Anthropic added Projects to Claude Cowork, its agentic desktop tool that works more like an AI employee than a chatbot.
Until now, every Cowork session started from scratch. You'd re-explain your preferences, re-attach your files, re-describe how you like things done. Projects changes that: now, you set up instructions, connect your tools, attach your files, and Claude remembers your preferences across every task.
Think of it as onboarding your AI once instead of every morning.
If you haven't come across it yet, Cowork is a feature built into the Claude desktop app (available on Mac and Windows). It launched in January 2026 as a research preview, and it's been expanding fast — adding Windows support, scheduled tasks, plugins, and most recently, the ability to control your desktop directly.
Normal Claude chat works like a conversation. You ask a question or describe what you need, and it gives you an answer or some text back. From there, you are the one who has to take that output and actually do something with it, like copying it into a document, editing files, or putting together a presentation. It is very useful for ideas, writing help, explanations, and guidance, but it stays at the level of giving you information.
Cowork is different because it moves beyond just responding with text and actually carries out tasks for you. Instead of guiding it step by step, you can give it a goal, and it will work through the process on its own. It can access and modify files on your computer, create complete documents like Word files, spreadsheets, or presentations, and handle multiple steps without needing constant input.
Before Projects, every Cowork session was a blank slate. That's fine for one-off tasks, but it gets painful fast if you use AI for the same kind of work regularly. Writing client reports every week? You'd re-explain the format each time. Pulling together a weekly status update? Same instructions, every Monday.
Projects give Cowork a persistent workspace — and a memory.
When you create a Project, you're setting up a dedicated space where Claude keeps track of everything it needs to know to help you with a specific area of your work. That includes:
Tell Claude how you want things done in this project, and it follows those instructions in every session. Your report format, your writing tone, your preferred structure. Explain it once and it’s applied forever.
Connect a folder on your computer to the project. Claude can read from and write to that folder across every session, so your files are always accessible without re-uploading anything.
This is the big one. Claude accumulates context over time within a project. It remembers what you've worked on, what you prefer, what patterns you've established. The more you use a project, the less you have to explain.
Set up recurring tasks within a project — daily, weekly, or on a custom schedule. Claude runs them automatically as long as your desktop app is open. Think: a morning briefing that pulls together what you need to know, generated and waiting for you when you sit down.
Connect tools like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and GitHub directly to your project. Claude can pull information from these tools and act on it without you copying and pasting between apps.
If you've used Claude on the web or mobile, you might be wondering where Cowork Projects fit. Here's the simplest way to think about it.
Regular Claude chat is like texting a really smart friend. You ask a question, get an answer, maybe go back and forth a few times. Every conversation is self-contained.
Cowork without Projects is like hiring a contractor for a day. They can do real work like create documents, process files, and automate tasks, but tomorrow they show up with no memory of today.
Cowork with Projects is like having a team member who's been onboarded. They know how you work, where your files are, what format you use for reports, and what you worked on last week. Each session picks up where the last one left off.
| Regular Claude Chat | Cowork Session | Cowork Project | |
| Memory between sessions | No | No | Yes - builds over time |
| Works with local files | No (upload only) | Yes, pick a folder each time | Yes, folder stays attached |
| Custom instructions | Per conversation | Per session | Persistent across all sessions |
| Scheduled tasks | No | No | Yes - daily, weekly, custom |
| Tool connections | Limited | Plugins available | Plugins scoped to project |
| Best for | Quick questions, brainstorming | One-off tasks and deliverables | Ongoing, repeated work |
Getting started is straightforward — no technical setup required.
Step 1: Open the Claude desktop app and look for the Projects section in the sidebar. Click "New Project."
Step 2: Name it and attach a folder. Pick a name that reflects the work area (e.g., "Weekly Client Reports" or "Marketing Content") and connect a folder on your computer where relevant files live.
Step 3: Add your instructions. This is where you tell Claude how you want things done in this project. Be specific and include your preferred tone, your report structure, formatting rules, anything you'd normally explain at the start of every conversation. These instructions apply to every session in the project.
Step 4: Connect your tools. If you want Claude to pull from Gmail, Google Drive, or other services, install the relevant plugins or connectors. You can browse available plugins from the Customize menu.
Step 5: Start working. Open a new session in your project and give Claude a task. It'll follow your instructions automatically. Over time, it'll build up memory about your preferences and patterns — making each session smoother than the last.
Pro tip: If you've been using Claude's regular chat Projects feature (on the web), you can import those into Cowork with one click — your instructions and files come along for the ride.
To make this practical, here are five project ideas that play to Cowork's strengths — especially the persistent memory and file access.
1. Weekly Status Reports
Attach the folder where you keep your notes, connect your calendar, and set up instructions for your preferred report format. Each Friday (or set it as a scheduled task), Claude pulls together what happened that week and drafts a polished update. The more weeks you use it, the better it gets at knowing what to highlight.
2. Meeting Prep and Follow-Up
Create a project for meeting management. Before a meeting, Claude reviews relevant documents in your attached folder and drafts an agenda or talking points. After the meeting, paste in your notes and get a formatted summary with action items. Over time, Claude learns your summary style and who typically owns which types of follow-ups.
3. Client or Stakeholder Communications
Set your brand voice, tone guidelines, and communication templates as project instructions. Attach your client folder. When you need to draft an update, a proposal response, or a check-in email, Claude already knows the tone, the context, and the history without re-explaining.
4. Content Production Pipeline
If you produce regular content like blog posts or social media, set up a project with your editorial guidelines, voice and tone rules, and content calendar. Claude can draft, edit, and format content that stays consistent across every piece because the instructions never reset.
5. Personal Research and Learning
Create a project around a topic you're actively exploring — AI strategy, market trends, a new business area. Drop articles, notes, and bookmarks into the attached folder. As you add material over time, Claude builds a growing understanding of what you've read and where the gaps are. Ask it to summarize your current knowledge, identify what's missing, or draft a point of view based on everything so far.
The real friction with AI tools today isn't intelligence — it's repetition. Most people spend as much time setting up each AI interaction as they do getting value from it. Projects removes that friction for your most common work.
For teams, the implications go further. When your instructions, templates, and preferences live inside a project, the quality of AI output stops depending on who's best at prompting. A new team member with access to a well-configured project gets the same quality output as the person who built it.
Cowork Projects is available now as part of the research preview. If you're on a Pro, Max, or Team plan, it's worth spending 30 minutes this week setting up one project around your most repetitive task. That small investment pays back every time you open it.
© 2026 SVA Consulting