Agent Cowork

Desktop AI assistant for coding, file management, and tasks

A native desktop app that partners with Claude to handle programming, file organization, and any describable task with visual feedback and session management.

Overview

Agent Cowork brings Claude's powerful language model to a native desktop environment, giving developers a visual AI collaborator for everyday programming and file-system tasks. It reads your existing ~/.claude/settings.json, so authentication and model preferences are reused without extra setup.

Capabilities & Deployment

Run the pre-built binaries on macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel), Windows, or Linux, or build from source with Bun or Node 22+. The app provides real-time visual feedback, persistent session handling, and a simple task-creation UI—no need to learn the Claude Agent SDK. Ideal for multi-step workflows, code refactoring, documentation generation, and any task you can describe in plain language.

Getting Started

Download a release, launch the app, and start creating tasks. For developers, the source can be hot-reloaded with bun run dev, and production binaries are generated via bun run dist:. Contributions are welcomed via pull requests.

Highlights

Runs as a native desktop application for macOS, Windows, and Linux

Provides visual session management and output inspection

Reuses existing Claude settings (`~/.claude/settings.json`)

No need for Claude Code SDK installation or custom development

Pros

Immediate visual feedback for complex tasks
Cross-platform binaries simplify setup
Leverages existing Claude authentication
Supports multi-step, long-running workflows

Considerations

Requires Claude Code to be installed and authenticated
Feature set limited to current roadmap
Needs Bun or Node 22+ runtime
No built-in plugin ecosystem yet

Managed products teams compare with

When teams consider Agent Cowork, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.

Claude Cowork

Desktop AI coworker that operates on your files to handle multi-step tasks.

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Fit guide

Great for

Developers who want a GUI for Claude-powered automation
Users managing local files and project directories
Teams needing persistent AI assistance across sessions
Anyone preferring visual over terminal interaction

Not ideal when

Environments without Claude Code authentication
Users seeking a lightweight terminal-only tool
Projects requiring extensive custom agent SDK integration
Systems lacking Node.js 22+ or Bun support

How teams use it

Organize project folders

AI sorts files, creates structure, and generates README automatically.

Automate code refactoring

Assistant rewrites codebase according to style guidelines and runs tests.

Generate documentation

AI extracts comments and produces markdown docs for the entire repository.

Batch rename files

User describes naming scheme; AI renames files consistently across directories.

Tech snapshot

TypeScript95%

CSS4%

JavaScript1%

HTML1%

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Claude Code installed?

Yes, Claude Code must be installed and authenticated because Agent Cowork reuses its settings.

Which operating systems are supported?

Pre-built binaries are provided for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, and Linux.

Can I use my existing Claude configuration?

Agent Cowork automatically reads `~/.claude/settings.json`, so your current Claude setup works out of the box.

What runtime is required to build from source?

You need Bun or Node.js version 22 or newer, plus the repository's dependencies.

Is there a plugin system for extending functionality?

Currently there is no plugin ecosystem; extensions would need to be added via source modifications.

Project at a glance

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Stars: 2,177
Watchers: 2,177
Forks: 310

Repo age1 week old

Last commit12 hours ago

Primary languageTypeScript

Last synced 46 minutes ago