The One Paste to Rule Them All

One prompt. Copy it, paste it into Claude, follow along. Setup done in under 10 minutes.

From Josh Bowman · April 2026 · Replaces the old setup videos. This is the one I actually use.

Most Claude setup guides want you to watch three videos, read a handbook, and memorize a folder system before you do anything real. Skip all of that.

This is one prompt. You paste it into Claude. Claude interviews you, drafts your Personal Preferences, creates a starter CLAUDE.md and MEMORY.md in your folder, and then offers you a first task. Ten minutes, end to end.

Before you paste, do two things:

Open Claude Cowork and select a folder on your computer. Any folder. A new empty one is fine. This is where your workspace will live.
Make sure Claude is in the folder you want (top of the Cowork window shows the selected folder name).

Now paste this and hit send.

Copy & Paste

The Prompt

Hey Claude. I'm setting up my first Claude Cowork workspace and I want you to walk me through it. Here's what I want you to do, step by step: STEP 1. Get to know me. Ask me a short interview, batched into one or two messages. Cover: - My name, role, and what I do day-to-day - The tools I use every day (email, calendar, docs, spreadsheets, anything else) - How I like to be communicated with (casual or formal, direct or verbose, concise or detailed) - One thing about me that would help you give better advice (a hobby, a pain point, a project I'm working on) STEP 2. Draft my Personal Preferences. Based on my answers, write a short Personal Preferences block I can paste into Claude Settings, then Personal Preferences. Show it to me. Tell me exactly where to paste it. Keep it under 15 lines. STEP 3. Create two files in my current folder. - CLAUDE.md with a short summary of who I am, what I do, the tools I use, and how I like to work. Include a "How to work with me" block with my tone preferences. - MEMORY.md with a note at the top that says: "This is working memory. Only add things when I explicitly ask you to remember them." Preview both files to me before creating them. Let me approve or tweak. STEP 4. Offer me my first real task. Once the files are created, offer me one of these as my first thing to try: - Clean up my desktop (default, no extra connectors needed) - Summarize what's on my calendar this week (needs calendar connector) - Triage my unread emails (needs Gmail connector) If I pick desktop cleanup, look at the files on my desktop, group them by type or project, propose a folder structure, and move things with my approval. Nothing gets moved or deleted without me saying yes. Ground rules for how you run this: - Ask questions in batches, not one at a time. - Explain what you're about to do before you do it. - Never create or move a file without showing me a preview first. - Keep the whole thing under 10 minutes of my time. - Plain English. No jargon. Start with Step 1.

Tip: triple-click the prompt box to select the whole thing, then copy.

What Happens After You Paste

Here's the flow so you know what you're signing up for. Nothing sneaky, no surprises.

Claude interviews you (2 min)

A handful of questions about you, your job, and how you like to work. Answer how you'd answer a new coworker.

Personal Preferences draft (1 min)

Claude hands you a short block of text. You open Claude Settings, go to Personal Preferences, and paste it in. This makes every future conversation smarter without re-explaining yourself.

Two files land in your folder (2 min)

Claude previews a CLAUDE.md (context about you) and a MEMORY.md (a notebook for things you ask it to remember). You approve or edit. Claude creates them.

Your first real task (5 min)

Claude offers three starter tasks and runs whichever you pick. The default is desktop cleanup, which works without any extra setup. See below for what that looks like.

First quest Clean Up My Desktop

Everyone's desktop is a landfill. Screenshots from 2022, installers you never ran, three copies of the same PDF. This is the perfect first task because the result is visible, the stakes are low, and you don't need any connectors wired up yet.

If you picked desktop cleanup in Step 4, Claude will scan your desktop, propose a folder structure, show you what moves where, and ask for a thumbs up before doing anything. You can say "yes to everything" or go file by file. Your call.

If the default prompt skipped it, paste this instead:

Look at the files on my desktop. Group them by type or project, propose a clean folder structure, and show me what moves where. Don't move anything until I approve. When we're done, tell me how many files we organized.

Expect 5-15 minutes for a truly ugly desktop. Expect Claude to ask clarifying questions on the weird stuff. That's the feature, not the bug.

Want the Longer Version?

The One Paste above is the fastest way to get going. If you want the full kit, with separate templates for Personal Preferences, a workspace CLAUDE.md, and the Research / Plan / Implement / Validate prompts for anything bigger than a quick task, I put the whole thing on GitHub.

Open source

Claude Starter Kit on GitHub →

Three pastes, four folders, one index file. Plus a guide on when (and when not) to add an Obsidian or Notion vault on top. Built for friends I kept copy-pasting setup instructions to.

Prefer a Video?

If you'd rather watch someone walk through Cowork basics first, Paul J Lipsky has a solid intro. Parts of it are slightly out of date compared to what's on this page, so treat the video as context and trust the prompt above as the current playbook.

Optional

Watch: Claude Cowork Setup (Paul J Lipsky)

Good context for how Cowork works under the hood. Some details have moved on. The One Paste above is the current move.

What's Next

Setup is done. Now pick a real job to point Claude at. Spokes below cover the use cases most people ask about.