A Tour of Cowork
Swipe to show menu
A guided walk through the Claude desktop app - the two interfaces you'll use in the course (Chat and Cowork), the model picker, the settings panel where connectors and skills live, and the sidebar features (projects, scheduled tasks, live artifacts, dispatch) that show up in every later chapter.
Core Concept
You cannot use a tool well until you know what's in it. Most people open Claude, use the chat box because it's familiar, and miss eighty percent of what's actually possible. We're going to walk through the whole app so that every chapter after this makes immediate sense. The interface will change over time - the principles will not.
How It Works (Step-by-Step)
Step 1 - Download the Claude desktop app
Search "Claude desktop app" and download the version for your operating system. The web version of Claude in a browser will not give you full access to Cowork, which is where the majority of this course is delivered.
Step 2 - Understand the model picker
Top-right of the chat window is the model selector. As of the recording of this course, the options are Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku.
is the sweet spot for the vast majority of work in this course. Fast, capable, cheaper than Opus.
is the most capable. Reach for it on genuinely ambitious work - deep research, complex reasoning. Overkill for everyday admin.
is the fastest and cheapest. Good for quick, low-stakes questions.
Alongside the model is the effort setting. Think of the models as three cars with different engines - Haiku is a 100-horsepower engine, Sonnet is 200, Opus is 300. Effort is the gears within each car. Higher effort means Claude thinks harder before responding. Sonnet at high effort is a fine setting for most work in this course.
Step 3 - Explore the left sidebar
The features you will actually use, from the left sidebar of the Cowork window:
- New task - start a fresh conversation in Cowork.
- Projects - folders for structured work with custom instructions and memory.
- Scheduled tasks - recurring automations that fire on a cadence (built in Section 5).
- Live artifacts - living pages that pull fresh data from your connectors every time you open them (built in Section 5).
- Dispatch - kick off tasks from your phone. Currently in preview.
- Customize - the panel where connectors, skills, and plugins are managed.
Step 4 - Open the Customize panel
Click Customize. Two tabs that matter for this course.
- Connectors - where you link Gmail, Calendar, Notion, Slack, Drive, and other apps into Claude. We start using these in Section 2.
- Skills - reusable instruction sets that Claude can trigger automatically. You'll build your first one in 2.3.
There is also a Plugins section for installing bundles of skills and connectors. We cover this in 2.2.
Step 5 - Configure "Ask before acting"
Every new task has an "Ask before acting" toggle. Keep this ON if you are a beginner. It means Claude will pause and request permission before doing anything on your computer - creating a file, opening a folder, sending an email. This is your safety net.
For personal projects where you trust the workflow end-to-end, you can turn it off to let Claude run without approval checkpoints. In an office environment, or with sensitive data, keep it on.
Step 6 - Try a small action
Ask Claude to create a folder on your desktop.
"Hey Claude, can you please create a new folder on my desktop? No need to put anything in it. Call it 'Claude Example Folder'."
Claude will request permission (because "Ask before acting" is on), you allow it, the folder appears on your desktop. Small moment. Real leverage.
Step 7 - Try the progress panel on the right
The right side of the Cowork window has three panels - Progress, Working folders, and Context. Ask Claude to add three tasks to the Progress panel - anything you're actually doing today. Watch it populate the panel in real time. Then ask it to cross items off as you finish them.
Why This Matters
Every chapter from here on assumes you know your way around Claude. If you have to hunt for the Customize panel every time, the course feels harder than it is. Ten minutes at the start compresses the rest of the learning curve dramatically.
What Should Be Possible After This
- Open the Claude desktop app and switch between Chat and Cowork.
- Pick the right model and effort setting for a given task.
- Find the Customize panel and identify where connectors and skills live.
- Configure "Ask before acting" for your comfort level.
- Get Claude to perform a small action on your computer with your approval.
Thanks for your feedback!
Ask AI
Ask AI
Ask anything or try one of the suggested questions to begin our chat
A Tour of Cowork
A guided walk through the Claude desktop app - the two interfaces you'll use in the course (Chat and Cowork), the model picker, the settings panel where connectors and skills live, and the sidebar features (projects, scheduled tasks, live artifacts, dispatch) that show up in every later chapter.
Core Concept
You cannot use a tool well until you know what's in it. Most people open Claude, use the chat box because it's familiar, and miss eighty percent of what's actually possible. We're going to walk through the whole app so that every chapter after this makes immediate sense. The interface will change over time - the principles will not.
How It Works (Step-by-Step)
Step 1 - Download the Claude desktop app
Search "Claude desktop app" and download the version for your operating system. The web version of Claude in a browser will not give you full access to Cowork, which is where the majority of this course is delivered.
Step 2 - Understand the model picker
Top-right of the chat window is the model selector. As of the recording of this course, the options are Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku.
is the sweet spot for the vast majority of work in this course. Fast, capable, cheaper than Opus.
is the most capable. Reach for it on genuinely ambitious work - deep research, complex reasoning. Overkill for everyday admin.
is the fastest and cheapest. Good for quick, low-stakes questions.
Alongside the model is the effort setting. Think of the models as three cars with different engines - Haiku is a 100-horsepower engine, Sonnet is 200, Opus is 300. Effort is the gears within each car. Higher effort means Claude thinks harder before responding. Sonnet at high effort is a fine setting for most work in this course.
Step 3 - Explore the left sidebar
The features you will actually use, from the left sidebar of the Cowork window:
- New task - start a fresh conversation in Cowork.
- Projects - folders for structured work with custom instructions and memory.
- Scheduled tasks - recurring automations that fire on a cadence (built in Section 5).
- Live artifacts - living pages that pull fresh data from your connectors every time you open them (built in Section 5).
- Dispatch - kick off tasks from your phone. Currently in preview.
- Customize - the panel where connectors, skills, and plugins are managed.
Step 4 - Open the Customize panel
Click Customize. Two tabs that matter for this course.
- Connectors - where you link Gmail, Calendar, Notion, Slack, Drive, and other apps into Claude. We start using these in Section 2.
- Skills - reusable instruction sets that Claude can trigger automatically. You'll build your first one in 2.3.
There is also a Plugins section for installing bundles of skills and connectors. We cover this in 2.2.
Step 5 - Configure "Ask before acting"
Every new task has an "Ask before acting" toggle. Keep this ON if you are a beginner. It means Claude will pause and request permission before doing anything on your computer - creating a file, opening a folder, sending an email. This is your safety net.
For personal projects where you trust the workflow end-to-end, you can turn it off to let Claude run without approval checkpoints. In an office environment, or with sensitive data, keep it on.
Step 6 - Try a small action
Ask Claude to create a folder on your desktop.
"Hey Claude, can you please create a new folder on my desktop? No need to put anything in it. Call it 'Claude Example Folder'."
Claude will request permission (because "Ask before acting" is on), you allow it, the folder appears on your desktop. Small moment. Real leverage.
Step 7 - Try the progress panel on the right
The right side of the Cowork window has three panels - Progress, Working folders, and Context. Ask Claude to add three tasks to the Progress panel - anything you're actually doing today. Watch it populate the panel in real time. Then ask it to cross items off as you finish them.
Why This Matters
Every chapter from here on assumes you know your way around Claude. If you have to hunt for the Customize panel every time, the course feels harder than it is. Ten minutes at the start compresses the rest of the learning curve dramatically.
What Should Be Possible After This
- Open the Claude desktop app and switch between Chat and Cowork.
- Pick the right model and effort setting for a given task.
- Find the Customize panel and identify where connectors and skills live.
- Configure "Ask before acting" for your comfort level.
- Get Claude to perform a small action on your computer with your approval.
Thanks for your feedback!
