The Complete Guide to Claude Computer Use
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What it is and why it matters
Claude has always been able to answer questions, write things, and work inside apps that have a direct integration built in. That covers a lot: Gmail, Slack, Google Calendar, Notion, and a handful of others. But the reality is most of the software people use every day has no Claude connector. Your company's internal HR system, your accounting platform, your client portals, legacy tools that haven't been updated in years, Claude couldn't touch any of that.
That just changed. Claude can now see your screen and control it. It moves your mouse, clicks buttons, types into fields, navigates between tabs, opens applications, and completes tasks the same way a person sitting at your desk would. You give it a task, it handles it, and you do something else in the meantime.
You can also assign tasks from your phone while you're away from your desk, and Claude will complete them on your desktop. And you can schedule recurring tasks so Claude handles the same repetitive work automatically every day, week, or month without you having to ask again.
This is available on Claude Pro and Max plans. macOS only right now. It's a research preview through Claude Cowork and Claude Code, so expect it to keep improving quickly.
How to set it up
Step 1 — Update your Claude desktop app. Open it and make sure you're on the latest version. If you don't have it, download it from claude.ai.
Step 2 — Download the Claude mobile app on your iPhone if you haven't already. This is what lets you dispatch tasks from your phone while you're away from your desk.
Step 3 — Pair your phone with your desktop. Go into the Claude app settings on your phone and connect it to your desktop app. Takes about two minutes.
Step 4 — You're done. Open a conversation, describe a task, and Claude will ask for permission before it touches anything on your screen.
One thing to note: Claude always asks before it opens an app or takes an action. You're not handing over full control. It checks in at key moments, especially for anything that involves submitting, sending, or deleting.
How to write a good task prompt
The more specific you are, the better it works. Think of it like giving instructions to someone who's never seen your computer before. They're capable, but they don't know your setup.
Tell Claude:
- Which app or website to open
- Exactly what to find or do inside it
- What to do with the result
Vague: "Check my invoices" Better: "Open QuickBooks, go to the Invoices tab, filter for anything unpaid from the last 60 days, and paste the client names and amounts into a new Google Sheet"
Vague: "Summarize my emails" Better: "Open Gmail, find every unread email from the last 48 hours that came from a domain that isn't in my contacts, and write a one-line summary of each one in my Apple Notes"
For recurring tasks, just add the schedule to the end of your prompt. "Do this every Monday at 8am" or "Run this every Friday before noon" and Claude will handle it on that schedule going forward.
Finance and accounting
QuickBooks — Pull unpaid invoices, categorize expenses, generate profit and loss summaries, match transactions to categories, download reports for your accountant
FreshBooks — Export time logs by client, pull outstanding balances, generate invoices for recurring clients on a set schedule
Wave — Log income and expenses from receipts in your Downloads folder, reconcile transactions, pull monthly summaries
Xero — Navigate to specific reports, export them, format them into a clean summary doc
Bill.com — Check payment statuses, flag overdue bills, download remittance details
Workday — Submit expense reports by pulling receipts from a folder you specify, update time tracking entries, pull payroll summaries
ADP — Navigate the employee portal to download pay stubs, check PTO balances, update direct deposit routing if you need to walk through a form
SAP Concur — Fill out and submit expense reports using receipts saved on your desktop
IRS website / state tax portals — Navigate to specific pages, download forms, check filing statuses on accounts you're logged into
Sales and CRM
Salesforce — Update deal stages, log call notes, create new contact records, pull pipeline reports for accounts without a direct Claude connector configured
HubSpot — Same as above for users who haven't connected it directly — log activities, update contact properties, pull deal reports
Pipedrive — Move deals through stages, add notes from calls, pull weekly pipeline snapshots
Zoho CRM — Navigate and update records, pull reports, log outreach activities
Close.io — Log call outcomes, update lead statuses, pull daily activity reports
LinkedIn Sales Navigator — Search for leads matching criteria you define, open profiles, compile a list of names and companies into a spreadsheet
Hunter.io / Apollo — Open the app, search by criteria, copy results into a doc or sheet
Outreach or Salesloft — Navigate sequences, check reply rates, update contact statuses that need manual updates
Operations and project management
Asana — For users not using the connector, navigate to projects, pull task lists by assignee or due date, update statuses, create new tasks from a list you provide
Monday.com — Update item statuses across boards, pull overdue items into a summary, create new entries from a spreadsheet
ClickUp — Same — navigate boards, update tasks, extract overdue or blocked items
Basecamp — Check what's been posted in specific projects, pull to-do lists, summarize activity from the past week
Jira — Pull open tickets assigned to you, update statuses, add comments, generate a list of what's in progress vs blocked
Trello — Move cards between columns, add due dates to a set of cards, pull everything in a specific list into a doc
Linear — Check open issues, update priorities, pull sprint summaries
Notion — For databases and pages that Claude's connector doesn't cover well — navigate to specific pages, fill in table properties, extract data from a database view
Research and data collection
Google — Search a list of companies or people you provide, open the top results, pull specific information from each page into a spreadsheet
LinkedIn — Visit a list of profiles, pull job titles, companies, and locations into a doc. Useful for list enrichment when you don't want to pay for a tool
Crunchbase — Navigate company pages, pull funding rounds, team size, investors, founding year into a research doc
G2 / Capterra — Pull reviews for competitor products, summarize the most common complaints, export ratings across categories
Amazon — Check pricing for a list of products, monitor if a product goes in or out of stock, pull review counts and ratings
Zillow / Redfin — Navigate to a search with your filters, pull property listings including price, square footage, and days on market into a spreadsheet
Government websites — Pull public records, download forms, check filing statuses, navigate permit portals that have no API
SEC EDGAR — Navigate to company filings, download specific documents, pull financial figures from 10-Ks
Court records websites — Check case statuses, download public documents, navigate filing systems
Patent databases — Search by keyword or company, pull patent numbers and titles into a research doc
Real estate and property management
AppFolio — Pull rent collection status, check maintenance requests, download owner statements
Buildium — Same — navigate the portal, pull reports, check tenant balances
Rent Manager — Generate and download reports, check lease expiration dates, flag units that are coming up for renewal
Costar / LoopNet — Search by market and property type, pull listings into a comparison sheet
MLS portals — Navigate to saved searches, pull new listings that match your criteria, export details to a spreadsheet
Airbnb host dashboard — Pull booking history, check payout amounts, flag upcoming reservations
VRBO — Same — check reservation details, pull revenue by month, export guest contact info for follow-ups
Local county assessor websites — Look up property tax records, pull assessed values for a list of addresses
Permit portals — Check permit statuses, download approved documents, navigate city planning websites
Marketing and content
Google Ads — Navigate campaigns, pull performance data for a date range, check which keywords are over budget, flag underperforming ads
Meta Ads Manager — Pull campaign results, check spend by ad set, download reports that don't export cleanly to other tools
LinkedIn Campaign Manager — Same — pull impressions, clicks, and lead gen form results by campaign
SEMrush / Ahrefs — Navigate to specific reports, pull keyword rankings, export backlink data for domains you specify
Moz — Check domain authority for a list of sites, pull ranking data, navigate to specific site audits
Screaming Frog — Open the app on your desktop, run a crawl on a URL you specify, pull the results into a sheet
Mailchimp — For accounts not connected directly — pull open rates by campaign, check unsubscribe counts, export audience segments
Klaviyo — Same — pull flow performance, check revenue by email, export lists
Buffer / Hootsuite — Schedule posts by navigating the interface and inputting content from a doc you've prepared
WordPress — Navigate the admin panel, update post statuses, edit specific pages, check which plugins need updates
HR and recruiting
Greenhouse — Navigate job listings, pull applicant counts by stage, update candidate statuses
Lever — Same — check pipeline by role, pull notes on specific candidates, update hiring stages
Workable — Pull applicant details, check interview schedules, update job statuses
Indeed employer portal — Check application counts, pull candidate names and contact info, update job posting details
LinkedIn Recruiter — Search by criteria, open profiles, compile a shortlist into a doc
BambooHR — Pull employee records, check PTO balances, navigate the org chart
Rippling — Navigate HR and payroll sections, pull reports, check employee onboarding statuses
Lattice / Culture Amp — Pull review cycle statuses, check which employees haven't completed surveys, export results
Legal and compliance
Clio — Pull matter statuses, check billing hours, navigate client files
MyCase — Same — update case notes, pull outstanding invoices, check upcoming deadlines
PACER — Navigate federal court records, pull docket entries, download documents for cases you're tracking
USPTO — Search trademark and patent filings, check application statuses, download documents
State licensing portals — Check license renewal dates, navigate renewal applications, download certificates
Secretary of State websites — Pull business registration details for a list of companies, check registered agent info, download filings
OSHA / compliance portals — Check inspection records, pull violation histories for specific facilities
Healthcare and medical practices
Practice Fusion / DrChrono — Navigate patient scheduling, pull appointment counts by day, check no-show rates
Kareo — Pull billing reports, check claim statuses, navigate the revenue cycle dashboard
Zocdoc provider portal — Check appointment requests, update availability, pull booking summaries
Insurance portals — Navigate to eligibility checks, pull claim statuses, download EOBs
CMS portals — Navigate to specific reporting sections, check program statuses, download compliance documents
Personal productivity and life admin
Your bank's website — Log in, download statements for a date range, pull transaction histories and paste them into a spreadsheet for budgeting
Credit card portals — Check balances, download statements, pull reward point totals across cards you're logged into
Insurance company portals — Download policy documents, check coverage details, pull claim statuses
DMV / government services — Navigate renewal forms, check appointment availability, fill out applications for services that don't have a clean online flow
Utility company websites — Check billing history, download statements, update payment methods by navigating the account portal
Travel booking sites — Search for flights with specific criteria across Kayak, Google Flights, or Expedia, pull options into a comparison doc
Amazon — Reorder specific products on a schedule, check order statuses, pull order history for a time range
Healthcare patient portals — Check appointment dates, pull lab results, navigate to specific sections of your health record
How to write recurring task prompts
For daily tasks: "Every morning at 8am, open Gmail, find emails from the last 12 hours marked as unread from senders not in my contacts, and add a one-line summary of each to my Apple Notes under today's date."
For weekly tasks: "Every Friday at 4pm, open QuickBooks, pull all invoices that are more than 30 days past due, and paste the client name, amount, and due date into a new row in my tracking spreadsheet on Google Sheets."
For monthly tasks: "On the first of every month, log into my bank portal, download the previous month's statement as a PDF, and save it to my Desktop in a folder called Monthly Statements."
Things to keep in mind
Claude asks before acting. It's not going to open apps and start clicking around without your permission at key steps.
Start with one task and see how it goes. Don't try to automate a 15-step workflow on day one. Pick one repetitive thing you do every week, write a clear prompt for it, and let Claude run it. Then add more once you've seen how it handles your setup.
Logging into accounts still requires you. Claude can navigate sites you're already logged into. It doesn't handle passwords or two-factor authentication on your behalf — you handle the login, then hand it off.
It works best on tasks with a predictable structure. If you're doing something where the steps are the same every time, Claude will handle it well. If the task requires a lot of judgment calls or changes every time, you'll need to be more involved.
This is still a research preview. It's going to get better fast. The things that feel a little rough right now will be significantly smoother within a few months.
You just read the full playbook. Most people will close this tab and never implement it. The ones who do usually hit a wall around the technical setup and quit.
Inside the Skool, I walk you through the exact build step-by-step, troubleshoot your setup live in the community, and share the scripts and templates I use to actually land paying clients.
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