Anthropic’s new Cowork tool offers Code Claude without the code

On Monday, Anthropic announced a new tool called Coworkdesigned as a more accessible version of Claude Code. Built into the Claude Desktop app, the new tool allows users to specify specific folders where Claude can read or modify files, with further instructions provided via a standard chat interface. The result is the same for the Sandboxed instance of Claude Code, but requires far less technical savvy to prepare.

Currently in research previewCowork is only available to Max customers, with a waiting list available for users on other plans.

This new tool is inspired in part by more and more customers using Claude Code to achieve non-coding tasks, it is considered a general purpose agent AI tool. Cowork is built on the Claude Agent SDK, which means it draws the same basic model as Claude Code. Folder separation provides an easy way to manage what files Cowork can access, and since the app doesn’t require command-line tools or a virtual environment, it’s less intimidating for non-technical users.

That opens up a whole new world of potential use cases. Anthropic gives an example of collecting expense reports from a photo folder of receipts – but so does Claude Code user put the system to work manage media files, scan social media posts, or analyze conversations.

Like Claude Code, Cowork is designed to perform a series of actions without user input – an approach that can be dangerous if the tool is given unclear or contradictory instructions. In a blog post announcing the new tool, Anthropic strongly warns about the risk of instant injection or deleted files, advising users to make their instructions clear and unambiguous.

“This risk is not new with Cowork,” the post said, “but it may be the first time you’re using more advanced tools that go beyond simple chat.”

Launched as a command line tool in November 2024, Claude Code has become one of Anthropic’s most successful products, leading the company to launch a series of new interfaces in recent months. The web interface opens in Octoberfollowed by Slack integration just two months later.