Lesson 8 · PLM with Cowork

Asking Cowork PLM questions, answers from live data and the approval card; MCP keys for external clients.

Goal of this lessonTo ask Cowork PLM questions in your own words, get answers from live data and have it act through an approval card.

PLM through CoworkYouin your own wordsExternal clientwith an MCP keyCoworkunderstands the questionPLM MCP serverPLM tools (read with your rights)plm_where_usedplm_change_impactplm_bom · plm_documentsplm_knowledgeEvery action that changes data:an approval card — Approve / Cancele.g. raising a change request
Cowork and external clients use the same tools; neither can go beyond the user's PLM rights.

SODOO Cowork knows both the PLM data and the PLM method. It reads live records with your rights and never shows you what you could not see yourself. Every action that changes data — raising a change request, for instance — first comes as an approval card and is not done until you approve it.

Step by step

  1. Open Cowork and ask

    The COWORK button in the top bar opens the panel; the record you have open (here the bracket) becomes the conversation's context. Write or say the question in your own words.

    Cowork's impact answer and approval card123
    1. Question: “What is affected if I change the PW-BRK-80 bracket?”
    2. The answer table: the impact analysis's own live numbers.
    3. Confirm: the change request opens only once you approve.

  2. A key for external AI clients

    Clients such as Claude Desktop reach the same PLM tools through the PLM MCP server. Create a key under Configuration › MCP API Keys; it is shown once, at creation, and runs with the rights of the user you choose.

    MCP API keys123
    1. Runs as: tool calls run with this user's PLM rights.
    2. The key's last characters, to tell keys apart (column header on screen: “Key”).
    3. Expires On: after this date the key stops working.

Example questions

Caution: read the approval card
The card states the action in one sentence (e.g. “Raise change request … for PW-BRK-80”). If the code or the title is wrong, press Cancel and correct the question.

Mini case: five minutes before the meeting

Who
Nazlı Şen, before the change board.
Question
“Which requests are waiting for a decision, and what is their impact?”
Answer
Cowork lists the requests and their impact levels; at the board Nazlı opens the request directly.

Check yourself

Can Cowork show you a document you cannot see?
No, it reads records with your rights.
When does Cowork raise a change request?
When you press Approve on the approval card.
When can you see the whole MCP key?
Only once, at the moment it is created.