Quick Start

From a blank slate to a running session.

Before you start

Run claude login at least once in your terminal if you haven't already. ClaudeWorks uses your existing Claude Code credentials and does not manage auth separately.

You also need at least one plugin installed in Claude Code. If you don't have any yet, open Configure Claude → Plugins → Browse and install one.

1. Create a profile

1. Select the Profiles tab in the sidebar.
2. Click the + button next to the Profiles heading.
3. Give the profile a short, descriptive name like work or research.

The profile appears in the sidebar and the editor opens on the right.

2. Pick what loads into this profile

Every profile starts empty. Opt in to what you want:

• The Plugins tab toggles whole plugins on or off.
• The Skills, Agents, and Commands tabs show flat views of every item across enabled plugins. Disable individual items you don't need.
• The MCP Servers tab lets you disable MCP servers coming from ~/.claude.json or project .mcp.json files, scoped to this profile.

3. Save

Click Save in the editor's top bar. ClaudeWorks writes the profile's config directory to ~/.claudeworks/profiles/<name>/.

4. Launch

Three ways to launch a profile:

• The Launch button on the profile card or in the editor top bar opens a terminal with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR pre-set and starts a Claude Code session.
• A shell alias works from any terminal once you've added one under Settings → Launch Configuration. The alias cds to its configured directory and optionally auto-runs /workflow or a prefilled prompt.
• Plain claude launches your default profile once you mark one as default.

What happens when you launch

1. ClaudeWorks assembles the profile's CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, writing the filtered plugin list, MCP config, settings.json, and any workflow commands.
2. Plugin caches are symlinked to the shared ~/.claude/plugins/cache/ so updates propagate automatically.
3. A terminal opens with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR set, and claude starts.

The session sees only the plugins, skills, MCP servers, and commands you enabled. Everything else stays namespaced away.

Next steps