real systems — SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams — using your existing permissions. It's how Cowork works with your actual files and mail, not just what you upload.

Connectors 0:18

SharePoint & OneDrive

Search sites and libraries; read the documents you already have access to.

Outlook

Search mail and calendar — pull threads and find availability.

Teams

Search chat messages and conversations for context.

Not available to us yet ▸ Under security review. Fall at the earliest — no date confirmed. Owned by the firm's central security team.
Since 31 July

Keep your work inside the Claude folder.

Due to recent firm policy restrictions, Cowork can only open a folder called Claude. Put your project inside it, anywhere inside it, and Cowork can work with your files. Put it anywhere else and Cowork can't see it at all.

Where the Claude folder is

On a Mac
OneDrive / Claude
Home folder / Claude

On Windows
OneDrive \ Claude
C:\Users\<you>\Claude
If you pick the wrong one ▸ You'll get a message saying "Folder not allowed". It lists the folders you can use, so you can pick an allowed one right there in the dialog.

Works

Claude / project-aurora /
Claude / aurora / data-room / tsa /

Subfolders are fine, as many levels deep as you like.

×

Doesn't work

Desktop / project-aurora /
Documents / Clients / Aurora /

Outside the Claude folder, Cowork can't open it — even if you can see it yourself.

SharePoint and synced folders

What that means if your files live on SharePoint.

Sync a SharePoint or Teams folder to your laptop and it lands outside the Claude folder, so Cowork can't open it. Working on those files means copying them in, which leaves you with a second copy of the document.

Why the restriction exists

It keeps Cowork out of folders you haven't thought about — Downloads, Desktop, everything you've ever saved. You decide what it can see.

What that means today

Anything outside the Claude folder is blocked, including when you give Cowork the exact path. To work on something, move or copy it into the Claude folder first.

Actively in progress

Working with the firm's central security team

We're working with them on a way to reach your SharePoint files directly, so nothing has to be copied.

Until then ▸ Copy in only what you're actively working on, and put the finished version back on SharePoint. Treat the Claude folder as a workspace, not the home of the master copy.
02
Part two · Set it up once

Setting up a project

A folder, a file Claude reads automatically, and any skills your team shares. Do it once and it works from every interface you open it in.

Project setup

Where things live on a project.

The folder

OneDrive/Claude/
  project-aurora/  ← launch Cowork here
    CLAUDE.md  ← read automatically
    project-context.md
    stakeholders.md
    plan.md
    skills/  ← set up once, everyone gets it
    working/  ← drafts
    deliverables/  ← finished work
  • CLAUDE.md is read automaticallyWhen it sits in the project folder. Startup instructions go there.
  • Keep it thinPoint to other context files instead of loading everything into it.
  • The skills folder is set up onceFor the project — not something each person redoes.
On a shared project ▸ Five people in one folder? Add a "who am I" instruction so your files are distinguishable from your teammates'. Ask Cowork to set it up and it will.
A starting point

What a bare-bones CLAUDE.md looks like.

project-aurora / CLAUDE.md

# Project Aurora — carve-out support

# Context
For anything about the deal, read project-context.md.
For who's who and what they want, read stakeholders.md.
For the workstream plan, read plan.md.

# Where things go
Put drafts in working/<my-name>/.
Finished deliverables go in deliverables/.

# Who am I
I'm Glenn. Prefix files I create with "gt-".

“Tell Claude where to look and how you work — don't paste the deal in here.”

What goes in it — illustrative ▸
  • Point Claude at the files that hold the detail.
  • Lay out where things live in the folder.
  • Set the rules you'd otherwise repeat at the start of every session.

A line or two each. The detail itself lives in project-context.md, stakeholders.md and plan.md — those can be as long as they need to be.

Skills

Where your skills live.

  1. 1You don't have to go looking for a skill — Claude loads the right one automatically. Every skill says when it applies, and that line is what Claude matches your request against.
  2. 2To see or run one yourself, click + in the message box → Skills.
  3. 3Manage skills opens Settings → Skills — everything you have and who wrote it. Browse is where Anthropic's published ones live.
  4. 4Add gives you three ways in: Create with Claude, Write skill instructions, or Upload a skill. Or just ask: "turn what we just did into a skill."
Adding a skill 0:10

Skills you add show up in the + menu straight away.

One folder, several ways in

The same project folder from Cowork, Claude Code / VS Code, and Chat.

One CLAUDE.md, one set of context files, one skills folder. Go to whichever interface fits the task rather than the one that has your files.

Cowork

Documents and long tasks

You describe what you want and it produces files in the folder — the one you pointed it at.

Claude Code / VS Code

Code and bulk file work

In the terminal, or in VS Code through the Claude Code extension. Not limited to the two approved folders.

Claude Chat

Quick questions and drafting

The file system connector* would be the bridge — point it at the same folder and chat could read and write the project's files too.

Nothing to keep in step ▸ Cowork and Claude Code read the same CLAUDE.md from the same folder today, and Chat joins them when the connector lands. Context you set up once applies wherever you open it — switch mid-task and you don't have to re-explain anything.

* The file system connector for Chat isn't available to us yet, and there's no date for it. Cowork and Claude Code work this way today.

03
Part three · Dates, resources, and where to send problems

What's next

The three things coming and who owns them, where to go if you want more depth than today, and the first thing to try if you can't get into the app.

What's coming

What's ahead.

WhatWhenOwner
Practice skills — manual installEarly SeptemberThe practice's offerings teams
M365 connectorThis fall — TBDThe firm's central security team
Plugin marketplace inside CoworkThis fall — TBDThe practice and the firm's central security team
These office hours — walkthrough, Q&A, accessOngoingThe practice AI team
If you want to go further on your own

Additional material from Anthropic.

Introduction to Claude Cowork. Four sections and a quiz, self-paced — you register once to get in. It covers the same ground as today in more depth.

  • What Cowork is, and setting it up
  • Your first task
  • Standing context, global instructions, projects
  • Skills and plugins
On demand

The Anthropic Skilljar is accessible any time.

Live, 26 August

The 45-minute Anthropic session with a build-along and Q&A.

anthropic.skilljar.com/introduction-to-claude-cowork
Access & install issues

If you can't get into the app.

Most of what we've seen so far clears with a clean reinstall. Try this first.

1

Uninstall

Remove Claude through Control Panel — not by deleting the shortcut.

2

Restart

Restart the machine before reinstalling. Skipping this is why most retries fail.

3

Reinstall

Install again from the firm's software portal.

If the portal still shows it installed ▸ Choose Reinstall anyway. The portal often reports the old install even after you've removed it, and that option is what forces the clean one through.
Still stuck? Submit the form and we'll follow up with you directly The help form · linked from the invite

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