Stretch Guide: Dispatch

Claude Cowork · Advanced feature

⚠️ Stop here if you’re new to this. This guide is for people who are already comfortable running Cowork workflows, have their Projects set up, and understand what Claude can and can’t do on their machine. Dispatch gives Claude remote control of your desktop from your phone. If that sentence doesn’t feel completely clear to you yet, work through the standard recipes first and come back.

What Dispatch Is

Dispatch is a research preview feature that links your phone and your desktop into a single continuous conversation with Claude. You send Claude a task from your phone. Claude works on your desktop — using your files, connectors, plugins, and apps — and sends you the result when it’s done.

The practical payoff: you can kick off a workflow from anywhere without sitting at your computer, and Claude uses everything it already has access to on your desktop to complete it.

The reason this is a stretch guide: you are giving a mobile AI agent the ability to trigger real actions on your desktop. That chain — phone → Claude → your desktop → your files and apps — is powerful and mostly invisible. Mistakes are hard to undo. Proceed with clear eyes about what you’re enabling.

Prerequisites

Before you start:

• [ ] You’ve run at least a few standard Cowork recipes and are comfortable with how Claude handles files
• [ ] You have a Pro or Max plan (Dispatch is not available on Team or Enterprise at this time — check current availability at claude.ai)
• [ ] Claude Desktop is installed and up to date on your computer (macOS or Windows x64)
• [ ] Claude mobile app is installed and up to date on your phone (iOS or Android)
• [ ] You understand what files and connectors Claude currently has access to on your desktop

Step 1 — Confirm Your Setup

1. Open Claude Desktop and make sure Cowork is working normally. Run a standard task to confirm.
2. Open the Claude mobile app and sign in with the same account.
3. On desktop, navigate to the Dispatch section in the left sidebar of Cowork.
4. You should see a setup screen. If you don’t see Dispatch yet, it may not be available on your plan or region — check for updates.

Step 2 — Enable and Configure Dispatch

1. Click Get started on the Dispatch setup screen.
2. You’ll be prompted to configure two settings — read both before toggling:
   • File access — allows Claude to read and write files on your desktop during Dispatch tasks. Only enable this if you’re comfortable with what’s in your connected folders.
   • Keep computer awake — prevents your machine from sleeping while Claude is working. Useful for long tasks; less useful if you’re on battery.
3. Toggle what makes sense for your situation. You can change these later.
4. Click Finish setup.

Step 3 — Understand What You’re Enabling

Before assigning any tasks, take a minute with this.

Dispatch gives Claude access to everything it has on your desktop: every connected folder, every plugin, every connector you’ve authenticated, and — if you’ve enabled computer use — your desktop apps and browser. Instructions from your phone can trigger any of that.

This means:

• A poorly worded task can have unintended consequences
• If Claude encounters manipulated content (a phishing email it opens, a document with embedded instructions), it could act on that content
• Actions Claude takes through Dispatch may be difficult or impossible to undo

The practical rule: Only give Dispatch access to what you’d be comfortable having Claude touch in a supervised Cowork session. Don’t treat remote control as lower stakes than sitting at the desk.

Step 4 — Assign Your First Task

Start with something low-risk and reversible — a summary, a draft, something that creates a new file rather than modifying an existing one.

1. Open the Claude mobile app.
2. Navigate to the Dispatch thread (it’s a single persistent conversation — not a new thread each time).
3. Describe the task clearly. The more specific you are, the less Claude has to interpret. Include:
   • What you want done
   • Where the relevant files are (folder name, not full path)
   • Where to save the output
   • Any constraints (“don’t modify the original file”)
4. Send it. Claude will begin working on your desktop.
5. You’ll receive a push notification when the task is complete or when Claude needs your approval on something.

Step 5 — Review the Result

1. Check the output on your phone first — Claude will message you a summary and where to find the file.
2. When you’re back at your desk, verify the output is what you expected before using it.
3. If something went wrong: check the Dispatch thread for Claude’s explanation. You can reply in the thread to correct or continue the task.

After each Dispatch session: Quickly check that no unintended changes were made to files you didn’t expect Claude to touch. This takes 30 seconds and builds the habit of staying aware of what’s been done on your behalf.

What Can Go Wrong

The computer sleeps mid-task. Claude stops. The task is incomplete. Enable “keep computer awake” or make sure your power settings allow long sessions.

Claude interprets the task differently than you intended. Dispatch runs without step-by-step confirmation. If your prompt was ambiguous, Claude makes its best judgment and may do something unexpected. More specific prompts reduce this significantly.

Claude touches a file you didn’t intend. If your connected folders include things you didn’t mean to expose, Claude may read or write them. Audit your connected folders before using Dispatch.

A malicious document influences Claude’s behavior. This is called prompt injection — if Claude opens a document that contains hidden instructions, it may follow them. Avoid asking Dispatch to process files from untrusted sources.

You lose track of what’s been done. Because Dispatch is a single continuous thread, it can be easy to forget what you’ve assigned. Check the thread history regularly.

When It’s Worth It

Dispatch earns its risk when the task is:

• Clear and well-scoped — you’ve described it well enough that ambiguity isn’t a problem
• Running on trusted files — not processing inbound documents or emails from unknown sources
• Creating rather than modifying — generating new outputs is easier to verify than changes to existing files
• Genuinely worth the remote convenience — you actually can’t be at your desk and the task needs to happen

If you’re sitting at your computer, use Cowork directly. Dispatch is for when you can’t be there.

Further Reading

• Use Cowork safely — Anthropic’s full safety guidance
• Let Claude use your computer in Cowork — computer use specifics and permissions