Your Dispatch Guide

How to use Claude Dispatch to get work done while you're away from your desk

The setup, the tips, and the kind of tasks that actually work. So you can hand the busywork to Claude and come back to it finished.

Available on Claude Pro & Max plans · Still a research preview

What it actually is

Send a task from your phone. Come back to finished work.

Dispatch lets you fire off a task from the Claude app on your phone to Claude running on your desktop at home. Claude works through it using your actual files, your connected apps (Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, Calendar) and any tools you've set up, then leaves the finished result waiting for you.

Before this, you had to sit at your desk and watch it work. Now you can send the task from the school pickup line, the cafe, the couch, and your desktop quietly handles it in the background. You're no longer the one doing every small thing yourself.

Setup · under two minutes

Getting it running

1

Update both apps

Make sure your Claude desktop app and the Claude app on your phone are both on the latest version, and both signed into the same account.

2

Open Cowork on desktop

Go to the Cowork tab in the Claude desktop app. You'll see a Dispatch option. Click it and a QR code will appear.

3

Scan from your phone

Open Claude on your phone, tap Dispatch, and scan the QR code on your screen. That's the connection done.

4

Keep your desktop awake

Your computer needs to stay on with the Claude desktop app open. Adjust your sleep settings so it doesn't shut down halfway through a task.

One thing to note

No API keys. No terminal. No config files. It really is a QR code scan and you're in.

Getting the most from it

Six tips that make a real difference

01

Be specific about where your files live

Claude is working on your real desktop, so point it to your actual folders and file names. The more specific you are, the faster it finds what it needs.

Try this"In my Documents/Client Work folder, find the proposal for the Henderson job and pull out the scope and timeline as bullet points."

02

Connect your apps before you need them

Dispatch uses whatever you've already connected in Cowork (Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, Calendar). Set those up on your desktop first, and grant folder access to the directories you use most. Then Claude won't pause waiting on permissions while you're out.

03

Start with "trigger and walk away" tasks

It's best for jobs that take more than a few minutes but don't need you watching. Compiling a report, summarising a week of emails, tidying files, building a doc from things you already have. If it's twenty minutes of busywork at your desk, it's a Dispatch task.

Try this"Search my Gmail and Slack for everything from Rach this week, then draft a short briefing on the open action items."

04

Use it for prep on the go

One of the best real uses. You've got a call in twenty minutes. Send a task from your phone to pull the relevant emails, summarise the context and draft an agenda. By the time you sit down, it's ready.

Try this"Go through the emails from the retreat enquiry thread this week. Summarise what's still open, what's decided, and draft a 5-point agenda for my 2pm call."

05

Ask for the file in your message

If the task makes something (a report, a spreadsheet, a doc), tell Claude to show you the file in the Dispatch chat. Otherwise you'll come back and have to hunt for it. Be clear about what you want delivered and where.

Try this"Pull last month's expenses from my Google Drive spreadsheet, sort them by category, and make a summary PDF. Save it to my desktop and send it to me here in the chat."

06

Keep your prompts short from your phone

You're typing on a small screen, so keep it simple. Dispatch runs one continuous thread, so Claude already has the context from earlier. Once you've given it a bigger task, you can follow up with a one-liner like "now export that to CSV" or "run the same thing for April."

Before you go

A few honest things to know

Your desktop has to stay awake with the Claude app open. If it goes to sleep, Claude pauses mid-task.
It's one continuous conversation thread for now. No branching or multiple threads yet.
There are no push notifications when a task finishes, so you'll need to check back in yourself.
It's still a research preview. Complex tasks work some of the time, so start simple and build up as you trust it.
Claude can read, move and delete files, so check the permissions you've granted before you send anything sensitive.

If this is your kind of thing

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Practical AI and simple systems for women in business, taught in plain English with none of the tech overwhelm. If you want help setting this up properly and building the workflows that actually save you time, come and join us.

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