Work across two devices (on a Windows PC)

CRAFT Tutorials · Advanced

If your project lives on GitHub, you can pick it up on a second computer — a laptop, a machine at the office — and carry on right where you left off. GitHub is the shared hub: each computer pulls the latest before you start and saves back when you’re done.

🍎 Setting up the second computer as a Mac? Use the Mac version of this guide instead.

What you’ll do: a one-time setup on the second PC (4 steps · ~15 min), then a simple daily rhythm that takes seconds.

Before you start: your project should already be on GitHub from your main computer. If it isn’t yet, set that up first — Set up GitHub to back up your CRAFT project — and save your work there once.

How working across devices fits together

Think of GitHub as the single shared copy in the middle. Neither computer talks to the other directly — they each talk to GitHub:

  • GitHub holds the master copy. Every save from either computer goes here.
  • Each computer pulls the latest before working. So you always start from the newest version.
  • Each computer saves back when you finish. So the other computer can pick it up next.

Get into that pull-first, save-last rhythm and the two machines stay in step without you copying a single folder by hand.

One-time setup on the second PC

Step 1 — Install Cowork and CRAFT

Set the second PC up the same way you set up the first. If you need a refresher, follow Install and turn on Claude Cowork from the Getting Started series.

Step 2 — Give this PC its own GitHub token

Your repository is private, so this computer needs its own access token to reach it. Create one and save it in a token file exactly as you did on your main PC — the steps are in Set up GitHub to back up your CRAFT project (the “create your access token” and “save the token” steps). Use a separate token per computer so you can revoke one without affecting the other.

Good to know: a token belongs to the machine it’s on. One token per device keeps things tidy and safe — lose a laptop, revoke just that laptop’s token.

Step 3 — Bring the project down from GitHub

Now copy the project onto this PC. Open Git Bash (search your Start menu for “Git Bash” — it comes with Git for Windows), move to where you keep your projects, and clone your repository (swap in your own username and repository name):

git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-repo.git

Because the repo is private, Git will ask who you are. Enter your GitHub username, and when it asks for a password, paste your personal access token instead. (A Git prompt is a safe place for the token — unlike the chat, where you should never paste it.)

✓ You’ll know it worked when a folder with your project’s name appears, holding the same files you see on GitHub.

Step 4 — Open it in Cowork and continue

In Cowork, select the project folder you just cloned, then start a session as usual:

›Start a CRAFT session and continue where I left off.

CRAFT reads your latest handoff and picks the project up exactly where the other computer left it — same memory, same context.

✓ You’ll know it worked when Claude greets you with the project’s current state and the last thing you were working on — no re-explaining needed.

The daily rhythm: pull first, save last

Once both computers are set up, switching between them is just two habits. When you sit down at a computer, get the latest before you do anything else:

›Get the latest version of my project from GitHub before we start.

When you’re done, save your work back so the other computer can pick it up:

›Save a handoff and back it up to GitHub.

That handoff is the key piece: it records where you stopped, so the next computer (or the next session) continues smoothly instead of guessing.

The one rule that avoids trouble

Finish and save on one computer before you start on the other. If both machines edit the same project without pulling first, their histories drift apart and the next save gets refused (CRAFT won’t silently overwrite one with the other). Pulling first and saving last keeps you clear of it.

If it does happen — you forgot to pull, and a save is refused — you don’t fix it by hand. Ask Claude to reconcile the two copies safely, the same recovery covered in Push your work to GitHub safely:

›The two copies of my project have drifted — please reconcile them safely without losing my work.

Make the switch a single step

When you know you’re about to move to your other computer, you can ask for a device-switch handoff — it saves where you are, backs it up, and prepares a short note the next machine reads to sync up and continue:

›Make a device-switch handoff — I’m moving to my other computer.

✓ That’s the payoff: your project follows you between machines through GitHub — pull to begin, save to end, and one sentence to hand off cleanly.

Troubleshooting

  • The clone asks for a password and rejects it — at the password prompt, paste your personal access token, not your GitHub account password. If it still fails, the token may lack repository access; make a fresh one (see the setup guide).
  • Claude can’t find the project on this PC — make sure you selected the cloned folder in Cowork, not its parent folder.
  • A save was refused after switching — the copies drifted because a pull was skipped. Ask Claude to reconcile them safely, then save again.

That’s two devices, one project: GitHub in the middle, a quick pull to begin and a save to end, and a one-sentence handoff when you switch. A good next step: keep your setup current with Keep CRAFT up to date.

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