Your Dispatch Guide

How to Use Claude Dispatch to Get Work Done While You're Away

The setup, the tips, and the tasks that actually work.

⚡ Available on Pro ($20/mo) & Max ($100/mo) Plans — Research Preview

What Dispatch Actually Is

Dispatch lets you send tasks from your phone to Claude running on your desktop. Claude works through the task using your local files, connected apps (Gmail, Slack, Google Drive), and any plugins you've set up — then you come back to finished work.

Before this, you had to be sitting at your desk watching Claude work. Now you can fire off a task from the couch, from the car, from a coffee shop — and your desktop handles it in the background.

Setup in Under Two Minutes

1
Update both apps. Make sure your Claude Desktop app and Claude mobile app are on the latest version. Both need to be signed into the same account.
2
Open Cowork on desktop. Go to the Cowork tab in Claude Desktop. You'll see a "Dispatch" option — click it and it'll show you a QR code.
3
Scan from your phone. Open Claude on your phone, tap Dispatch in the sidebar, and scan the QR code. That's it — you're connected.
4
Keep your desktop awake. Your computer needs to stay on with Claude Desktop open. Adjust your sleep settings so it doesn't shut down mid-task.
Heads Up
No API keys. No terminal commands. No configuration files. It's literally a QR code scan and you're in.

6 Tips to Get the Most Out of Dispatch

01
Be Specific About File Locations
Claude is working on your actual desktop — so reference your real folders and filenames. Instead of "look at my spreadsheet," say "in my Documents/Q1 Reports folder, pull the revenue numbers from the file called march-financials.xlsx." The more specific, the faster it finds what it needs.
Example Prompt
"In my Desktop/Client Projects folder, find the proposal for Acme Corp and summarize the scope of work and timeline into bullet points."
02
Connect Your Apps Before You Need Them
Dispatch uses whatever connectors you've already set up in Cowork — Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, Google Calendar. Set these up on your desktop first. Then when you fire off a task from your phone, Claude can pull from all of them without asking for permissions mid-task.
Pro Tip
Go to Cowork settings on your desktop and grant folder access to the directories you use most. That way Claude doesn't pause waiting for permission while you're away.
03
Start With "Trigger and Retrieve" Tasks
Dispatch is best for tasks that take more than a few minutes but don't need you watching. Think: compiling reports, summarizing a week of emails, organizing files, building a presentation from existing docs. If something takes you 20 minutes of busywork at your desk, that's a Dispatch task.
Example Prompt
"Search my Gmail and Slack for all messages from Sarah this week, then draft a briefing doc summarizing the open action items."
04
Use It for Meeting Prep on the Go
This is one of the best real-world uses. You're heading into a meeting in 20 minutes — send Claude a task from your phone to pull the relevant emails, summarize the context, and draft a quick agenda. By the time you sit down, it's waiting on your desktop.
Example Prompt
"Go through all emails from the Acme Corp thread this past week. Summarize what's still open, what's been decided, and draft a 5-point agenda for our 2pm call today."
05
Ask for the Output File in Your Message
If your task generates a file — a report, a spreadsheet, a presentation — tell Claude to show you the file in the Dispatch chat. Otherwise you might come back and have to hunt for it on your desktop. Be explicit about what you want delivered and where.
Example Prompt
"Pull last month's expenses from my Google Drive spreadsheet, organize them by category, and create a summary PDF. Save it to my Desktop and send it to me here in the chat."
06
Keep Prompts Simple From Your Phone
You're typing on a phone screen — keep it concise. Dispatch runs a single persistent thread, so Claude already has context from earlier tasks. If you've already given it a complex task before, you can follow up with short messages like "now export that to CSV" or "run that same report for April."
Pro Tip
If you've set up Cowork skills on your desktop, you can trigger them from your phone with a one-liner like: "Run the task called 'weekly client report.'" Name your skills in plain English so they're easy to trigger on mobile.

Before You Go — Know This

Your desktop must stay awake with Claude Desktop open. If it sleeps, Claude pauses mid-task.
There's one continuous conversation thread — no branching or multiple threads yet.
No push notifications when a task finishes — you'll need to check in manually.
This is still a research preview — complex tasks work about half the time. Start simple and build up.
Claude can read, move, and delete files — so double-check the permissions you've granted before sending sensitive tasks.
You're no longer the bottleneck. Assign the task, walk away, come back to finished work.
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