Run Claude While Your Laptop's Off: Cowork Setup Guide

What is Cowork? It's a mode inside Claude where it stops being a chatbot and starts being an agent. You point it at your files, your inbox, or a task, describe what "done" looks like, and it works through the whole thing on its own. The new part: it now runs in the cloud, so it keeps going after you close your laptop and picks up on any device.

Before you start: You need a Claude account with a paid plan. The offline / cloud version of Cowork is rolling out to Max first, so that's the plan to be on for this. Don't have it yet? Sign up at claude.ai.

Open Cowork

In the Claude app, find the Cowork tab in the sidebar, or open it on claude.ai. If you don't see it yet, it's still rolling out to your plan. Max plans get it first.

Turn on remote sessions

This is the bit that lets it keep working with your laptop shut. Once it's on, sessions save to your Claude account and run in the cloud instead of on your machine.

Why it matters: without this, Cowork stops the moment your computer sleeps. With it on, you can start a job and walk away.

Give it access to your stuff

Cowork can only work with what it can reach. Connect your Gmail, Calendar and Drive through Connectors, or point it at a folder on your computer. Start with one, you can add more later.

Describe the outcome, not the steps

This is the one thing most people get wrong. Don't micromanage it. Tell it what "done" looks like and let it work out the how. Copy this brief and fill in the blanks:

Task brief

Here's the job. Work through it start to finish, then show me what you did.

OUTCOME I want: [what "done" looks like]
Where to work: [my inbox / this folder / my calendar]
Rules: [anything you must or must not do, e.g. don't send anything, just draft]
When you're done: [give me a short summary + anything you need me to decide]

Approve the plan, then walk away

Cowork shows you its plan before it runs. Give it a look, hit go, and close the lid. Check back on your phone in a bit. That's the whole loop: hand off, walk away, come back to done.

Start safe: pick a first task where a mistake costs nothing (drafts, plans, summaries). Once you trust it, hand it bigger things.

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3 tasks to try tonight

Paste any of these straight in once Cowork is set up:

Inbox triage

Go through my inbox, pull anything that actually needs a reply, and draft a response to each in my tone. Don't send them, just leave them as drafts. Give me a list of what you did.

Meeting notes to actions

Take these meeting notes, pull out every action item, group them by person, and draft the follow-up emails. Leave the emails as drafts.

Plan my week

Look at my calendar and my to-do list, then block out my week so the important work gets real time, not just the meetings. Show me the plan before you change anything.