The promise of AI at work is shifting from a general-purpose assistant to a specialized team member that understands your unique processes, tools, and goals. Today, that vision takes a significant step forward as Cowork—the platform that brings Claude Code to everyone—introduces support for plugins. This new capability allows users to bundle skills, data connectors, slash commands, and sub-agents into custom packages, effectively training Claude to become a specialist for any role, team, or company.

Beyond Task Completion: Defining How Work Gets Done

Cowork was built on the principle of setting a goal and letting Claude deliver finished, professional work. Plugins extend that principle by allowing you to dictate the methodology. You can now instruct Claude on your preferred workflows, specify the tools and data sources it should use, outline procedures for critical operations, and create custom slash commands that ensure consistent, high-quality outcomes across your team.

A plugin transforms Claude from a brilliant generalist into a domain expert. For instance, a sales plugin could integrate Claude with your company's CRM and knowledge base, teach it your specific sales cycle, and provide ready-made commands for prospect research, deal preparation, and follow-up communications. Once configured, this context guides Claude automatically whenever a relevant task arises.

A Foundation of Open-Source Plugins to Build Upon

To accelerate adoption, the team is open-sourcing 11 plugins they built and use internally, covering a wide range of functions:

· Productivity: Manage tasks, calendars, and daily workflows.

· Enterprise Search: Find information across company tools and documents.

· Sales: Research prospects and manage deal flow.

· Finance: Analyze statements, build models, and track metrics.

· Legal: Review documents, flag risks, and track compliance.

· Marketing, Customer Support, Product Management, Data, Biology Research, and a Plugin Create/Customize tool for building new ones from scratch.

These starter plugins are available for immediate installation within Cowork, browsable on the company website, and accessible on GitHub for developers. Since every component is file-based, they are designed to be easily edited, shared, and customized using Claude itself.

The Future of Team-Wide AI Specialization

The introduction of plugins paves the way for AI that becomes more valuable as your team grows. As teams build and share their custom plugins, Claude evolves into a cross-functional expert, with institutional knowledge and approved processes baked into its core. This allows leaders to focus less on enforcing procedures and more on refining them.

Plugin support is available immediately as a research preview for all paid Claude users. Initially, plugins are saved locally, with enhanced organization-wide sharing, management, and private marketplace features slated for release in the coming weeks. This launch marks a pivotal move toward a more adaptable, integrated, and powerful AI assistant, customized not just to a task, but to the very fabric of how your organization operates.