Claude Cowork cheatsheet — print this

The bible's most-referenced answers in one page. Print it. Tape it to a wall.

Workspace#

• One folder per function: ~/cowork-{function}/
• Subfolders: inbox/, output/, archive/
• CLAUDE.md at the root with house rules
• Grant Cowork only this folder, never the home directory

Plan-then-act#

• For any work touching more than 5 files, ask Cowork to plan first
• Read the plan; push back in plain English; approve
• Never auto-approve destructive actions (delete, send, push)

Default model#

• Sonnet 4.6 for everything in Cowork
• Switch to Opus 4.6 only for legal / regulatory / scientific deep reasoning
• Avoid Haiku unless you know why

Prompt anatomy#

• Inputs — exact path
• Outputs — exact path + format + naming
• Transformation — what to do
• Constraints — voice, length, quality bar
• Plan request

Versioning#

• Filenames — YYYY-MM-DD_description.ext
• Never overwrite — always v2, v3
• Archive monthly

Quality-bar reflexes#

• Cap word counts explicitly
• Require citations for any claim or number
• Stop-word list in CLAUDE.md — no "transformative", "innovative", "exciting"
• Three good and three bad examples beat any voice description

Memory#

• Hygiene monthly — prune stale, promote stable
• No PII, no secrets, no passwords
• "Do not store the following in Memory: …" rule in CLAUDE.md

When stuck#

• VPN — disconnect first
• Quota — wait or switch model
• Bad output — check prompt, then CLAUDE.md, then input — model last
• Truly stuck — Section 08 of the bible