Master Claude Cowork Plugins: 11 Plugins + 5 Prompts
Plugins are the most underrated Claude Cowork feature. Almost nobody is using them correctly.
Plugins are what turn Claude from a chatbot into a specialist for your specific role. They include commands that trigger entire workflows (research, formatting, delivery) and hand you back finished work.
For context: I build AI systems for founders who want to cut manual work without hiring. This article breaks down how plugins actually work, how they differ from Skills, and gives you 5 copy-paste prompts to build your own.
What plugins actually are
A plugin is a bundle. It packages 4 things together:
Skills — instructions that teach Claude how to do specific tasks
Connectors — links to external tools (Google Drive, Slack, Notion, etc.)
Slash commands — quick actions you trigger with
/commandSub-agents — parallel workers that handle pieces of a task
Instead of setting up each piece individually, you install 1 plugin and get a ready-to-go setup from the first conversation.
Think of it this way: Skills are the individual capabilities. Plugins are the job description that bundles the right Skills together.
How plugins are different from Skills
This is where most people get confused.
Skills are single-purpose instructions. 1 Skill might teach Claude to write in your voice. Another might teach it to format a proposal. You can use Skills without a plugin.
Plugins bundle multiple Skills together with the connectors and commands needed to run a complete workflow.
Example:
Skill: "Write status update in my tone."
Plugin: pulls active projects from Notion, writes status updates for each client using your communication Skill, and drops drafts into Gmail. 1 command, 5 clients handled.
Skills are Lego blocks. Plugins are the assembled set.
The 11 official Anthropic plugins
Anthropic shipped these on January 30, 2026. All free, all open source:
Sales — call prep, competitive research, account plans
Marketing — SEO audits, email sequences, content briefs
Legal — contract review, compliance checklists, risk analysis
Finance — financial modeling, budget analysis, forecasting
Customer Support — ticket response, escalation workflows
Product Management — PRDs, roadmap planning, user research
Data Analysis — dashboards, data cleaning, visualization
Enterprise Search — cross-platform search across company tools
Biology Research — literature review, experiment design
Productivity — task management, meeting prep, scheduling
Plugin Create — build your own plugins from scratch
Browse them all at github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins.
How to install a plugin
Open Cowork → Plugins (sidebar) → click + → browse available plugins → click Add plugin.
That's it. Plugins you install are saved locally to your machine.
To use a Skill from your plugin, type / in the chat to see commands, or click + and pick from your installed plugins.
The most useful slash commands
Commands worth bookmarking from the official plugins:
Marketing:
/marketing:seo-audit— analyzes any URL for SEO issues/marketing:email-sequence— generates a multi-email sequence/marketing:competitive-brief— researches competitors and outputs a brief
Sales:
/sales:call-prep— researches a prospect and creates a call brief/sales:account-plan— builds a strategic account plan/sales:objection-handling— generates responses to common objections
Legal:
/legal:contract-review— analyzes a contract for risks/legal:compliance-check— checks against regulatory requirements
Data:
/data:clean-dataset— standardizes messy data/data:visualize— creates charts from data
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How connectors work
Connectors link Claude to external tools. Without them, Claude only works with what you paste in. With them, Claude pulls live data.
Available connectors include:
Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar
Slack, Notion, Asana
DocuSign, Salesforce, FactSet
Linear, Monday.com, and more
To connect: Settings → Connectors → browse → search for your tool → connect.
Once connected, Claude can search your Drive, read your emails, check your calendar, and act on that data inside a workflow.
How to customize a plugin
Default plugins are starting points. Click Customize on any installed plugin and Claude walks you through adjusting it:
Swap connectors to match your tool stack
Add your company's terminology
Adjust workflows to how your team operates
Add custom Skills specific to your process
Prompt to use:
Customize this plugin to match how my team actually works. We use [tools]. Our process for [workflow] is [description]. Update the skills and commands accordingly.
How to build your own plugin
Use the Plugin Create plugin (meta, I know). Or build from scratch with this structure:
my-plugin/
├── plugin.json # Manifest file
├── commands/ # Slash commands
│ └── my-command.md
├── skills/ # Individual skills
│ └── my-skill/
│ └── SKILL.md
└── .mcp.json # Connector config
Prompt to start:
I want to build a plugin for [your workflow]. Walk me through creating the plugin structure, skills, and commands. My workflow involves [describe the steps].
5 copy-paste prompts for common plugins
1. Client management plugin
Build me a client management plugin that pulls active projects from Notion, writes weekly status updates using my communication style, and drafts them in Gmail. Include a /send-updates command.
2. Content repurposing plugin
Build a content repurposing plugin with skills for: turning podcast transcripts into LinkedIn posts, creating Twitter threads from articles, and extracting clip suggestions from video scripts.
3. Competitive research plugin
Build a competitive research plugin that searches the web, organizes findings into a structured brief, and saves it to my Google Drive. Include /research-company and /market-analysis commands.
4. Sales follow-up plugin
Build a sales follow-up plugin that pulls open deals from my CRM, writes personalized follow-up emails for each deal based on stage and history, and drafts them in Gmail. Include a /follow-up:all command.
5. Weekly reporting plugin
Build a weekly reporting plugin that pulls completed tasks from Linear, wins from Slack, and calendar events from Google Calendar. Generate a 1-page weekly summary and save it to Google Drive. Include a /weekly:report command.
What plugins actually give you
Before plugins, you managed each piece by hand. Connect your tools. Load your Skills. Remember which prompt to use. Repeat for every task.
With plugins, you set it up 1 time and run it forever. 1 command triggers an entire agentic workflow and hands you back the finished work.
The people who figure this out first will operate like they have a team of 10. The people who don't will wonder why everyone else is moving so fast.
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