Chat, Cowork, and Code
Open the Claude desktop app and you'll see a mode selector with three tabs: Chat, Cowork, and Code. They're not three apps: they're three ways to work with the same Claude. Picking the right one is half the battle.
Chat
A conversation. Great for thinking out loud, asking questions, brainstorming, drafting text you'll paste elsewhere yourself. Nothing happens to your files. Chat answers; you act.
Cowork
A working session on your machine. You describe a task, Claude makes a plan, and then it actually does the work on the folders and apps you've connected. This is where messy folders get organized, reports get built, and multi-step busywork gets done for you. No terminal required.
Code
Built for software engineering: writing and editing code in a project, running it, working across a codebase. If you're not shipping code, you'll rarely open this tab.
Which do I reach for?
A quick gut check:
- Just need an answer or a draft to copy? Chat.
- Need Claude to do something to real files, data, or apps? Cowork.
- Building or changing software? Code.
Rule of thumb: if you'd otherwise do it yourself by opening files and clicking around, that's a Cowork job.
What you just learned
- The desktop app has three modes: Chat, Cowork, Code.
- Chat is a conversation; Code is for software; Cowork is a working session on your machine.
- Choose Cowork whenever you want Claude to do the work, not just describe it.
Next: running your very first task.
practice
Open Claude Cowork on your own computer and try this on real files. Each module ends with a checkpoint where you submit what you made.
Open in ClaudeNext
Your first task