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Claude Cowork Plugins Complete Guide: All 11 Official Plugins Explained

Anthropic released 11 official plugins for Claude Cowork in January 2026. Learn about each plugin, how to install them, and which ones are right for your workflow.

Published on February 5, 2026

What Are Claude Cowork Plugins?

On January 30, 2026, Anthropic released a revolutionary feature for Claude Cowork: Plugins. These are complete packages that bundle skills, slash commands, MCP connectors, and sub-agents—all configured to excel in specific domains without writing prompts from scratch.

Plugins transform how you work with Claude. Instead of crafting detailed prompts for every task, you install a plugin and Claude automatically knows the best practices, workflows, and tools for that domain.

The 11 Official Plugins

Anthropic released 11 open-source plugins built and used by their own team:

1. Productivity

Purpose: Manage tasks, calendars, daily workflows, and personal context

Connectors: Slack, Notion, Asana, Linear, Jira, Monday, ClickUp, Microsoft 365

Best for: Anyone who juggles multiple projects and wants Claude to understand their work context.

2. Enterprise Search

Purpose: Find information across your company's tools and docs

Connectors: Slack, Notion, Guru, Jira, Asana, Microsoft 365

Best for: Teams drowning in scattered documentation and needing unified search.

3. Sales

Purpose: Research prospects, prep deals, and follow your sales process

Connectors: Slack, HubSpot, Close, Clay, ZoomInfo, Notion, Jira, Fireflies, Microsoft 365

Best for: Sales professionals who need quick prospect research and call preparation.

4. Finance

Purpose: Analyze financials, build models, and track key metrics

Connectors: Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Slack, Microsoft 365

Best for: Finance teams doing regular reporting, variance analysis, and reconciliation.

5. Data

Purpose: SQL queries, statistical analysis, dashboards, and data validation

Connectors: Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Hex, Amplitude, Jira

Best for: Analysts who write queries and build dashboards regularly.

6. Legal

Purpose: Contract review, NDA triage, compliance tracking, risk assessment, vendor checks, legal briefings, and templated responses

Connectors: Slack, Box, Egnyte, Jira, Microsoft 365, Pramata

Key Commands: /legal:review-contract, /legal:triage-nda, /legal:compliance-check, /legal:risk-assessment, /legal:vendor-check, /legal:brief, /legal:respond

Best for: In-house legal teams, commercial counsel, privacy/compliance teams, and litigation support professionals reviewing contracts and managing compliance workflows. The plugin uses a GREEN/YELLOW/RED flagging system for clause-by-clause contract analysis against your organization's negotiation playbook.

Read the full Legal Plugin tutorial →

7. Marketing

Purpose: Content drafting, campaign planning, brand voice, and performance reporting

Connectors: Slack, Canva, Figma, HubSpot, Amplitude, Notion, Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, Klaviyo

Best for: Marketers managing content calendars and campaign performance.

8. Customer Support

Purpose: Ticket triage, response drafting, escalations, and knowledge base articles

Connectors: Slack, Intercom, HubSpot, Guru, Jira, Notion, Microsoft 365

Best for: Support teams handling high volumes of customer inquiries.

9. Product Management

Purpose: Write specs, roadmaps, user research synthesis, and competitive tracking

Connectors: Slack, Linear, Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Jira, Notion, Figma, Amplitude, Pendo, Intercom, Fireflies

Best for: Product managers juggling specs, roadmaps, and stakeholder feedback.

10. Biology Research

Purpose: Literature search, genomics analysis, target prioritization, and experiment planning

Connectors: PubMed, BioRender, bioRxiv, ClinicalTrials.gov, ChEMBL, Synapse, Wiley, Owkin, Open Targets, Benchling

Best for: Life sciences researchers and biotech teams.

11. Plugin Create/Customize

Purpose: Create and customize new plugins for your organization

Best for: Power users who want to build custom plugins for unique workflows.

How to Install Plugins

In Claude Cowork (Desktop)

  1. Navigate to the Cowork tab
  2. Click "Plugins" in the left sidebar
  3. Browse available plugins
  4. Click to install any plugin you need
  5. Optionally click "Upload plugin" for custom plugins

Via Command Line (Claude Code)

# Add the marketplace first
claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins

# Install a specific plugin
claude plugin install sales@knowledge-work-plugins

Once installed, plugins activate automatically. Skills fire when relevant, and slash commands become available in your session (e.g., /sales:call-prep, /data:write-query).

Plugin Architecture

Each plugin follows a simple file-based structure:

plugin-name/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json    # Plugin manifest
├── .mcp.json          # MCP tool connections
├── commands/          # Slash commands (explicit invocation)
└── skills/            # Domain knowledge (auto-triggered)

Key components:

  • Skills: Domain expertise that Claude draws on automatically when relevant
  • Commands: Explicit actions you trigger (e.g., /sales:call-prep)
  • Connectors: MCP servers that wire Claude to external tools

Customizing Plugins for Your Team

Plugins become powerful when customized:

  1. Swap Connectors: Edit .mcp.json to point to your tool stack
  2. Add Company Context: Insert your terminology, org structure, and processes into skill files
  3. Adjust Workflows: Modify skill instructions to match your team's practices
  4. Build New Plugins: Use the plugin management tool to create entirely new plugins

Market Impact

The release of these plugins had significant market impact. Thomson Reuters shares fell roughly 16% in the days following the announcement, while RELX (parent company of LexisNexis) plunged approximately 14%. The Jefferies Group dubbed this the "SaaSpocalypse"—a signal that foundation models now compete directly with established SaaS incumbents. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote that Anthropic's entry is "a sign of intensifying competition, and thus a potential negative" for legal tech and enterprise software incumbents.

This demonstrates the transformative potential of AI plugins that can automate specialized knowledge work—particularly in domains like legal, finance, and sales where routine tasks have traditionally been labor-intensive.

Getting Started Recommendations

For individuals: Start with the Productivity plugin to see how plugins enhance your daily workflow.

For sales teams: The Sales plugin with HubSpot integration can dramatically speed up prospect research.

For enterprises: Begin with Enterprise Search to unify your scattered documentation.

Important Notes

  • Plugins are currently in "research preview"
  • Anthropic advises against use for regulated workloads given the agentic nature
  • All plugins are open-source on GitHub (anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins)
  • Organization-level sharing is coming soon

View detailed tutorials for specific plugins →

Learn more about Cowork basics →

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