# Claude Cowork

> Claude Cowork is the agentic mode of Anthropic's Claude app that completes multi-step knowledge-work tasks in your files, connectors, and browser.

Claude Cowork is the agentic mode of the Claude app for work beyond coding: you describe an outcome and Claude plans and executes it across folders, connectors, plugins, and a browser, then returns finished files. Launched January 12, 2026 as a macOS research preview for Max; on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise across desktop, web, and mobile in 2026.

**Claude Cowork is the agentic mode of Anthropic's Claude app: instead of answering in a single reply, Claude takes a task, plans it, and carries it out across files in folders you grant, connectors you have enabled, plugins, and a browser, returning finished documents, organized files, or synthesized research.**

The term matters because it names the split Anthropic drew in January 2026 between chat and delegated work. Chat is a conversation; Cowork is a handoff. You pick a folder (or, on web and mobile, a cloud session), describe an outcome, and Claude works through it step by step with the ability to read, edit, and create files, run scheduled tasks, and coordinate sub-agents. The [Cowork tool page](/tools/claude-cowork) lists plans, platforms, and limits; the [full guide](/guides/getting-started/claude-cowork-guide) walks through a first session.

Cowork launched on January 12, 2026 as a research preview on Claude Desktop for macOS, for Max plans, reached Pro four days later, went generally available on macOS and Windows on April 9, 2026, and added web and mobile (beta) on July 7, 2026. It is the surface where [Claude plugins](/glossary/claude-plugins) do the most, since hooks and sub-agents only run in Cowork, and where [AI connectors](/glossary/ai-connectors) become tools an agent uses rather than sources a chat reads. It is one instance of [agentic AI](/glossary/agentic-ai) aimed at office work instead of code; the [plugins guide](/guides/getting-started/claude-knowledge-work-plugins) covers turning it into a specialist for a role.

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_Source: https://agentscamp.com/glossary/claude-cowork — Term on AgentsCamp._