Don't Install Claude Cowork Like This

A buddy of mine installed Claude Cowork and immediately handed it the keys to his entire Mac. Full access. Every folder, every file, every thing he'd ever saved.

Two days later it moved files he actually needed. He almost rage-quit the whole thing. (Imagine blaming the intern for a mess you created by giving the intern root access on day one.)

Here's the fix, and it takes about as long as reading this sentence.

Give it a sandbox, not the whole house

Make one folder on your desktop. Call it Cowork. Boring name, I know. That's the point.

Now give the app access to that folder and nothing else. Not your Documents. Not your Desktop. Not the random folder where you keep tax PDFs and that screenshot from 2019. Just the one folder you made on purpose.

Inside that box, Claude can do real work. Read files, write files, build stuff, run tasks. Outside that box, it literally cannot touch anything. Which means it cannot break anything that matters.

The mistake isn't trusting the AI. The mistake is giving it a blast radius bigger than the job requires.

Why this works

Think of it like hiring someone competent and giving them a desk instead of a master key to the building. They get plenty done from the desk. And when they fumble (everyone fumbles), the damage stays on the desk.

You can always widen access later if you actually need it. Most people never do. One folder handles ninety percent of what you'll throw at it, and the other ten percent you'll want to babysit anyway.

Took me 30 seconds to set up. It's saved me from exactly the disaster my buddy walked into.

Go make the folder before you install. Future you will thank present you.