What is Claude Cowork and how does it differ from chat and Claude Code?
Cowork is Claude's task workflow for work beyond coding. It can read permitted material, work through steps and create files, with the person supplying the task and reviewing the result1. A staff exercise can therefore produce a handover document from approved notes without teaching a terminal or a developer project.
The distinction from chat is changing. Anthropic says it is gradually merging chat and Cowork into one conversation, starting with Pro and Max accounts2. Some accounts still show the two choices. If yours has the unified experience, describe the outcome in the normal message box; do not look for a missing separate Cowork mode.
Claude Code is aimed at developer work, while the exercise here is a supervised office handover. The distinction is the work and its review. A business user does not need a software repository to practise this example, but still needs to understand what information and actions the task can access.
Which plans and platforms support the workflow?
Anthropic lists Cowork on paid Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. Its setup guidance covers current Claude Desktop on macOS and Windows, plus web and mobile access that depends on plan and organisation enablement1. Use the vendor's current setup page for the account you have, because the unified experience is still rolling out2.
For local folder work, keep the current Claude Desktop app open and connected1,2. A task running in the cloud does not automatically have your computer's files. Anthropic describes access to connected local folders through Desktop, and says a session cannot reach the computer while the app is offline3.
Check your organisation's approved account and access rules before the exercise. A paid plan is a product prerequisite, not permission to use confidential material. Software subscription and usage charges are separate from training fees; check the vendor's account terms instead of assuming a workshop includes them.
How do we prepare a bounded handover exercise?
Download the fictional operations notes and the handover template linked here. Put copies in a dedicated practice folder. The notes describe damaged packaging, a pending inspection and a missing action owner. They contain no client, employee or supplier identity4,5.
Read the files yourself before granting access. Keep the original downloads elsewhere, and use the practice copies for the task. Give access to that narrow folder rather than a whole shared drive. Anthropic recommends a dedicated working folder and backups when granting local-file access3.
Keep email, business-system connections and browser actions out of this exercise. The task needs to read the supplied notes and produce a draft. A request for a new app, an unrelated folder or a consequential action is a reason to stop and inspect the scope.
What should we ask Cowork to do?
Use a request such as this. Read only operations-notes.md and handover-template.md in the practice folder. Create a separate handover draft with actions, source passages, open questions and reviewer checks. Preserve missing owners and unresolved decisions. Leave the source files unchanged. Do not send messages, connect apps or take actions outside this folder.
The request defines the permitted inputs and output. It is also a statement of the staff member's intent; it does not replace account permissions or the controls in the product. Use manual approval when learning a new tool or when the task touches sensitive resources, as Anthropic's safety guidance recommends3.
If the account still shows Chat and Cowork choices, select Cowork for the task. In the unified experience, give the same bounded request directly1,2. Read the proposed work and any access request before allowing it. The wording of controls can differ by account and rollout.
What should the handover draft contain?
The output should identify the pending packaging inspection, the supplier-instructions action and the unchecked stock count. It can use the stated Tuesday timing for the coordinator's action and the stated Friday meeting. The source does not assign a stock-count owner or decide whether the delivery can be used4.
A correct draft therefore keeps those two uncertainties visible. If it names an invented owner, says the stock count is complete or approves the goods for use, mark the statement as unsupported. Ask for a focused revision and then inspect the revised passage.
Use the template's evidence column or source passage to trace each action back to the notes5. A neat document alone is not a successful exercise. The reviewer should be able to distinguish something agreed in the notes from a recommendation or unanswered question.
Where do permissions and confidential information change the task?
The risk depends on what Claude can read and what it can do with that access. Anthropic distinguishes reading tools from writing tools and recommends closer oversight for sensitive or consequential work3. A file-summary task with practice copies has a different scope from a task connected to email or a purchasing system.
Do not widen the folder just because the result needs another fact. Supply an approved extract or stop for a decision about whether the task is permitted. Review the content of a downloaded file before adding it; a document can contain instructions that try to redirect the AI away from the staff member's request.
Anthropic says Cowork work runs in an isolated cloud environment and reaches permitted computer resources through Desktop3. Isolation does not remove the need to decide which data may be processed or which apps may be used. A local folder connection is not a promise that the information remains only on the laptop.
How should a staff member review and stop the workflow?
Inspect the finished file against the source, including every action, owner and date. Check that the source files remain unchanged and that no unrelated output appeared. Keep the handover marked as a draft until the person responsible for the work has reviewed it.
Watch for unexpected access, new connections or a request to send or publish something. Anthropic advises monitoring tasks for changes in scope and stopping when activity is outside what you intended3. For this exercise, keep the output in the practice folder and use your normal process if you later want to share a reviewed document.
If you later try real work, have the organisation approve the purpose, account, permitted information and review route. The Privacy Commissioner's AI guidance addresses those data-handling questions and recommends privacy assessment before use6. A successful practice draft does not grant wider access.
Can Cowork use skills and reusable instructions?
Anthropic describes skills and plugins as ways to give Claude reusable workflows and connected capabilities2. A skill can hold the handover method, but it should not silently expand the data access or actions. Read what a supplied skill asks to do before using it with a business account.
Begin by saving the plain request and reviewer checklist from the practice task. Test the method with new fictional notes that omit a date or an owner. A reusable instruction is useful when it preserves uncertainty and gives another staff member enough detail to run the same review.
Which training covers this kind of supervised staff work?
The Claude practical-day workshop includes a Cowork handover lab using fictional notes, a bounded folder and source review. The course page describes the access check and the output staff inspect. Bring your approved plan and the questions your administrator needs answered before booking.
Our prompt-engineering workshop helps staff write and test reusable requests. It suits teams who already have a tool but need clearer inputs, output criteria and handover instructions. The free Claude introduction is a starting point for individual basics; Claude Academy also has an introduction to Cowork with paid-plan prerequisites7.
Ask thecolab.ai to scope the work before giving a trainer private files. Training can run at your workplace anywhere in New Zealand or live by video. Software accounts remain a separate purchase. The exercise here teaches a permission boundary and an output check, without authorising live actions in your systems.