1
Describe your goal
Tell Cowork what you need in plain language. No special syntax or technical knowledge required.
2
Cowork plans the work
Claude breaks your goal into subtasks, identifies which files it needs, and determines the execution order.
3
Autonomous execution
Cowork reads files, runs computations in a sandboxed VM, and produces deliverables. You can steer mid-task or let it run.
4
Polished output
The finished deliverable (spreadsheet, document, presentation) is saved to your local files, ready to use.
Cowork vs. regular chat
Regular Chat mode responds to one message at a time. Cowork takes a high-level goal and runs for minutes or hours, autonomously handling dozens of subtasks. Think of Chat as asking a colleague a quick question, and Cowork as delegating a full project.
Getting the best results from Cowork
Be specific about the output format you want. Instead of "analyze my sales data," say "create an Excel spreadsheet with a summary sheet showing monthly revenue by product, a chart comparing Q1 to Q2, and a detailed sheet with all individual transactions." The more concrete your goal, the better the result.