RCP-CWK-001 Cowork Session Initialization

Sets up a CRAFT session in Claude Cowork automatically

The AI scans your workspace folder, finds your project files, loads your last handoff, checks git status, activates your persona, and reports everything it found — so you can start working immediately without manually pasting context.

Cowork Session Initialization

Cowork | Session Lifecycle | Difficulty: Beginner | Time: 1–3 min
Tags: Introduced in Beta, Session, Initialize, Cowork, Workspace, Auto-Detect, Essential, Frequently Used

TL;DR

What It Does
Sets up a CRAFT session in Claude Cowork automatically. The AI scans your workspace folder, finds your project files, loads your last handoff, checks git status, activates your persona, and reports everything it found — so you can start working immediately without manually pasting context.
How It Works
When you open a Cowork session with a CRAFT project folder mounted, this recipe reads your project configuration, chat history, and lessons learned directly from the files. It checks for pending cross-project transfers, validates git health, captures a grounding snapshot of your project state, scans for stale lessons learned entries, and activates your persona and the CRAFT Operations Manager. If no project files exist, it routes you to the Project Creator recipe instead.
What To Expect
A structured initialization report within 1–3 minutes. The AI will confirm what it found, flag any issues (uncommitted git changes, stale lessons learned, pending transfers), and ask what you want to work on. For new projects, it bootstraps the entire project structure automatically.
Best Results When You
Have your CRAFT project folder selected in Cowork before starting. The recipe works best when your workspace contains an up-to-date chat history file with a recent handoff — the more context it can load, the faster you reach productive work.
Time
1–3 minutes (new-project bootstrap takes slightly longer due to file creation).
Difficulty
Beginner — the recipe runs automatically. You just confirm your project ID and session type.

How To Start

This recipe typically runs automatically when a session begins with a CRAFT project folder mounted. You can also invoke it manually if you need to re-initialize mid-session.

STEP 1Tell the AI Your Session Type

Specify whether this is a new project, a continuation of an existing project, or a handoff from another session. Provide your project ID. If continuing, you can optionally specify which handoff to load — otherwise the AI loads the most recent one.
Available parameters
  • session_type · string · required
    Type of session. Options: new (fresh project creation), continued (resuming from prior handoff), handoff (applying a received handoff from another session).
  • project_id · string · required
    Your three-digit project ID (e.g., “067”).
  • handoff_id · string · optional
    Specific handoff to load (e.g., “H099”). If omitted, the AI loads the most recent completed handoff.
Example invocations
Continue an existing project
#H->AI::Directive: (Initialize CRAFT Cowork session for project 067, session type continued)
Continue from a specific handoff
#H->AI::Directive: (Initialize CRAFT Cowork session for project 067, session type continued, handoff H099)
Start a new project
#H->AI::Directive: (Initialize CRAFT Cowork session for project 068, session type new)

STEP 2Review the Initialization Report

The AI scans your workspace and presents a summary of everything it found: project files, handoff context, git status, active subprojects, pending transfers, and persona state. Review the report for any flagged issues — uncommitted changes, stale lessons learned entries, state drift from the prior handoff, or orphaned subprojects.

STEP 3Address Any Flagged Issues

If the AI detected pending cross-project transfers, it will ask whether to review them now or defer. If git shows uncommitted changes or the cross-session consistency check found drift, the AI will explain the discrepancy and recommend a course of action. Most sessions proceed without issues.

STEP 4Start Working

The AI activates your persona, enables the CRAFT Operations Manager, and asks what you want to work on. Your full project context is loaded and ready.

Usage Examples

Two scenarios showing session initialization in practice — one for a returning user continuing work, and one for a brand-new project.
Example 1 · Continuing an existing project
User:#H->AI::Directive: (Initialize CRAFT Cowork session for project 067, session type continued)
AI:Scanning workspace folder for CRAFT files. Found 47 files. Loading project configuration. Loading handoff H099 from chat history. Git status: clean, last commit “H099 session close artifacts.” Lessons learned: 287 entries, 0 stale. No pending transfers. Active subproject: SP10, Phase 3 of 4.
User:Let’s continue with SP10 recipe build-out.
AI:Persona restored: Cat at E tier. COM monitoring active. SP10 context loaded. What specific recipe would you like to process next?
[Session proceeds with full project context loaded]
Example 2 · Starting a new project
User:#H->AI::Directive: (Initialize CRAFT Cowork session for project 068, session type new)
AI:New project detected. Running bootstrap sequence. Recipe index loaded. Templates found. Loading Cowork Project Creator (RCP-CWK-029). What is this project about?
User:Building a customer onboarding workflow for our SaaS product.
AI:Creating project files for CFT-PROJ-CP-068. Project file, chat history, lessons learned, CLAUDE.md, and recipe index created. Git initialized. Ready for first handoff.
[AI runs CWK-029 internally and hands back a fully scaffolded project]

How AI Reads This Recipe

When this recipe is triggered, the AI acts as a session bootstrapper that reads files directly from the workspace. The AI should:
  1. DETECT the session type (new, continued, handoff) and route accordingly — new projects go to the bootstrap path (CWK-029).
  2. SCAN the workspace folder using Read and Glob tools to discover all CRAFT project files, classifying them by type (project, history, lessons learned, cookbooks, templates).
  3. LOAD the project configuration, most recent handoff, and lessons learned from the discovered files.
  4. CHECK git status including stale index.lock cleanup, branch state, uncommitted changes, and recent commits.
  5. CAPTURE a grounding snapshot (SESSION_GROUND_TRUTH) of observed project state for downstream verification by other recipes.
  6. SCAN lessons learned for staleness signals — outdated version references, contradicted entries, and aging entries.
  7. RUN cross-session consistency check (CWK-025) to detect state drift from the prior handoff.
  8. DISCOVER pending cross-project transfers and offer to process them via CWK-027.
  9. SCAN for active subprojects, loading STATE.txt, PHASES.txt, and recent LOG entries for each.
  10. ACTIVATE persona, protocols, and COM with auto-trigger rules.
The AI should NOT skip the grounding snapshot or staleness scan even when the session appears routine. These checks catch subtle drift that compounds across sessions. The initialization summary must be presented before asking the user what to work on — never start productive work without confirming the loaded context.

When to Use This Recipe

Use this recipe when you:
  • Open a new Cowork session with a CRAFT project folder mounted.
  • Need to re-initialize mid-session after a context compaction.
  • Are starting a brand-new CRAFT project from scratch.
  • Want to verify that your project state matches what the last handoff reported.
  • Received a cross-project transfer and want to process it at session start.
Do not use this recipe when:
You are in a non-CRAFT Cowork session without a CRAFT project folder. This recipe expects to find CRAFT project files in the workspace — without them, it has nothing to initialize. If you want to start using CRAFT for the first time, select a folder with CRAFT framework files (cookbooks, templates) and specify session_type as new.

Recipe FAQ

Q.Does this recipe run automatically or do I need to invoke it?

In most CRAFT projects, the boot prompt at the top of each session includes the initialization directives. If your project uses boot prompts, the recipe runs automatically. You can also invoke it manually at any time.

Q.What happens if my workspace folder is empty?

The recipe checks for templates and cookbooks. If neither exists, it reports an error and stops. You need at least the CRAFT framework files (cookbooks and a master template) in your workspace to create a new project.

Q.Can I skip the git status check?

The git check is built into the recipe and runs automatically. If no git repo is configured, the AI simply notes that and recommends running CWK-004 (Git Initialization) — it does not block the rest of initialization.

Q.What is the “grounding snapshot” the AI mentions?

A set of verified observations (git branch, commit hash, file counts, timestamps) captured by actually running tools. Other recipes use this snapshot to verify state claims instead of relying on memory, which can degrade after context compaction.

Q.How does this differ from the Core Chat Session Initialization?

The Core recipe (RCP-001-001-001) is designed for web-based Claude where files are pasted into the conversation. This Cowork version reads files directly from disk, checks git, scans for transfers, captures grounding snapshots, and validates cross-session consistency — none of which are possible in the web interface.

Version History

Changes to this recipe over time. Most recent first.
v1.13a 2026-04-10
Added subproject awareness scan (Step 4h). Scans project/subprojects/*/STATE.txt for ACTIVE subprojects, loads context (STATE + PHASES + last 5 LOG entries), detects orphaned ACTIVE flags, and passes SP context to COM for footer rendering.
v1.12a 2026-03-31
Removed Google Drive backup mount (Step 4g). GDrive sync eliminated — backup now handled by CWK-ADM-076.
v1.10a 2026-03-15
Folder-qualified discovery paths per 7-folder structure. Falls back to flat-path scan for pre-migration workspaces.
v1.08a 2026-03-05
Routes new-project bootstrap to CWK-029 (Cowork Project Creator) instead of Core RCP-001-001-017, enabling universal lessons seeding and full Cowork-native project creation.
v1.07a 2026-03-01
Added new-project bootstrap path (Step 0b). Eliminates cold-start discovery overhead by loading recipe index and routing directly to Project Creator.
v1.00a 2026-02-28
Initial release. Workspace scanning, handoff loading, git status check, persona activation, COM auto-triggers.

Get this recipe with CRAFT for Claude Cowork

Cowork recipes ship bundled with CRAFT for Claude Cowork — there’s no separate download. Clone the framework once, and your AI runs every recipe automatically when invoked.

Pull anytime to stay on the latest version — free to clone, no login or email required.

Then start your session

Once CRAFT is in your project folder, open a new Cowork session and ask Claude to initialize. For example:

You

Please initialize my CRAFT session.

Claude

CRAFT session ready. Your project is loaded, your persona is active, and your recipes are available. What would you like to work on?

What is CRAFT for Claude Cowork?

Not familiar with Git? Download as a ZIP

No command line needed. Just download, move, and unzip:

  1. Open the CRAFT framework repo on GitHub.
  2. Click the green Code button, then choose Download ZIP.
  3. Move the downloaded ZIP into your Claude Cowork project folder.
  4. Unzip it: double-click on Mac, or right-click → Extract All on Windows.

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