🔗 Connectors & Custom Plugins

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Core Connectors

📖 8 min✨ 20 XP

Connectors are the nervous system of Claude Cowork. They're the bridges that let Cowork reach beyond your local folder and interact with the tools your team already uses. At launch, Cowork shipped with two "core" connectors — Google Drive and Slack — that cover the two most fundamental enterprise workflows: document management and team communication.

How Connectors Work Under the Hood

Every connector follows the same three-layer architecture: Authentication (OAuth 2.0 for secure access), Schema Mapping (translating external data into Cowork's internal format), and Action Handlers (executing read/write operations on the external service). This standardized architecture is what allowed Anthropic to build connectors so quickly during the 1.5-week sprint.

{
  "connector": "google-drive",
  "auth": {
    "type": "oauth2",
    "scopes": [
      "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file",
      "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly"
    ]
  },
  "actions": [
    "read_file",
    "write_file",
    "create_folder",
    "list_contents",
    "search_files",
    "share_file",
    "move_file"
  ]
}

Google Drive Connector

The Google Drive connector gives Cowork full read/write access to your Google Drive (within the scopes you grant). This means Cowork can read Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides; create new documents from scratch; organize files into folders; and even convert between formats.

  • Read Operations — Open and parse Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and PDFs. Cowork understands document structure, not just raw text.
  • Write Operations — Create new documents, append to existing ones, update specific cells in Sheets, or generate entire presentations.
  • Organization — Create folder structures, move files between folders, rename documents, and apply labels.
  • Search — Find files by name, content, date, owner, or type. Cowork can search across your entire Drive.
  • Sharing — Adjust sharing permissions, generate shareable links, and notify collaborators.

Slack Connector

The Slack connector turns Cowork into a team communication participant. It can read messages across channels you grant access to, understand thread context, and — with permission — post messages, react to messages, and even create new channels.

  • Channel Monitoring — Cowork can monitor specified channels for messages matching certain criteria (mentions, keywords, sentiment).
  • Thread Context — When reading a message, Cowork fetches the entire thread for context, not just the single message.
  • Message Drafting — Cowork can draft messages for your review before posting, or auto-post for pre-approved message types.
  • Summarization — Generate daily or weekly channel summaries highlighting key decisions, action items, and unresolved questions.
{
  "connector": "slack",
  "channels": ["#sales-team", "#product-updates"],
  "permissions": {
    "read_messages": true,
    "post_messages": false,
    "read_threads": true,
    "create_channels": false
  },
  "monitors": [
    {
      "channel": "#sales-team",
      "trigger": "keyword",
      "keywords": ["deal closed", "contract signed", "lost deal"],
      "action": "summarize_and_log"
    }
  ]
}

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