Claude AI Cowork User Guide

Claude AI Cowork brings the agentic power of Claude to your desktop. This guide covers how to leverage the "Tasks" mode for autonomous execution of complex work.

Claude Code (CLI)

Optimized for software engineering and deep codebase interactions.

  • ✅ Terminal-based interface
  • ✅ Deep code understanding
  • ✅ Git integration and test running
  • ✅ Ideal for dev workflows

Cowork (Desktop App)

Optimized for general knowledge work, document creation, and research.

  • ✅ GUI-based "Tasks" tab in macOS app
  • ✅ Knowledge work beyond coding
  • ✅ Professional file outputs (Excel, PPT)
  • ✅ Integrated web research

When to use Claude AI Cowork?

Claude AI Cowork is designed for complex, multi-step work that benefits from direct file access and extended execution time. Example use cases include:

  • File Management: Organizing downloads, processing receipts, or batch renaming files.
  • Research Synthesis: Combining web searches, papers, and notes into coherent reports.
  • Document Creation: Generating spreadsheets with formulas or slide decks from messy notes.
  • Data Transformation: Cleaning and analyzing datasets directly on your machine.

Getting Started with the Tasks Tab

Accessing the agentic power of Claude AI Cowork is simple for macOS Max plan users:

  1. Open **Claude Desktop** on macOS.
  2. Switch the mode selector from "Chat" to the **Cowork** tab (Tasks mode).
  3. Describe your desired outcome (e.g., "Create a formatted expense report from the receipts in this folder").
  4. Review Claude's planned approach and let it run autonomously.

Important Note

Claude AI Cowork is a research preview. It requires an active internet connection and that the Claude Desktop app remains open while the task is executing. Closing the app will end your session.