Vibe Check: Claude Cowork Is Claude Code for the Rest of Us

Overview

This episode dives into Anthropic's newly launched Claude Cowork, a tool designed to bring the power of Claude Code to non-technical users. Hosts Dan Shipper and Kieran Klaassen explore its features, test its capabilities live, and discuss its potential to transform workflows. They are joined by Felix Rieseberg from Anthropic, who shares insights into the design philosophy, rapid development process, and future vision for Cowork.

Notable Quotes

- This is built for working with your AIs in an async way. - Dan Shipper, on how Cowork differs from traditional chat interfaces.

- The dream I have is that it doesn’t really matter where your code runs—it should be a technical implementation detail. - Felix Rieseberg, on the future of AI interfaces.

- We shipped this in a week and a half to learn from users and iterate fast. - Felix Rieseberg, on the rapid development of Cowork.

🛠️ What is Claude Cowork?

- Claude Cowork is described as Claude Code for non-technical people, enabling users to perform complex tasks without coding expertise.

- It introduces a new Tasks tab, distinct from Chats, designed for asynchronous workflows.

- Key features include:

- Long-running tasks that can operate in the background.

- A queue system allowing users to send additional instructions while tasks are in progress.

- Chrome integration for browser automation, enabling tasks like competitive analysis, email drafting, and calendar audits.

📊 Live Testing: What Works and What Doesn’t

- Competitor Analysis: Successfully identified competitors and analyzed positioning using Chrome browsing.

- Email Drafting: Drafted personalized responses based on Gmail context, though some beta limitations (e.g., connector issues) were noted.

- Calendar Audit: Ran for an hour to analyze alignment with goals, showcasing the async capabilities.

- Book Taxonomy: Created a detailed taxonomy of characters and ideas from a book, demonstrating its research potential.

- Google Docs Editing: Struggled with making copy edits in Google Docs, highlighting areas for improvement in handling complex interfaces.

🧩 Skills: Customizing Claude’s Capabilities

- Skills are reusable, customizable prompts that enhance Claude's functionality.

- Examples include creating design prototypes, generating 3D-printable files, and analyzing user behavior.

- Skills can integrate scripts or binaries, making them highly versatile for both technical and non-technical users.

- Anthropic emphasizes skills as the primary hackable surface for users to personalize their workflows.

🏗️ Agent-Native Architecture and Design Philosophy

- Felix Rieseberg explained the concept of agent-native architecture, where the core of an app is an AI agent rather than deterministic code.

- Key principles discussed:

- Parity: The agent should be able to perform any action a user can through the UI.

- Granularity: Tools should be low-level and composable, allowing for emergent capabilities.

- Composability: Features are built by combining tools dynamically.

- The decision to create a separate Tasks tab was driven by the need for a fast, experimental space to iterate on new ideas.

🚀 Future Vision and Feedback

- Anthropic aims to refine Cowork based on user feedback, with plans to improve mobile integration, persistence across devices, and plugin support.

- Felix Rieseberg emphasized the importance of building in the open and learning from how users interact with the tool.

- Suggestions from the hosts included:

- Easier access to full computer integration.

- A marketplace for sharing and syncing custom skills.

- Improved handling of complex interfaces like Google Docs.