Setup & Working-Folder Designation

~12 min · cowork, setup, working-folder, context-files

Level 0🌱 Novice

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Where Cowork can see, where it can write

The most consequential decision in Cowork is which folder you designate as the working folder. That's the root of Claude's filesystem access. Choose narrow on purpose — Cowork can read and write everything inside, including subdirectories. Pointing it at ~/ is a reflex to resist.

Practical patterns: a single ~/Cowork/ hub with inbox/, working/, output/, templates/, context/ subfolders works for most knowledge-work users. context/ is the Cowork equivalent of CLAUDE.md — markdown files describing your style, brand voice, output preferences. Cowork reads them on every session.

Sessions persist automatically — you can resume a previous Cowork session from the panel. For longer-running work, use Claude Desktop's Projects feature to anchor multiple Cowork sessions to a shared body of context (research, brand assets, project briefs).

Code

A working folder that earns its keep·text

~/Cowork/
├── inbox/              ← drop raw inputs here
├── working/            ← Cowork creates intermediates here
├── output/             ← finished deliverables land here
├── templates/          ← report / doc templates Cowork can fill
└── context/
    ├── instructions.md ← your style, voice, output prefs
    ├── brand-guide.md
    └── project-brief.md

context/instructions.md — Cowork's CLAUDE.md·markdown

## My preferences
- British English spelling
- Reports start with a 200-word executive summary
- Minto Pyramid for analysis docs
- Tables in Markdown
- File names: kebab-case, date-prefixed
  (e.g., 2026-05-04-quarterly-trends.md)

## Brand voice
- Professional but accessible
- Avoid jargon; explain technical terms once
- Active voice

## Templates
- Research reports: /templates/research-report.md
- Client proposals: /templates/proposal.md

External links

Exercise

Set up ~/Cowork/ with the five-folder structure above. Write a real context/instructions.md with at least three style preferences and one brand-voice rule. Run a small Cowork task and confirm it followed your preferences without being told mid-task.