Anthropic has released a new feature called Cowork, which allows its Claude AI to directly interact with a user's local files. Integrated into the Claude macOS desktop app, users can grant the AI access to a specific folder, enabling it to read, edit, and create files based on instructions given in a chat interface. The tool is designed to automate complex tasks for non-developers, such as reorganizing folders, creating spreadsheets from screenshots, or drafting reports from notes.
The feature, built on the same foundation as Anthropic's Claude Code tool, aims to make powerful AI capabilities more accessible. Cowork is initially available as a research preview exclusively for Claude Max subscribers on macOS. Anthropic has acknowledged security vulnerabilities like prompt injection are an active area of development, a challenge shared by competitors like OpenAI.