Workshop 2 Beginner 90 min

Connect Everything

Make Cowork read from and write to your work systems

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Workshop 2: Connect Everything illustration

Promise Check-In

Last week you made a Monday Promise

2 min

Promise Check-In

2 min

Last week you made a Monday Promise. Hands up: who ran their reconciliation on Monday?

Quick 30-second share with the person next to you: what happened? What surprised you? Did the output match what you expected, or did you find something unexpected in the data?

If you did not run it — no judgment. But notice the gap between intention and action. That gap is exactly what we are going to close today. This week we connect your tools so the data flows automatically. No more downloading CSVs. No more copy-pasting between browser tabs. You tell Cowork what you need, and it reaches into your systems and pulls it.

The Voice Note

Intro

The shift from Workshop 1 to Workshop 2 is the shift from "I feed Cowork data" to "Cowork fetches it

3 min

The Voice Note

3 min

Live Demo I need a briefing for my Monday standup. What are the open blockers in the gateway project? Has anyone updated the incident runbook this week? And were there any compliance announcements I missed while I was out on Friday?

Open demo →

The shift from Workshop 1 to Workshop 2 is the shift from "I feed Cowork data" to "Cowork fetches its own data." In Workshop 1, you downloaded files and dropped them into your workspace. From today, Cowork goes and gets what it needs directly from the source.

Watch this. The facilitator pulls out their phone, opens a voice memo app, and speaks for thirty seconds:

"I need a briefing for my Monday standup. What are the open blockers in the gateway project? Has anyone updated the incident runbook this week? And were there any compliance announcements I missed while I was out on Friday?"

Thirty seconds of talking. No typing. No browser tabs. No switching between four different applications to piece together the answer.

Now watch the screen. Cowork receives the transcription, recognises that it needs data from three different systems, and starts pulling. It queries the project management tool for open blockers. It searches the documentation platform for recently updated pages. It scans enterprise search for compliance announcements from the last five days. Within sixty seconds, a formatted Word document appears in the workspace folder. Two pages. Clean headings. Bullet points. Action items at the bottom.

The facilitator did not upload any files. They did not paste any data. They did not even open a browser.

Cowork reached INTO the work systems and pulled the data itself.

This is what MCP connectors enable. Today you will connect yours.

MCP Deep Dive

Step-by-Step

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol

15 min

MCP Deep Dive

15 min

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It is the standard that lets Cowork talk directly to your work systems — not by screen-scraping or copy-pasting, but through structured, authenticated connections. Think of MCP connectors as secure tunnels between Cowork and the tools you use every day.

Cross-System Briefing Challenge

Try It

Hands-on challenge

25 min

CHALLENGE

The Task

This is the main event. You are going to build a briefing document that pulls live data from your connected systems — no file uploads, no copy-pasting, no manual data gathering. One prompt. Multiple sources. One clean output.

Verification Practice

You now have a cross-system briefing document sitting in your workspace

10 min

Verification Practice

10 min

You now have a cross-system briefing document sitting in your workspace. It looks professional. It has headings, tables, and action items. It pulled data from live systems. It feels authoritative.

Do not trust it yet.

This is the moment where Workshop 1's Traffic Light framework earns its keep. Every briefing that leaves your desk needs to pass verification first — especially one that synthesizes data from multiple sources.

The Connector Hierarchy

Learn

Now that you have built a briefing using MCP connectors, let's go deeper on when to use each tier — ...

10 min

The Connector Hierarchy

10 min

Now that you have built a briefing using MCP connectors, let's go deeper on when to use each tier — and more importantly, when NOT to use them.

Skills Marketplace

Step-by-Step

Now that your MCP connections are live, the skills marketplace becomes significantly more powerful

10 min

Skills Marketplace

10 min

Now that your MCP connections are live, the skills marketplace becomes significantly more powerful. A skill that only worked with files you uploaded can now pull live data directly from your systems.

Monday Promise

Your Monday Promise this week is specific: Monday, run your cross-system briefing with live data and...

5 min

Monday Promise

5 min

Your Monday Promise this week is specific: Monday, run your cross-system briefing with live data and share it with your team.

Not "I'll try the briefing." Not "I'll look into it." Run it. Verify it. Share it. With actual humans on your team.

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.

Cross-System Briefing

I need a briefing for my Monday morning standup. Pull the latest updates from Jira and Confluence. Search Glean for any ...

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I need a briefing for my Monday morning standup.
Pull the latest updates from Jira and Confluence.
Search Glean for any recent decisions or announcements relevant to my team.
Produce a Word document (.docx) with:
- Section 1: Open issues and blockers (from Jira)
- Section 2: Recent documentation updates (from Confluence)
- Section 3: Key announcements or decisions (from Glean)
- Section 4: Recommended actions for this week
Keep it to 2 pages maximum.

Pending Case Deadline Briefing

Pull all open chargeback cases from Jira with status In Progress or Pending. Check Confluence for the latest scheme dead...

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Pull all open chargeback cases from Jira with status In Progress or Pending.
Check Confluence for the latest scheme deadline reference page.
Produce a Word document (.docx) briefing with:
- Cases approaching deadline (< 7 days remaining)
- Cases by scheme (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX) with deadline dates
- Any scheme rule changes from recent Confluence updates
Sort by urgency. Keep to 2 pages.

Weekend Escalation Summary

Pull all tickets created over the weekend from Jira (Saturday-Sunday). Search Glean for any related known issues or anno...

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Pull all tickets created over the weekend from Jira (Saturday-Sunday).
Search Glean for any related known issues or announcements.
Check Confluence for updated runbooks matching the top ticket categories.
Produce a Word document (.docx) with:
- Weekend ticket count by category
- Escalations requiring immediate attention
- Links to relevant runbooks
- Repeat-issue patterns (3+ tickets for same root cause)

Month-End Status Briefing

Pull open reconciliation tickets from Jira for this month. Search Confluence for month-end close checklist. Search Glean...

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Pull open reconciliation tickets from Jira for this month.
Search Confluence for month-end close checklist.
Search Glean for any finance announcements or policy changes.
Produce a Word document (.docx) with:
- Open items blocking month-end close
- Reconciliation status by account type
- Outstanding approvals needed
- Key dates and deadlines this week

Sprint Planning Brief

Pull the current sprint board from Jira — all issues, statuses, assignees. Search Confluence for the latest product road...

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Pull the current sprint board from Jira — all issues, statuses, assignees.
Search Confluence for the latest product roadmap page.
Search Glean for recent stakeholder decisions.
Produce a Word document (.docx) with:
- Sprint progress (done/in-progress/blocked)
- Issues that need discussion in planning
- Roadmap items relevant to next sprint
- Open decisions that affect scope

Key Takeaways

Connect Cowork to your project management, documentation, and enterprise search tools via MCP connectors
Build a cross-system briefing that pulls live data from multiple sources in a single prompt
Apply the Connector Hierarchy decision tree to determine the right integration method for any tool

Safety Note:

Cross-system briefings combine data from multiple sources. This multiplies both the value and the risk. A few rules that apply from this workshop forward:

Never include raw customer PII in briefings. If your project management tickets contain merchant names, phone numbers, or account details, tell Cowork to redact or anonymize before generating the document. Use merchant IDs instead of names. Use "Merchant 4892" instead of the actual business name.
Verify before sharing. A briefing that goes to your team lead is a briefing that carries your name. Every error in it is your error, not Cowork's. Run the verification checklist every time.
MCP connections inherit your permissions. Cowork can only see what you can see. It cannot access projects, spaces, or channels you do not have permission for. But this also means that if you have access to sensitive data, Cowork does too. Be mindful of what you ask it to pull — and where you store the output.
Do not publish unverified briefings. If you use /sun:publish to push a briefing to your documentation platform, everyone with access to that space can read it. A wrong number in a shared briefing is worse than a wrong number in a file on your laptop.
Review write operations. MCP write operations (creating tickets, updating pages) are powerful and convenient. They are also permanent. Always review what Cowork plans to create or update before confirming.

Materials

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

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context-brief.mdSample practice file (fictional FinTech data)