Cowork can't reach your laptop files when it's closed
The poster points to Anthropic's help page: since new Claude Cowork tasks run in the cloud, they keep going after you close the Claude desktop app, but they can only read your connected local folders while that app is open on your computer. So a weekly report that depends on a spreadsheet on your laptop won't see it if the laptop is shut. His tip is to list where each input lives before you hand a job over, and to give a cloud copy for jobs that must run without your computer, noting that a copy goes out of date.
The lesson: Local files are only reachable while the Claude desktop app is open on your computer.
Copy this prompt
Before you start, list every file and app this task needs and where each one lives: my computer, the cloud or a connected app. Tell me which ones you can't reach if my laptop is closed. For those, tell me what copy to upload, and note the date of each copy in the report.
Our own prompt, written from what the source describes. We haven't run it ourselves. Text in [BRACKETS] is what you replace.
Watch out for
- Uploaded copies don't update by themselves. Upload a fresh one when the data changes.
Where this comes from
Original post by @AleksejAros on X, Oct 27, 2026. We rewrote it in our own words. Check the original for the full context.
Read the originalGuides for this job
Turn a messy inbox into a 5-minute daily summary
Paste in today's emails and get back what needs a reply today, what can wait, what to ignore, and a one-line reply for each. It also flags emails that look like scams.