Claude works three ways
- Chat: think and draft.
- Agentic tasks (Cowork): get multi-step work done on your files and apps.
- Claude Code: build software.
How a Cowork task runs
- You describe the outcome you want.
- Claude makes a plan and breaks it into steps.
- It works through your files and apps. You can steer it at any time.
- It hands back finished work.
The big difference
| Chat | Cowork |
|---|---|
| Gives you text to copy, paste and format yourself | Gives you the finished file, built from your real material |
Recap
Cowork turns Claude from a chatbot into a teammate that finishes real work.
Your mission: install the Claude desktop app and ask for one finished file from a real task.
Next lesson: set Claude up in five minutes.