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Cowork Studio Docs

Overview

A Cowork workspace carries its own apps. An app is a folder .cowork/apps/<name>/ with a cowork.json manifest, React widgets (.jsx / .tsx, the UI, drawn in the IDE) that call the window.cowork SDK, and routines (.ts, privileged backend code run by the local Cowork daemon: secrets, files, signed-in APIs). Copy the folder and you have copied the app.

Build your first appThe pattern every app follows, starting from the CRUD template.
cowork.jsonEvery manifest field: routines, file routing, accounts, capabilities, the status bar.
The window.cowork SDKWhat a widget can call: routines, dialogs, accounts, notifications, capture, state.
The CLIEvery cowork command: routines, apps, publishing, secrets, team servers.

I want to…

Section titled “I want to…”
… In a widget (window.cowork) In a routine (ctx) Also
Ask the user (a dialog, a confirm) ui.dialog / ui.confirm, options in CoworkDialog consent.request
Use an API key, or sign in to Google / Microsoft credentials.get / connect — widgets never see the key credential.fetch / fields credential in cowork.json, cowork credential
Run backend code routines.run Writing routines cowork routine run
Keep data fresh routines.subscribe — never setInterval unchanged() for reads
Store the app's data state (per view, small) data, db
Notify the user notify, badge notify, badge
Record the screen or audio capture — panes only capture in cowork.json
Hand work to an agent queue cowork queue
Open a file type in my app openedFile fileRouting
Let AI agents call my routines mark each routine readOnly / destructive / reachesOthers (routines in cowork.json) Agents and grants, cowork agent
Publish or install an app Publish and install, cowork push

How these docs are made

Section titled “How these docs are made”

Nothing under Guides or Reference is edited by hand. Every Cowork build regenerates them from what ships:

  • Guides: the cowork-studio Agent Skill that Cowork installs for Claude Code and Codex.
  • SDK types: the .cowork/local/cowork.d.ts every workspace gets, rendered by TypeDoc.
  • cowork.json and workspace.json: cowork.schema.json and workspace.schema.json, the schemas the editor validates them against.
  • CLI: the CLI's usage table — every command, including the group verbs only cowork <command> --help prints.
  • Commands: the contributes.commands of Cowork's extensions.

For AI agents

Section titled “For AI agents”
  • /docs/llms.txt, llms-full.txt (everything) and llms-small.txt follow llmstxt.org.
  • On a machine with Cowork, the same guides are the cowork-studio skill (~/.claude/skills/cowork-studio/), matched to the installed version, and every workspace has the types at .cowork/local/cowork.d.ts.