Which report do you build every week?
A scheduled task is a job you describe once. Claude runs it again every week, or every day, without you opening anything.
Think of weekly orders, open tickets, stock below a minimum, or what changed in a shared sheet. It should read one place and produce a few lines. Using the practice job? Write "weekly order summary".
When does it run, and what does it remember?
Guess first. The reveals come from Anthropic's page on scheduled tasks.
Show the answer
Yes. Scheduled tasks run in the cloud, so they run on time even when your computer is asleep or Claude Desktop is closed. They work with your connectors and the files saved to your Claude account.
A task that needs files or apps on your own computer is different. It runs only locally, so Claude Desktop has to be open on that computer when it runs. Keep the file somewhere Claude reaches through a connector, such as the Drive you connected in course 1.
Show the answer
Count on it starting fresh. Claude saves your prompt as the task's instructions, and each run is its own Cowork session, much like a new chat. Write the prompt as if Claude has never seen your file: say where the file is, what to calculate and how the answer should look.
Schedule the summary
Five steps. Tick each one when it's done.
-
Put the file where Claude can reach it.
Open the storage you connected in course 1 (Google Drive, SharePoint or OneDrive). Make a folder called Bakery orders and upload orders.csv into it.
Then, in Claude Desktop, open Customize › Connectors and check that Google Drive or Microsoft 365 is connected. That connector is the link Claude uses to reach the folder.
Or use the practice file
A made-up bakery's wholesale orders for one week: 8 rows, 4 customers. It's a CSV file, a plain table that Excel or Google Sheets can open.
- orders.csv8 rows · under 1 KB
-
Test the prompt in a normal chat first.
Paste this and read the answer. If the summary isn't what you want, change the words now, before you schedule them.
Open orders.csv in the Bakery orders folder in my Google Drive. Write the weekly order summary in under 10 lines: the total in euros, each customer's total with the biggest first, and the number of units per product. Show the euros with two decimals. If the file is missing or empty, say so instead of making numbers up.
Using SharePoint or OneDrive, or a folder with another name? Change the first sentence to match.
-
Create the scheduled task.
Click Scheduled in the left sidebar, then New task at the upper right, then Set up manually. Give it a name and paste the prompt.
The approval mode sets when Claude stops to ask you first. This task runs while you're away and only reads a file, so choose Automatically approve. Claude keeps working and still checks each action for safety. For how often, choose weekly, and if the form asks for a day and time, pick Monday at 9:00. Click Save.
Does your message box no longer show Chat and Cowork choices? Then you have the new combined experience. Create the task from a chat instead: paste the prompt with "Every Monday at 9 AM" in front, check the name and schedule Claude proposes, and click Schedule.
-
Run it now, without waiting for Monday.
On the Scheduled tasks page, click your task, then the button that runs it on demand (it may say Run now). When the run finishes, open it and read the summary.
-
Find the controls you'll need later.
On the same page you can edit the instructions or how often it runs, pause a task, resume it and delete it. Pause the task if you want to stop the practice job now.
If you see this instead
- There's no Scheduled item in the sidebar
- Scheduled tasks need a paid plan. On Team and Enterprise, your admin decides whether Cowork is turned on, so ask them.
- The run says it can't find the file
- The file isn't in a place Claude reaches. Check the connector from course 1 is on, and that the prompt names the folder and file exactly.
- The numbers look wrong
- Open the run, ask Claude which rows it used, and tighten the prompt. Then edit the task and run it again.
- Nothing ran at the set time
- Open the Scheduled tasks page and read the past runs. A paused task doesn't run. A task that uses a folder on your computer runs only while Claude Desktop is open there.
Does a run show the right numbers, and the new ones after an edit?
A schedule that has never run is a guess. Run it, check one number, change the file and run it again.
With the practice file
Run the task on demand. The first run should show a total of €443.50, School Canteen as the biggest customer at €147.50, and 57 sourdough loaves, 25 rye loaves and 120 croissants.
Then change School Canteen's croissants from 50 to 60. Edit your copy of orders.csv on your computer (in Excel or a text editor) and save it. Delete the old file from the Bakery orders folder and upload the edited one. Run the task again.
You pass only when both runs are right, and the second one shows a total of €455.50 with School Canteen at €159.50. If it still says €443.50, the task didn't read the new file.
With your own file, check one total by hand, then change one row and run again.
Two questions from memory
Where do you review, pause or run a scheduled task?
On the Scheduled tasks page, opened with Scheduled in the left sidebar. Past and upcoming runs are listed there too.
Why write the saved prompt as if Claude has never seen your file?
Claude saves your prompt as the task's instructions, and each run is its own session, much like a new chat. Name the file and folder, and say what to calculate and how the answer should look.
Lesson 4 opens by asking the first one again.
A scheduled task has the same access as a normal Cowork task, including the connectors and Skills you set up. Give it only what it needs, and read the first few runs before you trust it.
Course 2 so far
What you've built
- Lesson 1: Tip calculator
- Lesson 2: Browser comparison
- Lesson 3: Scheduled summary