Lesson Content

What the Cowork task loop is.

In Chat mode, every Claude response is a direct reply to your message – you prompt, Claude responds, you prompt again. In Cowork, Claude can take multiple actions in sequence before returning to you: reading files, using plugins, writing outputs, calling tools. This changes the nature of the interaction.

The Cowork task loop has four phases:

1. Assignment: You give Claude a clear task with context. In Cowork, this assignment may span multiple actions – Claude will work through them in sequence. The clearer and more specific the assignment, the more autonomously Claude can work before needing guidance.

2. Generation: Claude works through the task steps. For multi-step tasks, this involves Claude making decisions about how to proceed. You may or may not see intermediate steps depending on the task and mode.

3. Review: When Claude presents output or completes a task phase, you review what it produced. Was the approach correct? Are the outputs accurate? Does the direction need to change?

4. Steer: Based on your review, you provide steering input – confirming to continue, redirecting an approach, correcting an error, or stopping work entirely. Then the loop repeats for the next phase.

Writing effective task assignments for multi-step work.

A good Cowork assignment includes:

• Goal: What the final output should be
• Scope: What Claude should and should not touch
• Available resources: Which files, plugins, or tools are relevant
• Constraints: Format, length, approach preferences, things to avoid
• Check-in preference: When you want Claude to stop and confirm with you versus proceed independently

"Review the three documents in this Project and produce a single two-page synthesis identifying the major disagreements between them. Do not access external sources – use only the uploaded files. Check in with me before writing the final synthesis if the documents cover more than five distinct disagreements." – This is a Cowork-ready assignment.

Appropriate intervention points.

In multi-step work, resist the urge to intervene at every step – that defeats the efficiency purpose. Intervene when:

• Claude appears to be going in a direction that does not match your goal
• The intermediate output is factually wrong in a way that will compound
• The scope is expanding beyond what you assigned

Trust Claude to work through defined task steps without constant checking.

Responsible steering vs. over-reliance.

Steering is maintaining appropriate oversight while allowing efficient operation. Over-reliance is trusting Cowork output without reviewing whether it achieved the goal. Both directions are failure modes – steering too aggressively negates the efficiency; not steering at all leads to undiscovered errors at the end.