Claude Cowork + Ask Sage Quickstart

A beginner-friendly walkthrough to point Claude Desktop at Ask Sage for inference, layer on the Anthropic knowledge-work plugin suite, and connect a local GitHub MCP server. About 20 minutes end-to-end.

What you'll end up with

Claude Desktop running in Cowork 3P mode, with all inference flowing through your organization's Ask Sage tenant.
The six Claude models (Opus 4.7/4.6/4.5, Sonnet 4.6/4.5, Haiku 4.5) available in the model picker.
All 11 Anthropic knowledge-work plugins installed — productivity, sales, customer-support, product-management, marketing, legal, finance, data, enterprise-search, bio-research, and cowork-plugin-management.
A local GitHub MCP server attached to Cowork so Claude can read/write issues, PRs, and repo contents on your behalf.
If your tenant blocks outbound network egress (most hardened enterprise Cowork tenants do), you can sideload the plugin suite from a local folder instead of the hosted marketplace. See Part 3.

Before you start

Claude Desktop (Cowork) installed from claude.com/download
Your Ask Sage API key (a long string of letters and numbers)
A GitHub Personal Access Token if you plan to do Part 4 (fine-grained or classic PAT)

Part 1 — Ask Sage inference setup

Step 1 — Install and open Claude Desktop

Download and install Claude Desktop.
Launch it. If a sign-in screen appears, don't sign in yet — just leave it open.

Step 2 — Turn on Developer Mode

In the top menu, click Help → Troubleshooting → Enable Developer Mode.
The app acknowledges the change. You may need to restart it.

Step 3 — Find your config file

Cowork 3P on Windows ships as two different distributions. They store their config in different places. This trips up almost every first-time user. Read this step carefully.

Install	Config path
Microsoft Store (most Windows 11 users)	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_<suffix>\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude-3p\claude_desktop_config.json`
Direct download (MSI/EXE from claude.com)	`%APPDATA%\Claude-3p\claude_desktop_config.json`
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/Claude-3p/claude_desktop_config.json`
Linux	`~/.config/Claude-3p/claude_desktop_config.json`

The folder is Claude-3p, not Claude. Regular Claude Desktop (the one that lives at %APPDATA%\Claude) is a different product — editing that folder will not affect Cowork.

Easiest way to find yours on Windows: run the bundled helper from this repo:

.\scripts\find-cowork-config.ps1

It inspects the running Claude process (reads its --user-data-dir argument) and falls back to a filesystem probe of both locations. It prints the resolved directory — one line, so you can pipe it.

The UI-driven way: in Claude Desktop open Settings → Developer → Local MCP servers → Edit Config. Cowork opens the right file in your default editor regardless of which install flavor you have.

Step 4 — Replace the config contents

Option A — helper script (Windows, recommended). The script prompts for your Ask Sage key as a SecureString (input is masked and plaintext never touches a shell variable or log file), renders the template, and writes a UTF-8-no-BOM config to the correct Cowork-3p path. It also runs a 10-check validation pass.

.\scripts\deploy-config.ps1

Option B — manual. Open the config file from Step 3, replace its entire contents with the text of claude_desktop_config.json from this repo, then replace PASTE_YOUR_ASKSAGE_KEY_HERE with your Ask Sage API key (keep the quotes). Save as UTF-8 without BOM.

v1.3 change: the deploymentOrganizationUuid field was removed. It's not required for individual 3P gateway setups, and leaving it blank or wrong caused silent provisioning failures for some users.

Step 5 — Restart Claude Desktop

Fully quit Claude Desktop and reopen it. It must be a complete quit, not just closing the window:

Windows: right-click the Claude icon in the system tray → Quit.
Mac: Cmd+Q, or right-click in the Dock → Quit.

When it relaunches, it should go straight into Cowork mode (no sign-in screen).

Step 6 — Test it

Start a new chat.
Open the model picker at the top. You should see the six Claude models from the config.
Pick one (Sonnet 4.5 is a good default) and send a test message like "hello".
If you get a response, the inference side is working.

Part 2 — Install the knowledge-work plugin suite

Anthropic maintains an open-source marketplace of 11 role-specific plugins at github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins. Each plugin bundles skills, slash commands, sub-agents, and MCP connectors for a specific job function.

Pick the path that matches your comfort level. Both paths install the same plugins.

Path A — In-app one-click (Cowork, easiest)

With Claude Desktop running in Cowork mode, open a browser and go to claude.com/plugins.
Filter by the Cowork tag.
Click Install on each plugin you want. Claude Desktop will prompt you to accept — click through.
Repeat for each of the 11 plugins listed in plugins.md.

Each install takes a few seconds. When you're done, plugins activate automatically — skills fire when relevant, and slash commands become available (e.g., /sales:call-prep, /data:write-query).

Path B — Claude Code CLI (fastest for all 11 at once)

Blocked by "Network access to github.com is blocked by egress settings"? Skip this path — use Part 3 instead.

If you also have Claude Code installed, you can bulk-install with a single script.

Windows (PowerShell):

.\scripts\install-plugins.ps1

Mac/Linux (bash):

./scripts/install-plugins.sh

Both scripts:

Add the anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins marketplace.
Install all 11 plugins from it.
Print a summary of what got installed.

Plugins installed via the CLI are visible and usable from within Cowork as well — they share the same local plugin store.

Verify plugins are active

In any Cowork chat, type / to open the slash-command menu.
You should see commands namespaced per plugin — for example /sales:..., /finance:..., /data:....
Try /productivity:... — if the productivity commands appear, plugins are wired up correctly.

For the full plugin list and what each one does, see plugins.md.

Part 3 — Offline sideload (when egress is blocked)

Use this path when Path A or Path B fails with:

Network access to "github.com" is blocked by egress settings.

Hardened Cowork tenants default-deny all outbound destinations except an allowlist — the hosted marketplace flow needs to git clone github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins, so it fails at the Sync step. The fix is to download the repo on a machine that can reach GitHub, drop the folder onto the target workstation, and register it with Cowork as a local marketplace. Cowork reads local folders through the normal filesystem — egress policy doesn't apply.

What this covers (and what it doesn't)

The upstream marketplace now lists roughly 40 plugins. They fall into two groups:

Bundled in the repo (about 20, including all 11 on our recommended list) — source: "./<folder>". These install fully offline from a local sideload. ✅
Partner-built, hosted elsewhere (the rest) — source: "url" pointing at other GitHub repos like planetscale/claude-plugin, intercom/claude-plugin-external, etc. These still require outbound GitHub access at install time. If your tenant's egress policy blocks github.com, these plugins cannot be installed via sideload — you either allowlist github.com (see troubleshooting section in plugins.md) or skip them.

The recommended 11-plugin knowledge-work set is entirely in the bundled group, so this sideload gets you everything that matters for the quickstart.

Step 1 — Download the repo archive (on an unrestricted machine)

On any machine with internet access to github.com (your laptop at home, a bastion host, etc.):

Open github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins.
Click the green Code button → Download ZIP. You'll get knowledge-work-plugins-main.zip (a few MB).
Transfer the ZIP to the target workstation via your org's approved file-transfer method (OneDrive, USB per policy, SCCM package, etc.).

Alternatively, on any machine with git installed and egress to GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins.git
# then zip and transfer the resulting folder

Step 2 — Extract into the org-plugins folder (Windows)

On the target workstation, open PowerShell as Administrator (required because C:\Program Files is protected):

# Create the destination
$dest = "C:\Program Files\Claude\org-plugins"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $dest -Force | Out-Null

# Extract the ZIP you transferred (adjust source path as needed)
$zip = "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\knowledge-work-plugins-main.zip"
Expand-Archive -Path $zip -DestinationPath $dest -Force

# The ZIP extracts to a nested folder — flatten it so .claude-plugin sits at the root of org-plugins
Move-Item -Path "$dest\knowledge-work-plugins-main\*" -Destination $dest -Force
Remove-Item -Path "$dest\knowledge-work-plugins-main" -Recurse -Force

# Sanity check — you should see a .claude-plugin folder and per-plugin folders (sales, finance, data, etc.)
Get-ChildItem $dest | Select-Object Name

Your final layout should look like:

C:\Program Files\Claude\org-plugins\
├── .claude-plugin\
│   └── marketplace.json        ← Cowork reads this
├── bio-research\
├── cowork-plugin-management\
├── customer-support\
├── data\
├── enterprise-search\
├── finance\
├── legal\
├── marketing\
├── product-management\
├── productivity\
├── sales\
├── partner-built\             ← url-sourced plugins live here but still need egress
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

macOS/Linux equivalent:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/claude/org-plugins
sudo unzip ~/Downloads/knowledge-work-plugins-main.zip -d /opt/claude/org-plugins
sudo mv /opt/claude/org-plugins/knowledge-work-plugins-main/* /opt/claude/org-plugins/
sudo rmdir /opt/claude/org-plugins/knowledge-work-plugins-main

Step 3 — Fully quit and relaunch Claude Desktop

As before, quit from the system tray (Windows) or Dock (macOS) — closing the window isn't enough. Cowork reads plugin configuration on startup.

Step 4 — Register the local marketplace

In Cowork, open Settings (or the app menu) → Customizations → Plugins.
Click Browse plugins (or Add marketplace).
In the URL field, paste the local filesystem path, not a GitHub slug:
- Windows: C:\Program Files\Claude\org-plugins
- macOS/Linux: /opt/claude/org-plugins
Click Sync.

Cowork reads .claude-plugin\marketplace.json directly from disk. The red egress banner won't appear for this path — no network call is made.

If the dialog rejects the absolute path, try adding the marketplace via Claude Code CLI instead (it shares the same plugin store with Cowork):

claude plugin marketplace add "C:\Program Files\Claude\org-plugins"

Step 5 — Install the plugins

Still in Customizations → Plugins, the knowledge-work-plugins marketplace now appears in your list.
Click into it — you'll see every plugin in marketplace.json.
Click Install on each plugin you want (the recommended 11 are listed in plugins.md).
Bundled plugins (./folder sources) install instantly — no network involved.
Partner-built plugins (url sources) will try to clone their upstream repo; those will fail with the same egress error unless github.com is allowlisted. Skip them if you can't allowlist.

Bulk-install via CLI (optional):

$plugins = @(
  "cowork-plugin-management", "productivity", "enterprise-search",
  "sales", "customer-support", "product-management", "marketing",
  "legal", "finance", "data", "bio-research"
)
foreach ($p in $plugins) {
  claude plugin install "$p@knowledge-work-plugins"
}

Step 6 — Verify

Start a new Cowork chat. Type / — you should see commands namespaced per plugin (/sales:..., /finance:..., /data:...). If they appear, the sideload worked.

Keeping sideloaded plugins updated

When Anthropic updates the upstream repo, repeat Step 1 on the unrestricted machine, transfer the new ZIP, and re-run Step 2 (Expand-Archive -Force overwrites). Then in Cowork Customizations → Plugins, click the ⋯ menu on the marketplace and choose Check for updates.

For a scripted one-shot sideload, see scripts/sideload-plugins.ps1.

Part 4 — Connect a local GitHub MCP server

Once inference is live and plugins are installed, you can give Claude Cowork direct read/write access to GitHub (issues, PRs, repo contents, code search) via a Local MCP server.

Why the GitHub-official Go binary (not the npm one)

@modelcontextprotocol/server-github (npm) is deprecated. The first time Cowork launches it, npx -y downloads ~150 MB of Node modules, which blows past Cowork's 60-second MCP initialize handshake and times out.
GitHub now publishes an official, self-contained Go binary — github/github-mcp-server. No Node, no dependencies, ~7 MB zip, sub-second startup. This is what you want.

Step 1 — Create a GitHub Personal Access Token

Go to github.com/settings/tokens (classic) or settings/personal-access-tokens (fine-grained).
Grant the scopes that match what you want Claude to do. Common starters:
- Classic: repo, read:org, read:user, workflow if you want Actions reads.
- Fine-grained: pick the repos you want reachable, then grant Contents/Issues/Pull requests read or write.
Copy the token — you'll paste it in the next step. GitHub only shows it once.

Step 2 — Install the binary and update your config

Windows (recommended — helper script):

.\scripts\install-github-mcp.ps1

The script:

Downloads the latest github-mcp-server release for Windows x64 to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\github-mcp-server\.
Extracts github-mcp-server.exe and smoke-tests --help.
Prompts for your PAT as a SecureString (input is masked).
Finds your active Cowork config via find-cowork-config.ps1.
Injects (or replaces) an mcpServers.github block under the top-level mcpServers key.
Writes the config as UTF-8 without BOM and scrubs the PAT from memory.

Pin a specific version with -Version v1.0.2. Skip the config rewrite (download only) with -SkipConfigUpdate.

macOS/Linux (manual):

# Pick the right asset for your arch: Darwin_arm64, Darwin_x86_64, Linux_x86_64, etc.
VER="v1.0.2"
curl -L -o /tmp/gh-mcp.tar.gz \
  "https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server/releases/download/${VER}/github-mcp-server_$(uname -s)_$(uname -m).tar.gz"
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/share/github-mcp-server"
tar -xzf /tmp/gh-mcp.tar.gz -C "$HOME/.local/share/github-mcp-server"

# Edit the Cowork 3P config at the path for your OS (see Step 1 of Part 1),
# and add this block at the TOP LEVEL — NOT nested under enterpriseConfig:

{
  "deploymentMode": "3p",
  "enterpriseConfig": { "...unchanged...": true },
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "/Users/you/.local/share/github-mcp-server/github-mcp-server",
      "args": ["stdio"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 3 — Restart and verify

Fully quit Claude Desktop (system tray → Quit on Windows; Cmd+Q on macOS).
Relaunch. Open Settings → Developer → Local MCP servers. You should see github listed with a green/connected indicator.
In a new chat, ask: "List my 5 most recently updated GitHub repos." Claude should call the github MCP tool and return real repo names.

Step 4 — Tool permissions (stop the approval prompts)

Out of the box, Cowork prompts you to approve every tool call. For a server like github with 23 read-only tools (get commit, get file contents, list branches, get release, etc.), that turns into a wall of prompts during normal use. The fix is a one-time category toggle.

Where this setting lives: not in claude_desktop_config.json. Cowork stores per-tool approval preferences in its own settings database, keyed per MCP server. You change it in the UI, not the JSON. (Some other MCP clients support an autoApprove array in the server config — Cowork does not. Don't add that field; it's silently ignored.)

Set auto-approval for reads:

Open Settings → Developer → Local MCP servers.
Click the github entry to expand its tool list.
Find the Read-only tools (23) group header.
On the right side of that header, click the dropdown (it defaults to Needs approval) and select Always allow.

That single toggle flips every read tool to auto-approve at once. Write tools stay on Needs approval — which is what you want, so commits, PR merges, release publishes, and issue edits still prompt before running.

Recommended baseline for the GitHub server:

Category	Setting	Why
Read-only tools	Always allow	Silent reads for `get_commit`, `get_file_contents`, `list_`, `search_`, etc. No prompt fatigue.
Write tools	Needs approval	Still ask before `create_pull_request`, `merge_pull_request`, `create_release`, `delete_*`, commit pushes.
Destructive tools (if the category exists)	Never allow	Opt-in only. Re-enable case-by-case for a specific workflow.

Belt-and-suspenders option: if you want to also hide write tools at the protocol level so the model can't call them even when they'd prompt, set GITHUB_READ_ONLY=1 in the env block of the github server. This is a server-side flag honored by github-mcp-server — the write tools never show up in the tool list at all. Useful when teammates share a workstation or when you're still feeling out what the agent does with repo access.

"env": {
  "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_...",
  "GITHUB_READ_ONLY": "1"
}

Scope the toolset with GITHUB_TOOLSETS (comma-separated: repos, issues, pull_requests, code_security, experiments, all) if you want to expose, say, only repos,issues and hide the rest.

Appendix — Managed vs Local MCP servers

Cowork has two MCP configuration keys. They look similar, but one of them only works for org admins with signed policy.

Layer	Config key	Who controls it	Use it when
Local MCP servers (end-user)	top-level `mcpServers`	You, on your own machine	You want to add a personal MCP server (GitHub, Notion, filesystem, etc.) — this is what Part 4 uses.
Managed MCP servers (admin-only)	`enterpriseConfig.managedMcpServers`	Org admin via MDM / signed configuration	Your org IT wants to fleet-deploy a remote MCP server to every user. Cowork silently ignores this key when it's written by an end user — it only activates when delivered through a signed enterprise channel. The Managed panel in Settings shows a 🔒 icon when you don't have the policy signature.

Symptom to remember: if you add a server to enterpriseConfig.managedMcpServers, restart Claude, and the Local MCP servers panel shows "No servers added" while the Managed panel shows the lock icon — you're not an admin; move the block to top-level mcpServers.

If something goes wrong

Inference setup

Problem	Most likely fix
App shows the normal sign-in screen	The config file didn't save or has a typo. Reopen it via Settings → Developer → Edit Config, check for missing quotes or commas.
"My edits keep disappearing after restart"	You edited `%APPDATA%\Claude-3p` but you have the Microsoft Store build, which lives under `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_<suffix>\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude-3p`. Run `.\scripts\find-cowork-config.ps1` to confirm the right path.
Model picker is empty	The base URL is wrong, or your key doesn't have access. Double-check the URL is exactly `https://api.asksage.ai/server/anthropic` with no trailing slash.
"Unauthorized" or "401" error	The API key is wrong, missing, or has extra spaces. Paste it again carefully — or re-run `.\scripts\deploy-config.ps1` to redeploy with a fresh SecureString prompt.
"Model not found" error	That model isn't enabled on your Ask Sage tenant. Remove it from the `inferenceModels` list and try another.
Changes aren't taking effect	You didn't fully quit before reopening. Quit from the system tray / Dock, not just the window.

Plugins

Problem	Most likely fix
`claude.com/plugins` install button does nothing	Desktop app isn't registered as the `claude://` handler. Quit fully, reopen Cowork, try again.
CLI install reports "marketplace not found"	Run `claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins` once, then retry the installs.
Slash commands don't appear after install	Restart the Cowork chat session (new conversation). Plugins load on session start.
Plugin's MCP connectors don't work	Expected — you need to authenticate each external tool (Slack, Notion, etc.) separately. See the plugin's README in the upstream repo.
"Network access to github.com is blocked by egress settings" on Sync	Your Cowork tenant's egress allowlist blocks GitHub. Either ask your Owner/Admin to add github.com (Settings → Capabilities → Network egress → Package managers only), or use the offline sideload in Part 3.
Sideload: "No marketplace found at path"	The `.claude-plugin\marketplace.json` file isn't at the root of your org-plugins folder. You probably skipped the `Move-Item` step that flattens the extracted ZIP. Re-run Step 2.
Sideload: partner plugins still fail	Expected — plugins with `url` sources in marketplace.json still need outbound GitHub access. Either allowlist github.com or skip those plugins; the 11 recommended ones are all bundled locally.

GitHub MCP (Part 4)

Problem	Most likely fix
Local MCP servers panel shows "No servers added" after restart	You put the GitHub block under `enterpriseConfig.managedMcpServers` instead of top-level `mcpServers`. Only the top-level key takes effect for end users. Move the block.
Claude prompts for approval on every single read (get file, get commit, list branches…)	You didn't set the read-only category to Always allow. See Part 4 Step 4 — flip Settings → Developer → Local MCP servers → github → Read-only tools (23) from Needs approval to Always allow. One-time, per server.
"Permission set by your admin" / dropdown is greyed out	You're looking at the wrong page. The [Connectors] section treats servers as org-managed and locks per-tool toggles. Your script-installed server lives under Settings → Developer → Local MCP servers — the toggles there are user-editable. Uninstall the greyed-out Connectors entry if it's creating confusion.
Managed MCP servers panel is locked (🔒)	Expected for non-admins. See the appendix in Part 4 — this panel only activates under signed MDM policy.
`initialize` handshake times out after 60s	You're running the deprecated npm `@modelcontextprotocol/server-github` via `npx -y`. Switch to the Go binary (Part 4 Step 2).
"401 Unauthorized" from github-mcp-server	Bad or expired PAT. Regenerate it on GitHub and re-run `.\scripts\install-github-mcp.ps1`.
`github-mcp-server.exe` not found on PATH	The binary lives at `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\github-mcp-server\github-mcp-server.exe` and is referenced by absolute path in the config — PATH doesn't matter. If the file is missing, re-run the installer.

Keep your secrets safe

Treat your Ask Sage API key and GitHub PAT like passwords. Don't commit the config file to Git, don't email it.
The deploy and install scripts in this repo prompt with Read-Host -AsSecureString, keep the plaintext only in an unmanaged BSTR for the duration of one write call, and scrub it with ZeroFreeBSTR. Use them over hand-editing whenever practical.
If you think a secret has been exposed: rotate the Ask Sage key in the Ask Sage console, revoke the GitHub PAT at github.com/settings/tokens, and re-run the deploy scripts to load fresh ones.

Pin a known-good version

This repo uses semantic version tags. To pin your team to a tested baseline, reference a release tag instead of main:

Latest: releases/latest
Tag-specific: releases/tag/v1.3

See CHANGELOG.md for what's changed between versions.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 14 Commits
scripts		scripts
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
README.md		README.md
claude-cowork-asksage-quickstart-v1.2.pdf		claude-cowork-asksage-quickstart-v1.2.pdf
claude-cowork-asksage-quickstart-v1.3.1.pdf		claude-cowork-asksage-quickstart-v1.3.1.pdf
claude-cowork-asksage-quickstart-v1.3.pdf		claude-cowork-asksage-quickstart-v1.3.pdf
claude_desktop_config.json		claude_desktop_config.json
plugins.md		plugins.md

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Claude Cowork + Ask Sage Quickstart

What you'll end up with

Before you start

Part 1 — Ask Sage inference setup

Step 1 — Install and open Claude Desktop

Step 2 — Turn on Developer Mode

Step 3 — Find your config file

Step 4 — Replace the config contents

Step 5 — Restart Claude Desktop

Step 6 — Test it

Part 2 — Install the knowledge-work plugin suite

Path A — In-app one-click (Cowork, easiest)

Path B — Claude Code CLI (fastest for all 11 at once)

Verify plugins are active

Part 3 — Offline sideload (when egress is blocked)

What this covers (and what it doesn't)

Step 1 — Download the repo archive (on an unrestricted machine)

Step 2 — Extract into the org-plugins folder (Windows)

Step 3 — Fully quit and relaunch Claude Desktop

Step 4 — Register the local marketplace

Step 5 — Install the plugins

Step 6 — Verify

Keeping sideloaded plugins updated

Part 4 — Connect a local GitHub MCP server

Why the GitHub-official Go binary (not the npm one)

Step 1 — Create a GitHub Personal Access Token

Step 2 — Install the binary and update your config

Step 3 — Restart and verify

Step 4 — Tool permissions (stop the approval prompts)

Appendix — Managed vs Local MCP servers

If something goes wrong

Inference setup

Plugins

GitHub MCP (Part 4)

Keep your secrets safe

Pin a known-good version

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