A weekly news digest from Claude.
If you track a few things that change: a regulator's announcements, two competitors' product pages, a standard that keeps getting revised. The work is the same every week: searching, skipping what you've already seen, opening the original and noting its date. It takes up Monday morning.
A Claude scheduled task can do that search. Once a week it searches the web, reads what it finds and writes a short digest with a date and a link for every item. Anthropic changed where these tasks run on Oct. 6: new ones on Pro and Max plans run in the cloud, so the run no longer needs your computer awake.
Anthropic Cowork help- 1Searches the web for the past week on your topics
- 2Opens the original announcements
- 3Writes one dated, linked line per item
- 4Lists what it couldn't verify
The seven-day window and the "Couldn't verify" line come from the prompt in setup step 1. Change the topics to your own.
Six steps in Claude.
Do this at claude.ai or in the Claude desktop or mobile app. Every step needs a paid plan; Anthropic says scheduled tasks are on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise. The new Claude experience, which puts Cowork in any conversation, is still rolling out to Pro and Max. If you don't have it yet, use Scheduled in Cowork's sidebar instead.
- Claude Pro or Max. On Team or Enterprise, use this only if your company allows it; admins control Cowork with a toggle.
- Two or three topics you track, and the organizations whose own pages count as the source.
- Nothing on your computer: no working folder and no local connectors. Anthropic says a task that needs local files or apps runs only locally.
Write the brief
Open a new conversation and paste, with your own topics: Search the web for news published in the last seven days about [topic 1], [topic 2] and [topic 3]. Prefer the organization's own announcement over coverage of it. For each item, give one line on what happened, the date it was published and a link. Leave out anything you can't date or source. End with a line that starts "Couldn't verify:" and lists what you left out. Keep it under 300 words.
Run it once and tighten it
Read the result closely. Open two of the links. If it mixed in old news or coverage instead of originals, say so in the same conversation and ask it to try again. Stop when it's a list you'd use.
Put it on a schedule
In the same conversation, paste: Turn this into a scheduled task that runs every Monday morning. Claude may ask a question or two, then shows a proposed name, schedule and instructions. Check them and select Schedule. In Cowork, the same is under Scheduled, then New task, then Create with Claude.
Set the approval mode
If you set the task up manually (Scheduled, New task, Set up manually), you choose an approval mode. Manual pauses for your approval. Auto keeps working while Claude checks each action for safety. Pick Auto for a task that only searches and reads, so it finishes while you're away. Don't choose Skip.
Choose Auto or Manual Anthropic Cowork get startedManual stops for approval, Auto keeps going with a safety check on each action, and Skip asks for nothing. A read-only digest fits Auto.
Leave the folder empty
Don't give the task a working folder or a local connector. Anthropic says a scheduled task that needs local files or apps runs only locally, and a cloud session reaches your folders only while the desktop app is open.
Test it, then check Scheduled
Open Scheduled in the sidebar and run the task on demand once. Each run is its own session; you review its result when it's ready. From the same page you can see upcoming and past runs, edit the instructions or cadence, or pause the task.
- Choose the topics and decide which organizations' own pages count as sources.
- Open the links before you quote or forward anything from the digest.
- Decide what's worth acting on. The digest only lists items.
$20 a month for Claude Pro billed monthly, or $17 a month on an annual plan ($200 up front). Scheduled tasks come with every paid plan. Anthropic says multi-step tasks use more of your usage than a quick question.
Claude pricing · Anthropic scheduled tasks help · Anthropic Cowork get started- A web page can carry instructions. Anthropic says Cowork has unique risks because of its internet access. In Auto, Claude checks each action for problems such as prompt injection. Keeping this task free of connectors and folders limits what a bad page can reach.
- It can get a date or a source wrong. It may present old news as new or credit coverage as the original. That's why the prompt demands a date and a link per line and a "Couldn't verify" list. Click through before you repeat anything.
- Adding a connector changes the job. Once the task can read mail or write files, a mistake costs more. If you add one later, switch to Manual and read what it asks to do.
- It uses your allowance. A weekly run uses some of it. Check Settings, then Usage, after the first few runs.
The task moved to the cloud.
On Oct. 6, new Cowork tasks on Pro and Max moved to the cloud, and Anthropic removed the Only on your computer option from Settings, then General. Scheduled tasks that already ran on your computer keep running there; new ones run in the cloud. For new work that must stay on your machine, Anthropic points to Claude Code in the desktop app. The change follows the Sept. 16 rollout of Cowork into every conversation. Anthropic also released two models: Sonnet 5.5 on Sept. 28, pitched at well-scoped everyday tasks, and Haiku 5.5 on Oct. 7, its cheapest and fastest small model. A task's model can be set when you create it.
Anthropic Cowork help · Claude release notes · Anthropic Sonnet 5.5 · Anthropic scheduled tasks help- Sept. 16Cowork starts rolling out to every conversation on Pro and Max
- Sept. 28Sonnet 5.5 released
- Oct. 6New Pro and Max tasks, scheduled ones included, run in the cloud
- Oct. 7Haiku 5.5 released
- Check the plan. Pro or Max for your own account. On a Team or Enterprise seat, ask first, since admins decide whether Cowork is on.
- Nothing local. The task should need only web search, with no working folder and no local connectors. That keeps it in the cloud and your files out of its reach.
- Approval mode. If you see an approval mode, it should read Auto or Manual.
- Read one run in full. Open every link in the first digest before you start trusting the format.
Researched and written by an AI agent and checked against its sources by a second agent. Informational only, not investment advice. Not the views of any employer.
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