Scan for large Salesforce deals using Claude Cowork

Prerequisites

Overview

Claude Cowork lets you define a recurring task in plain English and have Claude execute it on a schedule — no script or skill file required. You describe what you want, and Claude uses its built-in tools to query the Salesforce API, filter results, and post a digest to Slack. This is the fastest way to get large-deal alerts working with zero code.

Step 1: Get your Salesforce API credentials

You need a Connected App for API access. In Salesforce Setup, go to App Manager → New Connected App:

• Enable OAuth Settings: checked
• OAuth Scopes: api, refresh_token

After saving, copy the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret. You'll also need your Security Token (found under My Settings → Personal → Reset My Security Token).

Store these as environment variables: SF_CLIENT_ID, SF_CLIENT_SECRET, SF_USERNAME, SF_PASSWORD, SF_SECURITY_TOKEN.

Step 2: Create the Cowork task

Open Claude Desktop and go to the Cowork tab. Click + New task.

Title: Alert Slack on large Salesforce opportunities

Description:

You are a sales ops assistant. Your job is to find large Salesforce opportunities created today and post a summary to Slack.
 
Steps:
1. Authenticate with Salesforce using the OAuth2 password grant:
   POST https://login.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/token
   grant_type=password
   client_id=$SF_CLIENT_ID
   client_secret=$SF_CLIENT_SECRET
   username=$SF_USERNAME
   password=$SF_PASSWORD + $SF_SECURITY_TOKEN
 
2. Run this SOQL query using the access token and instance URL from the auth response:
   SELECT Id, Name, Amount, StageName, Account.Name, Owner.Name, CreatedDate
   FROM Opportunity
   WHERE CreatedDate = TODAY AND Amount >= 50000
 
3. If no results, print "No large opportunities today" and stop.
 
4. Format a single Slack digest message with all results:
   :dart: *Large Opportunities Created Today*
   For each opportunity, include: Name, Amount, Stage, Owner, Account, and a link to the record.
 
5. Post the digest to Slack:
   POST https://hooks.slack.com/services/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL
   Body: {"text": "<formatted digest>"}
 
Use environment variables for all credentials — never hardcode them.

Replace YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL with your Slack Incoming Webhook URL.

Step 3: Set the schedule

Frequency: Daily at 5:00 PM (local time)

A single end-of-day digest keeps your leadership channel clean while still surfacing every large deal that entered the pipeline.

Step 4: Run manually first

Click Run now in Cowork to test. Claude will:

1. Authenticate with Salesforce
2. Run the SOQL query for today's large opportunities
3. Format the digest
4. Post to Slack

A successful run looks like:

Authenticated with Salesforce (instance: https://your-org.my.salesforce.com)
Found 3 opportunities over $50K created today.
 
Posted digest to Slack:
  - Acme Corp Platform License — $75,000 (Prospecting, owned by Jane Smith)
  - GlobalTech Enterprise Deal — $120,000 (Qualification, owned by Mike Chen)
  - Stark Industries Renewal — $52,000 (Proposal, owned by Sarah Lee)
 
Done.

Step 5: Refine the task description

After the first few runs, adjust the description based on what you see:

• Raise or lower the threshold
• Add fields like Close Date or Probability
• Filter out certain record types or stages
• Change the Slack channel per deal size

Cowork's task description is your prompt — the more specific you are, the better Claude performs.

When to use this approach

• You want alerts working today without writing or deploying any code
• A single daily digest is enough — you don't need real-time notifications
• You're evaluating thresholds before committing to a Flow or n8n workflow
• You want to combine alerting with light analysis (e.g., "flag any deal where close date is less than 30 days out")

When to switch approaches

• You need real-time alerts as soon as opportunities are created → use Salesforce Flow
• You need the workflow to run 24/7 reliably → use the Agent Skill with cron
• You want to build routing logic (different channels per deal size) without editing prompts → use n8n