Workshop 1 Beginner 90 min

First Blood

Set up your identity and automate your first task

0/8
Workshop 1: First Blood illustration
1

Your Identity

Step-by-Step

6 steps to complete

10 min

Your Identity

10 min
0/6 steps complete
1

Create your workspace folder. Mac: open Terminal, type mkdir ~/Cowork-Workspace and press Enter. Windows: open File Explorer, navigate to your user folder, create a new folder called Cowork-Workspace.

2

Grant Cowork access to your workspace folder. Open Claude Desktop. Click the Cowork tab. When prompted, select ONLY the Cowork-Workspace folder you just created.

Safety: CRITICAL — Never grant Cowork access to Desktop, Documents, Downloads, or your home folder. Cowork has full read/write access to every folder you give it. One wrong selection and it can read, modify, or delete your personal files, cloud-synced directories, or sensitive documents. Use a dedicated, empty folder.
3

Download your data pack from the workshop portal link on the screen. Select your department. Download the zip file. Extract it into Cowork-Workspace. You should see two Excel files and the data-pack-info.md file.

4

Run /sun:workspace in Cowork. Answer the department and role questions. It will generate a CLAUDE.md file customised to your department.

5

Review your CLAUDE.md. Open it in a text editor. Does it describe your job accurately? Does it list the right tools? Edit anything that is wrong — this file is yours.

6

Verify setup. Ask Cowork: List all files in my workspace folder. Tell me the filename, type, and size of each.

2

The Monday Morning Massacre

Intro

These were controlled demos. The data was clean. The connections were pre-configured. The prompts we

5 min

The Monday Morning Massacre

5 min
These were controlled demos. The data was clean. The connections were pre-configured. The prompts were refined over many iterations. Your first attempts will take 5-10 minutes, not 30 seconds. That is normal. But even at 10 minutes per task, you are reclaiming over an hour of Monday morning drudgery.

It is 9:01am on Monday. You have 47 unread messages. A Jira board you have not looked at since Thursday. Twenty-five support tickets from the weekend. A sprint review at 9:30 that you have not prepped for. Someone has already sent the dreaded 'quick question' message — which is never quick.

This is the Monday Morning Massacre. Every week. Same ritual. Two hours of your morning burned just catching up on what happened while you were away, before you can start doing real work.

Watch closely. The facilitator is going to clear three Monday morning tasks in under two minutes.

3

Your First Kill — Reconciliation

Try It

Timed challenge — 10 min

⏱ 10 min37 min
CHALLENGE
10:00

The Task

This is the core exercise of the workshop. Every person types the exact same prompt. But because each person has a different CLAUDE.md and different department data files, every single person gets a different output tailored to their work. This is the 'Same Prompt, Different Universe' pattern.

Verification Checklist

0/6 verified
4

The CTOC Framework

Key Concept

You just ran a six-line prompt and got a production-quality workbook

5 min

The CTOC Framework

5 min

You just ran a six-line prompt and got a production-quality workbook. But why did it work? Most people treat prompt writing like wish-making — throw words at the screen and hope for the best. CTOC turns prompt writing into a repeatable method.

C
Context
What you have — files, data, situation. Your CLAUDE.md fills in what you leave out.
T
Task
What you want done — specific verbs, clear actions.
O
Output
What you want back — exact format, structure, visual treatment.
C
Constraints
The rules — what to enforce, what to avoid, non-negotiables.
5

Where Cowork Fits

Learn

Quick orientation

5 min

Where Cowork Fits

5 min

Quick orientation. Claude comes in three forms. You need to know which one you are using and why.

6

Traffic Light Verification

Cowork is impressive

5 min

Traffic Light Verification

5 min

Cowork is impressive. It produces outputs that look professional, read confidently, and arrive fast. That is exactly what makes it dangerous. A polished-looking output with a wrong number is worse than no output at all — because you trust it.

7

Monday Promise

You have a working CLAUDE.md, a verified reconciliation workbook, and the CTOC framework

5 min

Monday Promise

5 min

You have a working CLAUDE.md, a verified reconciliation workbook, and the CTOC framework. Now comes the commitment. Write down one specific task you will automate next Monday. Not 'use AI more.' A specific task, a specific day, a specific time.

8

Buffer

Quick checks, troubleshooting, and a preview of what comes next.

3 min

Buffer

3 min

Quick checks, troubleshooting, and a preview of what comes next.

Steal This Prompt

Copy these prompts, customize the file paths to match your workspace, and use them in Cowork. Replace ~ with your actual home directory path if needed.

Two-Source Reconciliation

Read the two Excel files in my workspace. These two sources should agree but they don't. Match rows, find every discrepa...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read the two Excel files in my workspace.
These two sources should agree but they don't.
Match rows, find every discrepancy, and produce an Excel workbook with:
- Sheet 1: Matched rows
- Sheet 2: Discrepancies with conditional formatting (red = critical, yellow = minor)
- Sheet 3: Summary with totals and counts
Use formulas, not hardcoded values.
5 min with Cowork · 30 min manually

Scheme Outcomes vs Case Tracker

Read scheme-report.xlsx and internal-tracker.xlsx. Match by ARN. Flag: amount mismatches > 100, status conflicts between...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read scheme-report.xlsx and internal-tracker.xlsx.
Match by ARN. Flag: amount mismatches > 100, status conflicts between scheme decision and internal tracker, currency mismatches, approaching deadlines.
Produce a reconciliation workbook (.xlsx) with matched, discrepancy, and summary sheets.
Highlight any case where scheme and tracker disagree on outcome.
5 min with Cowork · 45 min manually

Bank Settlement vs Internal Ledger

Read bank-statement.xlsx and internal-ledger.xlsx. Match by Reference_Number. Flag: amount differences > 500, timing gap...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read bank-statement.xlsx and internal-ledger.xlsx.
Match by Reference_Number. Flag: amount differences > 500, timing gaps > 3 days, unreconciled items.
Produce a reconciliation workbook (.xlsx) with matched, discrepancy, and summary sheets.
Use EUR currency formatting. Highlight decimal shift patterns.
5 min with Cowork · 60 min manually

Pipeline Deals vs CRM Records

Read pipeline-deals.xlsx and crm-records.xlsx. Match by Deal_ID. Flag: value discrepancies, deals marked Closed Won in p...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read pipeline-deals.xlsx and crm-records.xlsx.
Match by Deal_ID. Flag: value discrepancies, deals marked Closed Won in pipeline but Stale in CRM, name mismatches that might be the same company.
Produce a reconciliation workbook (.xlsx) with matched, discrepancy, and summary sheets.
Calculate total pipeline inflation vs reality.
5 min with Cowork · 30 min manually

Ticket Volumes vs Staffing Levels

Read ticket-volumes.xlsx and staffing-levels.xlsx. Match by date. Flag: SLA breaches, understaffed days, overstaffed day...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read ticket-volumes.xlsx and staffing-levels.xlsx.
Match by date. Flag: SLA breaches, understaffed days, overstaffed days, Monday volume spikes.
Produce a reconciliation workbook (.xlsx) with matched, discrepancy, and summary sheets.
Highlight any day where ticket-to-agent ratio exceeds 15:1.
5 min with Cowork · 30 min manually

Screening Export vs Internal Notes

Read screening-export.xlsx and internal-notes.xlsx. Match by Alert_ID. Flag: disposition disagreements, high-risk geogra...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read screening-export.xlsx and internal-notes.xlsx.
Match by Alert_ID. Flag: disposition disagreements, high-risk geography alerts with low similarity scores, alerts missing internal review.
Produce a reconciliation workbook (.xlsx) with matched, discrepancy, and summary sheets.
Escalate any alert where geography risk overrides low similarity score.
5 min with Cowork · 2 hrs manually

HR Records vs On-Call Schedule

Read hibob-export.xlsx and opsgenie-schedule.xlsx. Match by Employee_ID and date. Flag: hours differences (scheduled vs ...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read hibob-export.xlsx and opsgenie-schedule.xlsx.
Match by Employee_ID and date. Flag: hours differences (scheduled vs logged may be incident callouts, not errors), missing entries in either source.
Produce a reconciliation workbook (.xlsx) with matched, discrepancy, and summary sheets.
Distinguish scheduled overtime from unscheduled incident callouts.
5 min with Cowork · 30 min manually

Application Tracker vs CDD Status

Read application-tracker.xlsx and cdd-status.xlsx. Match by Application_ID. Flag: applications approved in CDD but block...
Show full prompt▼ 
Read application-tracker.xlsx and cdd-status.xlsx.
Match by Application_ID. Flag: applications approved in CDD but blocked in operations, stuck applications > 14 days, missing CDD records.
Produce a reconciliation workbook (.xlsx) with matched, discrepancy, and summary sheets.
Flag the top 5 longest-waiting applications.
5 min with Cowork · 45 min manually

Key Takeaways

  1. Create a personalised CLAUDE.md identity file that tells Cowork who you are, what tools you use, and what rules to follow

  2. Run a universal reconciliation prompt against your department's data and produce a verified Excel workbook

  3. Apply the CTOC prompt framework to understand why good prompts work and bad prompts fail

Safety Note:

The security perimeter for Cowork is the folder you granted access to. Inside that folder, Cowork can read, write, create, delete, and modify anything. Outside it, Cowork cannot touch your files.

Rules that apply from this workshop forward:

  • Never grant Cowork access to folders containing PCI data (card numbers, CVVs)
  • Never drop unredacted KYC documents (passports, ID scans, proof of address) into the workspace
  • Never grant access to cloud-synced directories (OneDrive, Dropbox) — Cowork could modify files that sync to shared drives
  • Never grant access to your home folder, Desktop, Documents, or Downloads
  • Always use a dedicated, isolated workspace folder
  • Always verify outputs before forwarding, publishing, or acting on them
  • Always treat Cowork's output as a draft that requires human sign-off
safety: We handle payment data, merchant PII, and regulated financial information. The "always verify, never auto-publish" rule is not a nice-to-have — it is a compliance requirement. Every workshop includes a verification step. Skipping it is not an option.

All example data in this workshop uses fictional merchants, employees, and transactions. No real payment data, merchant identifiers, or personal information is used in any exercise.

Materials

Download these files to use with the exercises above. Previews load automatically.

Next → Workshop 2: Connect Everything Make Cowork read from and write to your work systems