Step-by-step guides
Full walkthroughs for each part of a build - every click, every prompt, every setting.
How these fit with your build page
Your build page gets you through the hack top to bottom, with the essentials expandable in place.
These are the complete versions. Open one in a new tab and keep it beside your build page if you want every step spelled out - or come back to them after the hack when you're building something of your own.
New to Work IQ?
What Work IQ is - and what it can see is the shared grounding layer all three altitudes use. Read it once; the per-altitude guides below show how to put it to work.
🟢 Cowork
| Guide | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Install a provided skill | You've downloaded a skill and need it running in Cowork |
| Connect Cowork to a data source | You need to pull your mail, calendar, or files - and get it back in a shape you can reuse |
| Ground Cowork in your work (Work IQ) | You want a persona or audience profile drawn from your own mail and calendar |
| Write a reusable Cowork skill | You're creating or editing a skill and want the full anatomy, limits, and sharing options |
| Produce a formatted output | Your output needs to come back the same way every time |
| Re-run a skill on new inputs | You want it to run on a schedule, or fire on an email or @mention |
🔵 Scout
| Guide | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Set up Microsoft Scout | Getting Scout ready, importing a skill, and confirming it can reach your work |
| Ground Scout in your work (Work IQ) | Pulling real evidence out of mail and calendar |
| Have Scout build you an app | Getting Scout to scaffold and run something local |
| Make it run without you | Schedules, triggers, and keeping approval on anything outbound |
🟣 Code
| Guide | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Set up VS Code + GitHub Copilot | Getting agent mode, the CLI, and custom agent files working |
| Run the starter project | Getting a scenario's starter installed and running locally (Node, Python, the CLI) |
| Build against a contract with Copilot | Finishing a stub, TODO, or docstring by pointing Copilot agent mode at it |
| Ground on live data with Work IQ | Turning real calendar and mail behavior into evidence |
| Build a custom connector (MCP) | Exposing your agent as tools other agents can call |
| Add a guardrail / output check | Stopping an agent doing something it shouldn't |