Anthropic Launches Cowork, "Claude Code for the Rest of Your Work"
When Anthropic released Claude Code, developers quickly began using it for far more than coding. That prompted the company to build Cowork: a simpler way for anyone to work with Claude in the same way.
Cowork is available today as a research preview for Claude Max subscribers on the macOS app.
The feature lets users give Claude access to a folder on their computer, where it can read, edit, or create files. It can reorganize downloads by sorting and renaming files, create spreadsheets from piles of screenshots, or produce draft reports from scattered notes.
The new tool is inspired in part by the growing number of subscribers using Claude Code for non-coding tasks, treating it as a general-purpose agentic AI tool. Cowork is built on the Claude Agent SDK, drawing on the same underlying model as Claude Code.
Cowork lets users give Claude access to a specific folder on their computer. From there, the system plans and executes tasks on its own—reading, editing, and creating files while updating the user on progress, rather than waiting for step-by-step prompts.
Claude can also use existing connectors that link to external information, and Anthropic has added skills that improve Claude's ability to create documents and presentations. Paired with Claude in Chrome, it can complete tasks requiring browser access as well.
Users don't have to wait for Claude to finish before offering feedback—they can queue up tasks and let Claude work through them in parallel. Anthropic says it "feels much less like a back-and-forth and much more like leaving messages for a coworker."
Similar to Claude Code, Cowork is designed to take strings of actions without user input—a potentially dangerous approach if given vague or contradictory instructions. In its blog post, Anthropic explicitly warns about risks of prompt injection or deleted files.
The company says it's releasing Cowork early as a research preview to learn how people use it and how it could be improved. As the preview progresses, Anthropic plans to add cross-device sync and bring the feature to Windows.
Cowork builds on momentum from Claude Opus 4.5, which Anthropic launched in November as "the best model in the world for coding, agents, and computer use." The company also announced Claude for Healthcare today, timed to coincide with the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.
The announcements come as Anthropic is reportedly raising $10 billion at a $350 billion valuation, which would nearly double its value from the $13 billion Series F it closed three months ago.
Claude Code launched as a command-line tool in November 2025 and has become one of Anthropic's most successful products. A web interface launched in October, followed by a Slack integration two months later.
Users on plans other than Max can join a waitlist for future access.