Claude Cowork vs Claude Code
They share the same agentic architecture. Anthropic describes Cowork as that architecture inside Claude Desktop without opening the terminal, while Claude Code is the coding tool you run in a terminal, IDE, desktop app or the web.
Side by side
What it is
- Claude Cowork
- Anthropic's agentic workspace, in Claude Desktop
- Claude Code
- An agentic coding tool that reads your codebase, edits files and runs commands
Where you use it
- Claude Cowork
- Claude Desktop, without opening the terminal
- Claude Code
- Terminal, IDE extensions, desktop app, and web
Plugins
- Claude Cowork
- Loads skills, commands, agents, hooks, remote MCP servers; local MCP servers when the session runs on your computer
- Claude Code
- Loads all of those, plus executables in a top-level bin/ directory, LSP servers, output styles, themes and settings
Add plugins
- Claude Cowork
- Customize > Plugins in the app, or upload a zip
- Claude Code
- /plugin in a session, or claude plugin install
Marketplace hosts you add
- Claude Cowork
- GitHub and GitHub Enterprise, public GitLab and Bitbucket
- Claude Code
- Any Git repository, GitHub shorthand, URL or local path
Which should you use?
Anthropic's Dispatch guide routes coding work (fix a bug, open a pull request, run tests) to Code and knowledge work (research, write a document, organize files) to Cowork. The same plugin folder installs in both, but each loads a different subset, so a plugin can look complete in one and partial in the other. Check a plugin's README, then see our marketplace guide, Cowork guide and best plugins by category.
The same plugin can load different parts
A plugin folder is portable: the same directory installs in Cowork and in Code. But each surface loads its own subset of components, so a plugin that feels complete in Code - with hooks reacting to events and sub-agents running in the background - can look like only skills and commands in Cowork or chat. That is a platform difference, not a broken install.
Claude Code (v2.1.273 and later) can also sync its installed plugins to Cowork. The sync is one-way, from Code to Cowork, and it does not apply to setups that authenticate with an API key or run through Amazon Bedrock. If a plugin shows up in one tool and not the other, check the version and how you sign in before reinstalling. The component model itself is explained in plugins vs skills vs connectors, and the plan and device prerequisites in plugin requirements.
Sources: Cowork overview, Claude Code overview, Plugin feature support across platforms, Run tasks in the background with Dispatch.