Let Cowork Update Its Own Memory

For three weeks you did it right. Every time Cowork forgot something (your team's naming convention, the client you can't cc, the fact that you write in plain English), you stopped, opened your memory file, and typed it in. Discipline.

Then last Tuesday you were busy. You corrected Cowork twice in one session and logged neither. The week after, four more. The file you built to be the source of truth quietly fell behind the truth.

This is the failure mode of a memory you maintain by hand: it's only as current as your last good day. The fix isn't more discipline. It's noticing that you made yourself the only writer, and you don't have to be. Cowork can hold the pen too.

#Two writers, one file

There are two kinds of memory, and they're written by two different hands.

The first you already know: the instructions file you author (call it CLAUDE.md) where you write down what you'd otherwise re-explain every session. That's covered earlier in this series. You write it; Cowork reads it.