Block 1 — Set up: app, folder, project, instructions

Install Claude Desktop

Download from claude.com/download (macOS or Windows, latest version). Cowork needs a paid plan: Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. Free accounts do not get it. On Enterprise an admin must switch Cowork on for the organization first.

Cowork also works on the web and the phone app. Those sessions run in the cloud and can reach your files only through a desktop app that is open.

Find Cowork

Older layout (Team, Enterprise): under the message box, click Cowork in the Chat | Cowork switch.

New layout (Pro, Max after the merge): there is no switch. Describe the task in any conversation.

Message box with a plus button, the Chat and Cowork switch, and the model picker set to Sonnet 5 — Plus button for files and plugins, the Chat | Cowork switch, and the model picker.

Give it one working folder

Cowork can read and write only in folders you connect. Make a new, empty folder called Documents/Cowork Playground and connect only that one. Do not connect Desktop, Downloads or your whole drive. The first time, Cowork asks for access to the folder.

Keep every file you work on inside the playground. A file dragged in from Downloads may appear in the task, but Cowork cannot read it.

▶ See it in Jeff Su's video (03:19)

Folders you have connected show under Settings → Trusted folders. You can remove them there.

The folder you connect must hold synthetic or de-identified files only. No MRNs, names, or national numbers.

Make a project

A project keeps files, instructions, scheduled tasks and memory for one piece of work. Sidebar → Projects → +. Pick Use an existing folder and choose your course folder.

Create a new project dialog with three options: Start from scratch, Import a project, Use an existing folder — Three ways to start a project. · Source: Anthropic

Use an existing folder dialog with project name, instructions box, add files and Create button — Name it, add project instructions, click Create. Projects made from a local folder stay on that computer. · Source: Anthropic

Write your standing instructions

Global instructions apply to every session: Settings → Cowork → Edit in the older layout, Settings → General → Instructions for Claude in the new one. Keep them short. Start with guardrails, like training wheels you remove later.

Global instructions text box reading Add instructions for Claude to follow in all Cowork sessions, with Cancel and Save buttons — The global instructions box. · Source: Anthropic

I work at King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman.
Write in plain English, short sentences, British spelling.
Save every output in the folder I connected, never elsewhere.
Ask before deleting, moving, or overwriting any file.
If a file looks like it holds patient identifiers (MRN, name, national number), stop and tell me.
Use the KHCC colours for slides: teal #237A9B, gold #E4B325, magenta #B6447D.

While in Settings, open Capabilities and turn on both memory options.

▶ See it in Jeff Su's video (02:19) · settings and starter instructions

Memory lives in files you can read

Cowork can keep what it learns in two plain files at the top of your folder: CLAUDE.md (how to work here) and memory.md (what it has learned from your corrections). Open them, read them, edit them.

Try it on a synthetic minutes file: ask for a 200-word summary, rewrite it the way you like, then say:

I changed your summary. Compare your version with mine and save my preferences in CLAUDE.md and memory.md at the root of this folder, so you follow them next time.

Every correction you save makes the next run closer to how you work. Never let a patient detail land in these files.

▶ See it in Jeff Su's video (06:14) · persistent memory

Go deeper: see a full CLAUDE.md turn five ward policies into a wiki and a quality review ›