Welcome back to the AI Edge weekly newsletter!
In this publication, we’ll be covering one of the most powerful AI tools available right now: Claude Cowork.
This edition is our Ultimate Guide to Claude Cowork and all the personal tips we’ve learned from using this tool daily.
Cowork is a complete game-changer, and if you master it, your daily productivity will skyrocket.
By the time you’re done reading, you’ll have a complete overview of Claude Cowork and have everything needed to start using this tool.
After our main anchor piece, be sure to stick around for the Midweek Edge for all the latest AI news updates. It was a massive start to the week with Claude Mythos (Fable) officially released - you don’t want to miss this section!
Enjoy!
Claude Cowork Intro & Setup
Cowork is Claude's desktop agent - and it functions completely differently from the regular Claude Chat.
Unlike the standard AI chatbot, Cowork can connect to your tools, access local files, and complete multi-step tasks autonomously from start to finish.
Think of Cowork as the middle ground between the standard Claude Chat and Claude Code.
It’s far more capable than Claude Chat, but it’s not built for developers. Cowork is built for everyday people who want to automate their lives.
Setting Up Cowork
Getting started takes less than 5 minutes.
Step 1: Download the Claude desktop app
Step 2: Open the Cowork tab
Once installed, click the Cowork tab at the top of the desktop app.
Step 3: Begin Prompting (more on this below)
Now that you have Cowork installed, let's talk about how to start prompting:
Prompting Cowork
If you're coming from other AI tools, you'll need to adjust your prompting mechanics slightly.
The good news: you don't need to be a prompt engineer; you just need to remember these principles:
Treat Cowork like a new hire on their first day (smart, capable, willing to do anything you ask). But they need context. They need to know what you want, why you want it, and what a good result looks like. The more you give upfront, the less back-and-forth you need afterward.
The 3-Part Cowork Prompt Formula
1. The task: what do you actually want done?
"Go through my inbox and draft responses to every unread email from the last 24 hours."
2. The context: what does Cowork need to know to do this well?
"I run a content agency. My tone is direct and professional. Clients expect fast responses."
3. The output: what should the finished result look like?
“Deliver each draft in this format: Sender, Subject, Draft Response. Flag anything that needs my input before sending."
This is the base framework for getting amazing Cowork outputs.
Remember: Cowork can do anything (research, task automations, coding, etc.), it just needs adequate context to execute properly.
Cowork has a suite of various features. Let’s run through them all:
Projects
A Project is a persistent workspace where you store your files, custom instructions, and project-specific memory. When you open that Project, Cowork already knows exactly what it's working with.
To set one up: Claude desktop → Cowork → Projects → New Project
There are three ways to get started with Cowork projects:
Start from scratch: Set up a new folder
Import a project: Import project from Chat
Existing folder: Let Cowork access a pre-existing work folder
When to use Projects
Repeatable tasks
On-going conversations
Tasks where you find yourself re-explaining previous context
Tasks that evolve over time with new context and goals
Projects are powerful, but Scheduled Tasks are where true automation is unlocked:
Scheduled Tasks
Scheduled Tasks let you configure any task once and have Cowork run it automatically on a set schedule.
For example: Daily briefings, weekly reports, automated file processing, and research.
To set one up: Claude desktop → Cowork → Scheduled Tasks sidebar → New Task
Or use the /schedule skill, and Cowork will walk you through the setup with a few clarifying questions.
Scheduled Tasks are especially useful when paired with MCP connectors (Google Calendar, Notion, Slack, etc.).
Most people have no clue this next feature even exists:
Live Artifacts
Live Artifacts lets Cowork build interactive, live outputs directly inside your session.
Prompting:
Basic: "Build me a live [artifact type] that shows [data/content]."
With data source: "Connect to [tool] and build me a live [artifact type] that displays [specific data] updated in real time."
With design direction: "Build me a live [artifact type] that pulls [data] from [tool] and displays it as [layout/format]. Keep it clean and scannable."
Full structure: "Build me a live [artifact type]. Pull data from [tool/source]. Display [specific fields or metrics]. Format it as [layout]. Refresh it [frequency] automatically."
Real example: "Build me a live content tracker. Pull my active projects from Notion, display the status, deadline, and next action for each one, and format it as a simple table I can check daily."
The most powerful Cowork feature:
Claude Dispatch
Claude Dispatch lets you connect to Cowork from your mobile device.
Meaning, you can kick off Cowork tasks completely remotely while your agents work locally on your desktop.
Head to the “Dispatch” tab and follow the setup steps (takes 2 minutes).
Make sure to browse Settings:
Keep awake
Notifications
Computer use
Code permissions
How to customize Cowork for maximum productivity:
Customizing Cowork
This is where Cowork gets seriously powerful.
There are three ways to fully unlock what Cowork can do:
Connectors
Claude desktop → Cowork → Customize → Connectors
Connectors give Cowork access to the tools you already use. Slack, Notion, Gmail, Google Calendar, etc.
Skills
Claude desktop → Cowork → Customize → Skills
Skills are reusable workflows you build once and use forever. If you find yourself repeatedly giving Cowork the same instructions, turn it into a Skill.
Plugins
Claude desktop → Cowork → Customize → Plugins
Plugins are the next level up from Skills. Where a Skill is a single workflow, a Plugin bundles multiple Skills, Connectors, and MCPs into a complete role (e.g., marketing, legal).
Pro Tips (our personal learnings after using Cowork daily for months)
The Audit: Have Cowork "audit" you - explain how you use your time, how you work, etc., and prompt Cowork to suggest real workflows that may be helpful
Schedule Tasks: You can schedule tasks to repeat automatically in Cowork, take advantage of this feature
Connect your tools before you need them: Don't wait until you're mid-task to realize Cowork can't access your calendar or your documents. Set up your Connectors on day one
Save your best prompts: When a prompt produces a great result, save it. Build a personal library of your highest performing prompts and turn the best ones into Skills
Start Small: Don't try to automate your entire life on day one. Aim to automate ~1-2 useful workflows per week - these compound
Paste: You can literally paste anything into Cowork - an email you received, a document, a website URL. When in doubt, just paste it in and tell Cowork what you want done with it
There you have it - The Ultimate Guide to Claude Cowork
Now, let’s jump into the Midweek Edge - our manually curated list of only the most important AI updates to ensure you stay up to speed.
It was a huge week in AI, so you won’t want to miss this!
🚨 Claude Fable (Mythos) LIVE Now 🚨
Anthropic just released its publicly available version of Claude Mythos.
Official Blog by Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5
TLDR:
Incredibly smart and capable model
Massive improvements across coding, science, codebase review & debugging
Very verbose model (deep technical understanding)
Asks many clarifying questions
Slow model
2x more expensive than Opus 4.8
Live for all paid plans until June 22nd
🚨OpenAI Confidentially Files For IPO🚨
It happened.
OpenAI has officially filed for an IPO.
Estimated valuations have the launch at a $~1.5T valuation.
🚨Gemma 4 12B LIVE Now🚨
Google’s new multimodal LLM - works completely offline on mobile.
To get started
Download the app: Search “Google AI Edge Gallery” from your app store (mobile).
Search for Gemma: Open the app, click the search icon on the left-hand sidebar, type gemma4.
Select and Download: Look through the available model variants and click the Download button.
Load and Chat Offline: Navigate to the Chat tab, pick your downloaded model.
🚨/loops (agentic engineering)🚨
A new way to prompt AI agents for fully autonomous work.
Loop engineering is replacing yourself as the agent's prompt writer and letting your AI agents prompt themselves.
A complete step up from /goal (which we covered a few weeks ago).
Use “/loop” inside Claude Code now:
Looking Ahead - The top AI trends, leaks, and news we’re closely monitoring.
👀 SpaceX IPO: June 12th (Friday) 👀
SpaceX (ticker $SPCX) is scheduled for live trading this Friday.
Launching at a ~$1.8T valuation - the biggest IPO in history.
👀 Let AI Trade for You 👀
Agentic AI skills for trading the market autonomously.
Query real-time market data
Manage your portfolio
Place trades (TP/SL)
All through natural language prompting inside Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI & more:
👀 Apple Siri Updates 👀
Apple has recently shipped some massive Siri updates - “Siri AI.”
We expect Siri to finally become “usable” over the next few months as they continue to add to the latest Siri AI update.
Closing out
If you made it this far, thank you for reading, and we hope you found this week’s edition valuable.
If you enjoy reading, please share this with someone who you think would benefit from our publication.💙
Our promise to you: Every Wednesday, at 7 am EST, we’ll cut through the AI noise and send you human-curated AI guides to make sure you stay ahead of the AI curve (100% free always).
Recent & Upcoming Content
YouTube
Live Now: Claude Mythos Overview by Miles
X (Twitter)
Live Now: “Dynamic Workflows in Claude: Ultimate Guide”
Upcoming: “How to Build Agentic AI Skills (step-by-step) Guide” LIVE SOON
Free AI assets
For all the AI prompts, cheatsheets, and PDF guides mentioned on the AI Edge YouTube channel, grab them by joining Miles’ free Instagram community here: