Move your Brain into Cowork.

1.Pick your Claude account

Use the Cowork desktop app on Pro, Max, or Team Premium (the phone apps can't run this). If you have both a personal and a Team account, do this in your Team account, that's where a business Brain belongs.

History stuck in your personal account? You can bring it across in one move, but do it deliberately, it's one-way.

2.Request your Claude data export Do this first

Your whole Brain lives inside this export, and it can take a few minutes to a few hours to arrive, so kick it off now and carry on while you wait. On the web or desktop app (not phone), click your initials bottom-left, then Settings → Privacy → Export data.

On Team or Enterprise? Only the Primary Owner can export, from Organisation Settings → Data & Privacy → Export.

3.Set Opus 4.8, effort High, Thinking on

The migration reads a lot in one pass, so a lighter model slows down and re-asks questions. Click the model name near the message box and set all three.

4.Choose where your Brain will live

Pick one. Cloud is the recommendation, so your Brain is backed up and ready to share with your team later.

5.Install your cloud drive's desktop app Skip if local

Install the sync app and sign in, so the folder lives on your computer.

Google: install Google Drive for desktop. Microsoft: install OneDrive (it syncs SharePoint too, there's no separate SharePoint app), then open your SharePoint library in the browser and click Sync.

6.Create your Brain folder

Create one folder named _Company CoWork AI Brain in your drive (or on your computer if local). Name it exactly that, underscore and all: the underscore keeps it at the top, and everything from here on assumes that name.

7.Make the folder available offline Skip if local

Cowork reads and writes locally, so the folder must be downloaded to your machine, not stream-only. Google Drive: right-click → Available offline. OneDrive: Always keep on this device. A green tick confirms it.

8.Download and unzip your export When the email arrives

When Claude's email lands, download the ZIP and unzip it. The link only lasts 24 hours, so grab it promptly. If it expires, just request a fresh export.

9.Move your export into the Brain folder

Move the unzipped export folder inside your _Company CoWork AI Brain folder.

10.Create your Cowork project

In Cowork, create a new project. You'll see three options. Click Use an existing folder and point it at your Brain folder.

11.Download the Cowork Migrator skill

Download the skill file. It's a single .skill file. You install it in the next step.

12.Install the skill in Cowork

Upload the .skill file you just downloaded, via Customise → Skills → + → Create a skill → Upload a skill. Same path on both account types.

Team or Enterprise: if Skills are restricted, your Primary Owner enables skills first, then you refresh and it appears.

13.Run the migration

Start a new conversation in your AI Brain project. Type /, start typing brain-migrate, pick it from the list, then send. Type it, don't paste it.

I'm in the middle of /brain-migrate and I don't understand what it's asking me right now. Explain what this step is doing and exactly what you need from me, in plain English.

Has my brain migration actually finished? Tell me what is done, what is still outstanding, and the exact next step.

14.Answer the questions and confirm what it found

It asks a couple of quick questions (where your Brain should live, which machine, and what your firm calls its three levels), then shows a short "here's what I have about you" card, your company name, location, website and what it sees, for you to confirm or correct. It only ever touches the project you choose.

15.Review the "what went where" map

When it finishes, it gives you a short snapshot, then a map of every file and where it landed across your three layers, with anything it merged or flagged. Read it. Nothing is deleted; anything already there is backed up first.

Your Brain also gets two working folders: _Unsorted (drop any file or note here and ask Claude to file it) and _Project Workspace (where you and Claude work, so the Brain stays clean).

16.Set your AI Brain as your default project Do it once

In Cowork, set your AI Brain project as your default. Every new task then opens there with your Brain loaded, so you never have to remember to switch.

17.Check it worked Quick three-point test

Ask your AI to do three things. Read test: read one file from your team layer. Map test: show the "what went where" map again, and open one private and one team file, so you can confirm private material sits in the private layer. Gap test: ask "what did you mark as thin or [VERIFY]?", it should name the files that need filling, not pretend the Brain is complete.

If a test fails, it's almost always a sync problem, not a Brain problem. Recheck the sync and available-offline setting.

18.Fill the gaps and enrich your Brain Optional · ~10-15 min

This is where you make it better than the chat version. Ask your AI for a short top-up: it shows what it flagged as thin or [VERIFY], and you hand it more, financial context, a sample proposal, a case study, or one process you keep repeating. It captures what you give it; it never makes things up. Have a book, key PDFs or a bio? Drop them into _Unsorted first and ask Claude to read them.

Let's fill the gaps and enrich my Brain. First show me what you marked as thin or [VERIFY]. Then ask me, one thing at a time, for anything that would fill those gaps: financial context, sample templates or proposals, case studies, or a process I repeat. Capture only what I give you.

19.Open your Brain in Obsidian Optional

Install Obsidian and open your Brain folder as a vault, so you can navigate it visually and see how the layers link together. View only, you don't edit by hand. Useful, not required.