Lesson 1.1 of the Free Claude Cowork Course · 15 minutes
Overview
Before you automate anything, you need the right mental model — and it’s a small but important shift. You’ve probably used AI chat: you ask, it answers, you copy the answer somewhere useful. Cowork removes that last step. It’s a desktop agent that works directly in your folders: it can open files, read them, create new ones, and save results where they belong. In this first lesson you’ll see that difference firsthand, on a tiny, safe task.
What You’ll Do
- Understand the agent-versus-chat distinction with a side-by-side example
- Learn what Cowork can and can’t touch (it only sees folders you point it at)
- Watch Cowork complete a small real task in the course folder
The Lesson
Open Claude Desktop in Cowork mode and point it at the course folder you downloaded. Then simply say “start lesson 1.1” — Claude reads the lesson file and becomes your instructor from there.
The lesson walks you through three ideas. First, scope: Cowork only has access to what you give it. Pointing it at a folder is like handing a colleague one drawer of your filing cabinet, not the keys to the office. Second, action: you’ll ask it a question about a file (chat behavior), then ask it to do something to a file (agent behavior), and see the outputs land differently. Third, review: agents work fast, and you stay in charge by reviewing what they produce — a habit the whole course reinforces.
Try It Now
Inside the lesson, you’ll ask Cowork to look at the scenarios/ folder, tell you what’s in it, and create a one-line summary file. Small, reversible, and it proves the core loop: instruct → act → review.
What’s Next
New here? Download the full course free on GitHub.