Claude Cowork

Dock works inside Claude Cowork as a custom remote connector. No local bridge, no stdio bridge, no special flags. Dock is remote by design, which means it bypasses the sandbox limitations that block local MCP servers in Cowork mode.

Why remote, not local

Cowork mode runs your agent inside a sandboxed virtual machine that can't reach processes on your host. This breaks any MCP server that spawns as a local stdio child (the command + args config pattern). Remote MCP servers over HTTPS sidestep the restriction entirely. The agent inside the VM fetches Dock over the public internet, same as loading a website.

Dock has always been remote-first: https://trydock.ai/api/mcp. Paste that URL into Cowork's custom-connector dialog and you're done.

Prerequisites

• Claude desktop app with Cowork enabled (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan). macOS or Windows.
• A Dock account. Dock is invite-only during beta. If you don't have access, request an invite.

Setup (under two minutes)

Step 1. Open the Cowork connector settings

In the Claude desktop app, open Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. You'll see a single input for the remote MCP server URL.

Step 2. Paste Dock's MCP URL

https://trydock.ai/api/mcp

Click Connect.

Step 3. Authorize in the browser

Claude opens a browser window to Dock's OAuth consent screen. Sign in if you're not already (magic link), click Approve on the "Claude wants to connect to your Dock account" page. The tab closes itself.

Claude stores the access token securely and uses it on every subsequent call. No token ever touches your filesystem.

Step 4. Verify

Open any Claude Cowork session. Ask:

Using the Dock connector, list my workspaces.

You should see your workspace slugs within a few seconds. The agent now has the 13 Dock tools at its disposal: read and write rows, create workspaces, get billing, file support tickets, ask for limit increases.

What Cowork can and can't do with Dock

Cowork runs every tool call from Anthropic's cloud, not from your machine. That has two implications worth knowing:

• Your laptop can be asleep. Cowork tasks keep running, Dock keeps accepting reads and writes, because both live in the cloud. You come back to a workspace that has been updated while you were away.
• No on-host side-effects. The agent can edit Dock rows and docs all day, but it can't simultaneously touch your local files. That's what Claude Code is for. A common pattern: Cowork does the collaborative workspace work, Claude Code picks up the git/file work on your machine, both read the same Dock workspace.

Troubleshooting

Related

• Claude Code · terminal agent, same tools, different sandbox
• MCP reference · full tool schemas
• Security · how Dock handles OAuth tokens and revocation