Your business owner has shared two folders with you: the team brain (to read) and a shared workspace (where work gets saved). They'll have sent you this link once that's done. If you can't see those folders when you add them in step 8, that's the only thing to check with them, then carry on.
Get ready
Your account, your model, and where your private brain will live. Work top to bottom.
1.Use your own Claude account
Do this in your own Claude account (Pro, Max, or Team), in the Cowork desktop app (the phone apps can't run it). Your private brain lives in your account, so it stays yours and leaves with you.
2.Bring your history across? Optional
Want a richer private brain that already knows how you work? Request your Claude data export now: Settings → Privacy → Export data. The email can take minutes to hours, so start it early. Happy to skip it? That's completely fine, just move on, and the skill will ask you a few quick questions instead.
Open your data controls →3.Set Opus 4.8 and thinking to High
Click the model name near the message box, choose Opus 4.8, set Effort → High, and turn Thinking on. It reads a lot in one pass, so a lighter model gets slow.
4.Choose where your private brain will live
Pick one. Cloud is recommended so your brain is backed up. Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive if you have them, or your own computer to start. This is your storage, separate from the business brain.
5.Install your cloud drive's desktop app Skip if local
If you chose cloud, install the sync app (Google Drive for desktop, or OneDrive) and sign in, so the folder lives on your computer where your AI can reach it.
6.Sync the folders your owner shared, and make them available offline
Find the shared folders you were given (the team brain and the shared workspace) and set them to available offline (Google Drive: "Available offline"; OneDrive: "Always keep on this device"). A green tick means they're on your computer.
7.Download and unzip your export Only if you exported
If you requested an export, download the ZIP when the email lands and unzip it. The link only lasts 24 hours. Skip this if you chose not to bring your history across.
Run the migration
Point Cowork at your own brain, add the shared folders, install the skill, and run it.
8.Create your project on your own brain, then add the shared folders
One project ends up connected to two places: your own private brain, and the shared folders. Do it in this order.
a. Create the project on your own brain first. In Cowork: new project → Use an existing folder → point it at your own private location from step 4. This is the home base, the part your AI writes to freely.
b. Then add the shared folders to that same project. Add the two you were given: the team brain and the shared workspace. Now the one project is connected to both your own brain and the shared folders.
c. If you exported, drop your unzipped export inside your private-brain folder (not a shared folder), so the migration reads only your own history.
Where the folders live doesn't matter. Cowork can connect a folder on your own computer and folders synced from a shared Google Drive or OneDrive in the same project. Local or cloud, it works the same.
9.Download the Team Brain Migrate skill
Download the skill file. It's a single .skill file. You install it next.
↓Team Brain Migrate skill v1.010.Install the skill in Cowork
Upload the .skill file: Customise → Skills → + → Create a skill → Upload a skill, then choose your .skill file. On a Team plan, if Skills are restricted, your owner enables them first, then you refresh.
11.Run the migration
Start a new conversation in your project and run the command below. Type it, don't paste it: type /, start typing team-brain-migrate, pick it from the list, then send.
/team-brain-migrateWhat's about to happen
- It asks a few quick questions: your name, your role (team member), your account, your machine, and whether you're bringing your history across.
- It checks what you can reach (the team brain to read, the shared workspace to write) before it writes anything.
- If you exported, it reads your history and builds your private brain from it; if not, it asks you a few quick questions instead. Either way, this stays private to you.
- It writes your navigator so your AI knows the rules, then runs a short working-style capture.
12.Answer the questions and let it verify your access
Answer in your own words or tap the buttons. It then confirms you can read the team brain and write to the shared workspace before writing anything. If a folder is missing, it tells you to ask your owner to finish sharing, then you resume.
13.It builds your private brain and captures how you work
If you exported, the skill reads your history and builds your private brain from it: your working style, the work you do, your preferences. If you skipped, it asks you a few quick questions instead. Then it runs a short working-style capture. All of this lands in your private brain only. Nothing is written to the business brain.
14.It writes your navigator
The skill writes your CLAUDE.md so your AI knows exactly what it can do: read the team brain for context, put your work in the shared workspace, and keep your personal work in your private brain.
Finish and check
Read the privacy note, run a quick test, and pin your brain so it's always there.
15.Read your privacy note
The skill leaves you a short, honest privacy note. The short version: your private brain is only as private as the account it sits in. In your own personal account, nobody at work can see it. In a company work account, an admin technically can, so treat it as company-visible. If you brought your history across, it lives only in your account.
16.Check it worked Quick test
Ask your AI to do two things. Read test: read one file from the team brain. It should read it fine. Work test: write a throwaway note into the shared workspace. It should save there, and it should tell you it can't edit the team brain directly. If either fails, it's almost always a sharing or sync issue.
17.Pin it and star it, so it's always there Do it once
Two quick things in Cowork so you never hunt for it:
Pin this project to the side menu, so it's one click to find.
Star your brain folder, so it mounts by default on every new chat, with your brain and the team context already loaded.
Keep enriching your private brain
The migration captures how you work today. Over time you build up far more useful context in your chats. Run this enrichment sweep whenever you like. It mines your history and tops up your private brain, so your AI keeps pace with how you actually work. It only ever adds to your own private brain, never the shared team brain.
↓Private Brain Enrichment prompt v1.0How to run it
- Open the project you migrated in (the one that can see your chat history), or any Claude project with your history connected.
- Start a new chat, paste the prompt, and send.
- It hands back one file. Save it into your private brain folder. That's it.
What you can touch, at a glance.
| Folder | You can |
|---|---|
| The team brain (how the business works) | Read only |
| The shared workspace (where work is saved) | Write |
| Your private brain (your account) | Yours |
You read the team brain for context and do your work in the shared workspace. You don't change the team brain itself, that's how it stays reliable for everyone.