Launch Claude Cowork quickly from the current working directory
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This guide introduces how to launch Cowork from the current directory when you have a terminal or file manager open, for Mac users.
Claude Desktop can launch Cowork from a link
Claude Desktop can handle URLs starting with claude://, just like https:// used on web pages.
The URL to open a new Cowork session has the following format:
claude://cowork/new
You can also attach a specified folder to Cowork by adding a folder parameter.
claude://cowork/new?folder=%2FUsers%2Fme%2Fdocs
claude://cowork/new?q=Draft%20the%20Q2%20update&folder=%2FUsers%2Fme%2Fdocs&file=%2FUsers%2Fme%2Fdocs%2Fnotes.md
You can verify the actual behavior by copying and pasting these URLs from your browser.
Using this mechanism, let's try launching Cowork on macOS from both the terminal and Finder.
Launching Cowork from the terminal
Simply register a cowork function in your .zshrc or similar file.
cowork() {
local dir=${1:-.}
[[ -d $dir ]] || {
print -u2 -- "cowork: not a directory: $dir"
return 1
}
dir=${dir:a}
local encoded=$(/usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript -e \
'function run(a){return encodeURIComponent(a[0])}' "$dir") \
|| return 1
/usr/bin/open "claude://cowork/new?folder=$encoded"
}
From the terminal, type $ type -f cowork to verify the function is registered correctly.
After confirming, call Cowork with $ cowork.
The working directory will be the current directory if no argument is given, or the specified directory if a folder is provided.
$ cowork
$ cowork doc-dir
Creating an Automator Quick Action
Launch Automator and select "Quick Action."
In the Quick Action settings screen, configure the items inside the red boxes below.
- "Workflow receives current":
Folders - "in":
Finder
Next, add "Run Shell Script" from the action list in the "Library" and configure it as follows.
- Shell:
/bin/zsh - Pass input:
as arguments
Enter the following in the script field.
query=$(/usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript -e 'function run(a){return a.map(p=>"folder="+encodeURIComponent(p)).join("&")}' "$@") || exit 1
/usr/bin/open "claude://cowork/new?$query"
Finally, save it with the name "Open in Cowork."
What the scripts are doing
Both scripts do only the following two things:
- URL-encode the folder path
- Construct a
claude://URL and pass it toopen
Encoding is delegated to macOS's built-in osascript, and opening the URL is delegated to macOS's Launch Services.
The difference is how paths are received. The zsh version receives a single argument and needs to convert it to an absolute path, while the Automator version receives multiple absolute paths from Finder.
URL encoding with osascript
Folders and files used by Claude Cowork must be specified as full paths and URL-encoded.
For example, / is converted to %2F and a space to %20. osascript -l JavaScript is an option to execute scripts as JXA (JavaScript for Automation).
$ /usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript \
-e 'encodeURIComponent("/hoo/bar hoge")'
%2Fhoo%2Fbar%20hoge
The encoding itself can also be written with Python (urllib.parse.quote(s, safe='')) or jq, so feel free to use whichever suits your environment.
