How to set up Claude Cowork and Claude Code (the complete guide)

Anthropic shipped two agentic products that change how marketers work: Claude Cowork (the desktop app version) and Claude Code (the terminal version). This guide sets up both, end to end, and shows you which one to reach for when.

You need Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise to use either. The free plan doesn't include them.

The two-line difference

Claude Cowork = Claude with file access, app integrations, and scheduled tasks, inside the Claude Desktop app. It's the non-coder version. Best for: research, drafting, briefings, weekly automations, calendar and inbox triage.

Claude Code = Claude with full file and terminal access, inside an IDE like Antigravity. It's the power-user version. Best for: building tools, multi-file projects, scripting, automating tasks that require running commands.

Most marketers should set up both. Cowork for daily work, Claude Code when you want to build something.

Part 1: Set up Claude Cowork

This part takes about 20 minutes.

1.1 ✨ Install Claude Desktop

1. Go to claude.ai, click your profile, then Download Desktop.
2. Install on Mac or Windows.
3. Sign in with your Claude Pro or Max account.

Cowork lives inside Claude Desktop. You don't install Cowork separately, it's a mode you turn on by giving Claude access to a folder.

1.2 📁 Build the folder structure that makes Cowork work

This is the most important part. Cowork without a folder structure is just chat with file access. With the right structure, it becomes an assistant that remembers who you are and what you're working on.

On your computer (Mac: in your home directory, Windows: in Documents), create one parent folder called Claude Cowork. Inside it, create three subfolders:

1. About me (this is the brain, Cowork reads it on every task)
2. Outputs from Claude (where Claude saves drafts, briefings, exports)
3. Templates (your locked email templates, caption styles, brand guidelines)

In Claude Desktop, open the Cowork panel, click Add folder, and point it at the parent Claude Cowork folder. Cowork now has access to all three.

1.3 🧠 The "About me" file (load-bearing, don't skip)

Inside About me, create a file called me.md. Paste the following template and fill it in. Keep the total file under ~2,000 words. Past that, Cowork starts losing quality because it has to fit your context into the window before doing real work.

Template:

I am [name]. I run [business or role]. I'm based in [city, country].
My audience and ICP: [who you serve]
My voice: [3 to 5 adjectives]
How I write: [examples of sentence rhythm, punctuation, what to avoid]
What I'm working on right now: [top 3 priorities this quarter]
Tools I use daily: [list]
People I refer to often: [names + why]
How to talk to me: [communication preferences, e.g. always summarise after long tasks, never use em dashes, end with one question]

That's it. Don't paste full transcripts or massive bios. Summarise.

1.4 🌐 Layer global and folder-specific instructions

Two layers of instructions inside Cowork. Use both.

Global instructions (set in Claude Desktop settings → Profile or Custom Instructions): your voice, preferences, communication style across everything.

Folder-specific instructions (a file called _instructions.md inside each subfolder): what the folder is for and what "done" looks like inside it. Example: in Outputs from Claude/Captions, the _instructions.md says "every caption ends with the ManyChat CTA, lowercase keyword, no em dashes."

This is what stops Cowork from giving you generic output. It writes like you because the instructions are layered, not pasted into every prompt.

1.5 🔌 Connect your integrations

In Claude Desktop, go to Customize, then Connectors, and switch on the ones that match where your work actually lives. For most marketers, the right starting set:

1. Gmail
2. Google Calendar
3. Notion
4. Google Drive
5. Slack (if you use it)

Each opens an OAuth window the first time, log in, approve, done.

1.6 ⏰ Schedule a daily briefing

Cowork has Scheduled Tasks. Set up one that runs every morning and pulls together your day.

1. In Cowork, click Scheduled Tasks → New schedule.
2. Set it to fire at your wake-up time (e.g. 7am daily).
3. Use this prompt as the task: "Pull my Google Calendar for today, my unread Gmail since yesterday, my Notion tasks marked due today. Summarise in under 200 words. Give me one sentence on what to focus on first."

1.7 🛠️ Enable Chrome and mobile

Final setup step. In Claude Desktop settings, enable Chrome integration so Cowork can read pages you're viewing. Also sign in to the Claude mobile app with the same account so any chat or output is accessible from your phone.

You now have Cowork fully set up. Spend 20 minutes using it on a real task today to lock in the muscle memory.

Part 2: Set up Claude Code in Antigravity

This part takes about 30 minutes from zero. You will end with Claude Code editing real files for you inside Antigravity.

2.1 What Antigravity is, and why use it as Claude Code's home

Antigravity is Google's free AI IDE. Think of it as a code editor that already has an AI built in. We're not using Antigravity's built-in AI for this guide. We're using Antigravity as the window we run Claude Code in, because it's free, beginner-friendly, and gives Claude Code everything it needs (a project folder, a terminal, and file editing).

2.2 📥 Install Antigravity

1. Go to antigravity.google and click Download.
2. Mac users: open the .dmg and drag Antigravity into your Applications folder.
3. Open Antigravity, sign in with your Google account.
4. When it asks which model to start with, pick anything (we're not using it).

2.3 ⚡ Install Claude Code (one terminal command)

Claude Code is a separate program. Install it from Antigravity's terminal.

1. In Antigravity, go to Terminal → New Terminal. A text box opens at the bottom.
2. Paste this command and press enter:
   ⚡ install claude code

   curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

3. Wait for it to finish (~30 seconds). It will say "installed" and show you the version.
4. Quit Antigravity completely (Cmd+Q on Mac), then reopen. This is so it picks up the new claude command.
5. Open Terminal → New Terminal again, type claude and press enter.
6. A browser will open asking you to log in to your Claude Pro or Max account. Log in, approve, return to the terminal.

You're in. The terminal now shows Claude Code's interactive prompt, including which model it's using (should be Opus 4.8 if you're on Max).

2.4 🚀 Your first project in 5 minutes

1. On your computer's desktop, create a new folder called claude-test.
2. In Antigravity, go to File → Open Folder, pick claude-test.
3. Open Terminal → New Terminal. The terminal is now sitting in your claude-test folder.
4. Type claude and press enter.
5. When Claude Code is ready, type this prompt: "Make a file called captions.txt with 5 Instagram caption ideas about AI for marketers, in a casual voice, lowercase, no em dashes."
6. Claude Code will plan, ask permission to write the file, you approve, it writes the file.
7. Open captions.txt in Antigravity. There are your captions.

That's the loop. You ask, Claude plans, you approve, Claude does it.

2.5 🎛️ The 5 commands you actually need

You'll see lots of slash commands in tutorials. These five are the only ones you need to get started.

1. /init: generates a starter CLAUDE.md file for your project (covered in 2.6).
2. /clear: wipes Claude's memory of the current conversation. Use when you're switching tasks.
3. /compact: when Claude says you're running out of context, this summarises and frees space.
4. /model: switches model mid-session. Use /model claude-opus-4-8 for hard tasks.
5. /exit: closes Claude Code cleanly. Use this instead of just closing the terminal.

Bonus: Ctrl+C cancels whatever Claude is currently doing without quitting the session.

2.6 🧠 CLAUDE.md: teach Claude your brand once

CLAUDE.md is a markdown file Claude Code reads every time it starts in a folder. It's the most important file in your setup.

1. Inside your project folder, type /init and press enter. Claude generates a starter CLAUDE.md.
2. Open it and replace the contents with your own version. Use this template:

Project name: [what you're building]
What this project does: [one paragraph]
My voice and brand: [the same content from your Cowork About me file, copy it across]
Rules:
- No em dashes
- Sentence case headings
- Lowercase ManyChat keywords
- Output paste-ready (no meta instructions like "(edit this)")
Tools Claude can use: [list]
People to reference: [list]
How to ask before editing: always plan first, never delete files without confirming.

Save. From now on, every Claude Code session in this folder already knows all of this. You stop re-explaining yourself.

2.7 🛡️ Undo, safety, and "oh god what did Claude do"

Three things to know before Claude Code touches anything you care about.

1. Git is your undo button. Before any real project, run git init in your project folder (one terminal command). After Claude makes changes, you can run git status to see what changed, and git restore [filename] to undo edits to any file.
2. Never run with permissions skipped on important folders. Claude Code asks for permission before editing files or running terminal commands. The flag --dangerously-skip-permissions exists to bypass that. Use it only on a sandbox folder, never on your real work.
3. When you don't know what folder you're in, type pwd (print working directory) in the terminal. The output tells you exactly where Claude is operating. If it's wrong, type cd path/to/right/folder to move.

Part 3: Three marketer workflows to try this week

Pick one. Each takes 15 to 30 minutes the first time. After that, it's seconds.

1. 📊 CSV cleaner (Claude Code)

You have a messy CSV of leads or signups. Open it in Antigravity. Ask Claude Code: "Open leads.csv. Strip duplicates by email. Standardise the country column to country codes. Sort by signup date descending. Save as leads-clean.csv. Tell me how many rows were removed."

2. ✍️ Caption rewriter (Claude Cowork)

You have a doc of caption ideas. Drop it in Claude Cowork/Templates/captions.md. In Cowork, ask: "Rewrite every caption in my About me voice. Apply the rules in _instructions.md. Save the result to Outputs from Claude/Captions/rewritten-[today].md."

3. 🔎 Competitor scraper (Claude Code)

You want to track three competitor IG bios weekly. In Antigravity, ask Claude Code: "Build me a Python script that takes a list of three Instagram handles, fetches the public bio for each via the IG web page, and writes them with today's date to a file called competitor-bios-[date].md. Run it now."

Claude will build the script, run it, hand you the output. You now have a competitor tracker you can re-run any week.

Pro tips from the experts

From Arthur Winer (the Cowork tutorial creator)

• Keep your About me file under ~2,000 words. Longer files degrade output quality.
• The single biggest lever is folder-specific instructions. Generic prompts give generic output.
• Build Skills (saved instruction packets) for any task you run more than twice.

From Nick Saraev (Claude Code Full Course)

• Watch Claude work in real time, don't accept output blind. The verification habit catches 90% of bad edits before they ship. (This is the part of his 4-hour course at the 46-minute mark.)
• Treat CLAUDE.md as your project brain. The course teaches this around the 30-minute mark and it's the single highest-leverage takeaway.
• For complete setup walkthrough, his VS Code setup is at the 14-minute mark and the first-project build is at the 24-minute mark.

Watch the full course here: Nick Saraev, Claude Code Full Course 4 Hours

Watch the full Cowork tutorial here: Arthur Winer, How to Use Claude Cowork

Common stumbles

When Claude Code says command not found after install, quit Antigravity completely (Cmd+Q) and reopen. The shell needs to reload the path.

When Cowork's Scheduled Tasks don't fire, check Claude Desktop is actually open. They don't run if the app is closed.

When Claude Code asks for permission on every single action, run /permissions and set rules so it stops asking for routine reads.

When Cowork or Claude Code feels slow, switch model: type /model claude-haiku-4-5 for fast simple tasks, or /model claude-opus-4-8 for hard ones.

When the output reads AI-generated, your About me or CLAUDE.md doesn't have enough voice samples. Paste two of your real captions or emails into the file.

Where to go next

You now have the foundation. Three optional layers to add when you're ready.

1. Skills (.claude/skills/ for Claude Code, Skills panel for Cowork): saved instruction packets Claude loads when relevant. Build one for your weekly content review, your client onboarding email, anything you run more than twice.
2. MCP servers: connectors that plug other apps into Claude (Notion, Airtable, Supabase, Stripe). Inside Claude Code, type /mcp to see what's already available. Add more from Customize, then Connectors in Claude Desktop.
3. Subagents (.claude/agents/ for Claude Code): a way to spin up parallel Claude sessions for big tasks (research a topic, edit 30 files at once, audit a codebase). Ignore until you hit a task where a single session isn't enough.

The foundation matters more than the extras. Get Cowork and Claude Code into your daily loop first, then layer the rest as needed.