This is a redacted copy of an internal document used at Coefficient Giving. The original document was authored by Chris Webster.

This document is shared in the hope it'll be a useful example for other groups in the community. Coefficient Giving takes no liability for any of the advice here. Note that many tradeoffs we've made (e.g. on security posture, approved apps) may pencil out different for your team.

This copy was made in early January 2026. It will not be updated, so if you're reading this more than a few weeks from now, parts of it may be out of date!

Please share your feedback! What do you do differently, and why? What new things should we try? Mistakes we're making? Please comment on this document or email Chris.

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What Cowork Does

Reads, creates, and organizes files in folders you choose
Creates Excel files, Word docs, and PowerPoints
Runs multi-step tasks on its own
Works with your Claude connectors (Notion, Slack, Google, etc.) </aside>

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What Claude for Chrome Does

Controls your browser: clicks buttons, fills forms, navigates tabs
Runs multi-step web tasks from plain English instructions
Pairs with Cowork to pull web data into local files
Only works on sites you've approved in your allowlist </aside>

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Claude Cowork

When to use Chat vs Cowork vs Claude Code?

Claude Code is better for coding and is more feature rich. But if you prefer a visual interface over the Terminal, Cowork is a great option, and it's much easier to set up. Here's how they compare:

	Claude.ai (Chat)	Cowork	Claude Code
Interface	Web browser or desktop app Chat tab	Visual desktop app (Cowork tab)	Terminal / command line
Best for	Quick Q&A, writing and editing, brainstorming, analyzing uploaded files, generating artifacts (code snippets, documents, diagrams)	File organization, creating Office docs (Excel, Word, PPT), browser automation via Chrome extension, research tasks, long sets of tasks	Building custom tools and automations, running shell commands, working with Git/GitHub, complex multi-file tasks
Integrations	Connectors (Notion, Slack, Google, Asana) — same as Cowork	Built-in connectors (Notion, Slack, Google, Asana) — toggle on in settings	MCP servers — more powerful but requires tricky setup
Multi-step tasks	No — single-turn responses to your prompts	Yes — shows a plan, you approve, it runs	Yes — plus Plan Mode, subagents, and parallel sub-tasks for more complex work
File handling	Upload files to chat; can generate files as artifacts to download	Reads and writes directly to a folder on your computer — real files you can open immediately	Full filesystem access in your project directory — reads, writes, creates, and deletes files
Memory	Memory across sessions and chat search to find past conversations	No memory between sessions	CLAUDE.md files persist context across sessions
Customization	Projects with custom instructions and knowledge files; personal styles	Plugins (Anthropic ships 11)	Subagents, skills, slash commands, and CLAUDE.md — highly configurable
Learning curve	Lowest — just type and go	Low — point-and-click, no terminal needed	Medium — requires comfort with the command line
Maturity	Most mature and stable	Research preview — can be buggy	More mature and stable

Getting Started with Cowork

Open the Claude Desktop app on your Mac (download it from claude.ai/download if you don't have it)
You'll see tabs for "Chat" and "Cowork" at the top. Click Cowork.
Pick a folder on your computer for Claude to work with. It's best to create a new folder for the project you're working on.
Tell it what you want done, and put any files into that folder on your computer.
Claude shows you its plan. Look it over, then approve it.

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Current Limitations of Cowork

No personalization or memory: Cowork doesn't know anything about you, you must provide all context each time.
In development: Cowork is still in development, and may be buggy and unresponsive at times.
Platform: No cross-device sync. All chat history is saved locally.
Performance: Complex spreadsheets sometimes confuse the parser. Chrome automation is slow. Burns more quota than chat.
Some connectors are still flaky. Start with basic file operations, then experiment with integrations once you're comfortable.
Features: No projects integration. No memory between sessions. Can't share sessions. </aside>

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What Cowork Is Good At

Organizing Files

Some things you can ask:

"Organize my Downloads folder by type and date"
"Find all PDFs that are invoices and move them to my receipts folder"
"Rename these files with consistent naming conventions"

Creating Documents

Cowork is great at working with Office docs:

Excel spreadsheets with formulas, formatting, and charts
Word documents with proper formatting
PowerPoint presentations from your notes
PDFs from various sources

Example prompts that work well:

"Here's a CSV of survey responses. Analyze it and tell me the most interesting results."

"Here's my notes on using AI. Make me a 15-minute powerpoint for our staff."

Multi-Step Tasks

You describe what you want, Claude breaks it into steps, you approve, and it runs. Sometimes for several minutes.

Examples:

"Take my scattered meeting notes and turn them into a draft report"
"Go through these 50 meeting transcripts and pull out the main themes"
"Create a project status update from all the docs in this folder" </aside>

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Connectors

Connectors let Claude talk to other services. Cowork reads and writes local files, so you can pull data from Notion into a spreadsheet, or search Slack and save the summary to your folder.

What's Available

Notion for searching and creating pages
Asana for tasks
Slack for messages
Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar search
Whatever else you've turned on in Claude settings

Setting Them Up

Go to claude.ai/settings/connectors, turn on what you want, grant permissions. They'll show up in Cowork automatically.

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Plugins

Plugins bundle skills, connectors, and tools for specific jobs. Anthropic ships 11:

Productivity for task and calendar stuff
Enterprise Search for finding info across tools
Plugin Create/Customize for building your own
Sales for prospect research
Finance for financial analysis
Data for querying and visualizing datasets
Legal for document review
Marketing for content and campaigns
Customer Support for triage and drafting responses
Product Management for specs and roadmaps
Biology Research for literature search

Browse them at github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins. You can customize them or build new ones.

Plugins save locally for now. Org-wide sharing is coming.

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