Cowork: Your Desktop Coworker
Point it at a folder, give a goal in plain English, and it does the multi-step work — while you steer it and approve anything consequential. The clearest example of AI that does the job.
A "third mode" that does the work
Cowork is Anthropic's agentic knowledge-work product inside the Claude desktop app — alongside Chat and Code. It reads, edits and creates files and completes multi-step jobs, showing its reasoning as it goes.
You delegate the outcome
Hand over a whole job — "organise this folder", "draft this report from these sources" — not a single prompt.
You stay in control
Steer it mid-task, grant permissions on purpose, and it asks before destructive actions like deleting files.
It runs from the desktop
Included on paid plans. Some flows need the desktop app open while a task runs; it also supports scheduled tasks.
Watch a Cowork run — and hold the controls
The job: "Read the three supplier quotes in this folder and draft a one-page comparison." Step through it — and notice where it stops to ask you.
Chat or Cowork?
Cowork shines on multi-step, file-heavy jobs where you want a finished deliverable. A single chat is fine for a quick answer. Call each one.
Managing an AI is managing a person: be clear about the goal, give access on purpose, and check the work. The permission prompt isn't friction — it's your management control. Never turn it off for consequential jobs.