🧭 How to Use This Page
Each section below covers a major feature category. Click any item in the table of contents on the right to jump straight there. Beginners: start from the top and work your way down.
📄 File Creation
One of the most powerful things Cowork mode can do is create fully formatted documents from a simple text description. No templates, no fiddling - just describe what you want and Claude delivers a finished file.
Word Documents (.docx)
Full Microsoft Word documents with proper headings, tables of contents, tables, page numbers, and professional formatting. Perfect for reports, letters, proposals, and contracts.
Excel Spreadsheets (.xlsx)
Spreadsheets complete with formulas, formatted tables, charts, and even pivot tables. Budget trackers, data analysis, invoices - all from one sentence.
PowerPoint Decks (.pptx)
Fully designed slide decks with proper layouts, bullet points, speaker notes, and a consistent theme. Great for pitches, training materials, and presentations.
PDF Documents (.pdf)
Generate, merge, split, watermark, and fill PDF forms. Extract text from existing PDFs or create new ones from scratch.
💡 Example Prompt
"Create a 3-page business proposal for a mobile dog grooming service called Waggle. Include an executive summary, services list, pricing table, and a conclusion. Save it as a Word document."
🌐 Web Research & Search
Cowork mode gives Claude the ability to search the web in real time, visit websites, and incorporate up-to-date information into your work - all without you opening a browser.
- Live web search - Get current facts, news, and data directly into your documents.
- Page reading - Claude can visit a URL you provide and extract the relevant information.
- Research summaries - Ask Claude to research a topic and get a clean summary with key points.
- Competitor analysis - Claude can browse competitor websites and compile comparison reports.
🔌 MCP Connectors - Connect Your Apps
MCP (Model Context Protocol) connectors allow Claude to directly communicate with your existing tools and services. Think of them as "plugins" that give Claude access to your data across different platforms.
| App / Service | What Claude Can Do | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Slack | Read channels, draft messages, search conversations | ✓ |
| Notion | Read pages, create documents, update databases | ✓ |
| Google Drive | Read & summarise documents, find files | ✓ |
| Asana | Read tasks, create tasks, update project status | ✓ |
| Jira | Browse issues, create tickets, track sprints | ✓ |
| Confluence | Read documentation, search pages | ✓ |
| Box | Browse and read files stored in Box | ✓ |
| Figma | Read design files and assets | ✓ |
| Gong | Access call recordings and transcripts | ✓ |
Connectors are found in the Settings or Integrations panel of the Claude desktop app. Each connector requires authorisation - a one-time login step to grant Claude access.
⚡ Skills & Plugins
Skills are pre-built task bundles - like app shortcuts, but for complex AI workflows. A Skill might contain best practices for writing a sales email, generating a numerology report, or creating a branded LinkedIn post.
When you install a Skill, it teaches Claude exactly how to handle a specific type of task with the highest quality possible.
Document Skills
Optimised workflows for Word docs, PDFs, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Sales Skills
Account research, call prep, outreach drafting, and pipeline reviews.
Marketing Skills
Campaign plans, SEO audits, email sequences, and content creation.
Search Skills
Enterprise-wide search across Slack, Notion, Confluence, and more.
Brand Voice Skills
Discover, generate, and enforce your company's brand guidelines.
Custom Skills
Build your own skills tailored to your specific workflows.
📅 Scheduled Tasks
Cowork mode can run tasks automatically on a schedule - no human trigger required. This is ideal for recurring tasks you do daily or weekly.
- Daily briefings - Get a morning summary of your calendar, tasks, and priorities every day at 9am.
- Weekly reports - Auto-generate a performance summary every Monday morning.
- One-time reminders - Set a task to fire at a specific date and time.
- Ad-hoc tasks - Save tasks to run on demand without typing them again.
💡 Example: Daily Briefing
Set up a task: "Every weekday at 8:30am, check my Asana tasks and Slack messages and give me a prioritised to-do list for the day." Claude runs it automatically every morning.
🖥️ Browser Automation (Claude in Chrome)
Through the optional Claude in Chrome integration, Cowork mode can control your web browser - clicking buttons, filling forms, navigating pages, and extracting information from websites.
- Fill out forms and submit data on your behalf.
- Read and summarise web pages in context.
- Take screenshots and analyse web content visually.
- Record browser actions as GIFs for documentation.
⚠️ Security Note
Claude will never enter passwords or financial data in forms without your explicit approval. It always asks for confirmation before taking sensitive actions in the browser.
💻 Code Execution
Cowork mode can write and run code - Python scripts, data analysis, file conversions, and more - directly in a secure sandbox on your machine. This means Claude can:
- Process and analyse CSV or Excel data files.
- Convert files between formats (CSV → Excel, PDF → Word, etc.).
- Run calculations and statistical analysis.
- Automate repetitive file operations (rename files, compress images, etc.).
- Generate charts and visualisations from raw data.
🚀 Dispatch Mode - Multi-Agent Task Execution
Dispatch Mode is one of Cowork mode's most powerful capabilities, introduced in early 2026. It allows Claude to break a complex task into smaller sub-tasks and run multiple AI agents in parallel - dramatically speeding up large, multi-step workflows.
Parallel Processing
Instead of completing tasks one by one, Dispatch Mode spins up several agents simultaneously. A report that would normally take 10 minutes can be done in 2.
Intelligent Task Splitting
Claude automatically identifies which parts of a task can run independently and dispatches them concurrently - no manual breakdown required from you.
Result Synthesis
Once all sub-agents complete their work, Claude collects and merges the results into a single coherent output - one final document, report, or answer.
Complex Research Tasks
Ideal for tasks like: "Research 10 competitors and write a summary for each" - Claude researches all 10 at once instead of one at a time.
💡 Example: Dispatch Mode in Action
"Analyse our last 20 customer support tickets, categorise them by issue type, identify the top 5 recurring problems, and draft a report with recommended fixes." - Dispatch Mode splits this into parallel research, categorisation, and writing tasks, completing the whole job in a fraction of the usual time.
How to Trigger Dispatch Mode
Dispatch Mode activates automatically when Claude detects a task that benefits from parallel execution. You don't need to use any special command - just describe a complex, multi-part task and Claude decides whether to dispatch sub-agents. For tasks involving large volumes of data or many independent steps, you can hint at parallelism by saying something like: "Do all of these simultaneously" or "Process each item in parallel."
🤖 Sub-Agents - Specialist AI Workers
Sub-agents are specialised AI instances that Claude can spawn to handle specific parts of a broader task. While Dispatch Mode handles the orchestration, sub-agents are the workers - each one focused on a narrow, well-defined job.
Think of it like a manager (Claude) delegating to a team of specialists. The manager assigns work, each specialist completes their job, and the manager compiles the final deliverable.
| Sub-Agent Type | What It Does | Example Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Research Agent | Searches the web and extracts information | Gather data on 5 competitor pricing pages |
| Writing Agent | Drafts text based on provided inputs | Write individual sections of a long report |
| Data Agent | Processes files, runs calculations | Analyse each sheet in a large Excel file |
| Review Agent | Checks work for quality, errors, or compliance | Proofread and fact-check a completed draft |
| Integration Agent | Reads and writes to connected apps via MCP | Pull tasks from Asana while another agent checks Slack |
🔍 Sub-Agents vs. Regular Claude
In a standard conversation, Claude does everything sequentially - one step at a time. With sub-agents, multiple instances of Claude run simultaneously on separate sub-tasks. The result is faster completion of complex tasks and higher-quality outputs because each agent can focus deeply on its specific responsibility.
Practical Benefits for Non-Technical Users
You don't need to understand how sub-agents work to benefit from them. The key advantages you'll notice are: tasks that used to take 15–20 minutes now complete in 3–5 minutes; large projects like competitive analyses or multi-section reports are handled in one go; and Claude can cross-reference multiple data sources at the same time rather than one at a time.
🔒 Security & Privacy
Cowork mode is designed with security at its core. Here's what you need to know:
Secure Sandbox
Claude operates in an isolated environment. It can only access files in the folder you specifically select - nothing else on your computer.
Always Asks First
For sensitive actions (downloading files, sending messages, making purchases), Claude always asks for your explicit confirmation before proceeding.
No Passwords or Financial Data
Claude will never enter passwords, bank details, or credit card numbers into any form or website - even if you ask it to.
Full Transparency
Every action Claude takes is shown to you in the chat. You can see exactly what it's doing and stop it at any time.