Claude Co-Work Can Now Control Your Computer  🔗 **Source:** [Claude Co-Work Can Now Control Your Computer](https://share.snipd.com/episode/0e72ce73-9a3e-41c3-b94b-9ab1ce75afe4) ## Highlights - **Claude Can Now Control Your Whole Computer** - Anthropic's Claude Co-Work gives Claude mouse, keyboard, and screen control so it can interact with any app on your computer. - Felix Riesenberg announced it integrates with Dispatch to remotely control a synced computer and phone for ongoing automations. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Any app. I believe this is especially useful if used with Dispatch, which allows you to remotely control your computer while you're away. So two features here, and both of them I've tried. Both of them are impressive. Dispatch essentially is, and all this stuff, by the way, you might not see if you're using Claude, but it's in your settings. So the first thing with this particular use is that it is for, when they first rolled it out, it was for Mac, but I think just today, a couple hours ago, they added it for Windows as well. So everyone should be able to get access to this. You have to download, I the uh the specific claude um app for my mac so it's not like on the website or the web browser this has to be the app because it is taking control of your computer so You're going to go into the settings and you're going to want to toggle on claude co-work and also you're going to want to go and toggle on dispatch now dispatch is a particularly useful Feature that essentially allows it to sync up to your phone. So if your computer's open and I just have my computer set to if it is plugged in not to go to sleep and so I could be away somewhere far away and Claude can be essentially working, you know, Working remote, essentially takes over my computer screen can do literally anything I want it to do. And then with my phone, if I'm like, let's say I'm at the grocery store, I can open my phone up, see what what it's working on, and chat with it and say, Hey, now, can you please do XYZ? Basically, I think this is Claude's response to OpenClaw, which, by the way, I also tried to set up, well, I did set up OpenClaw as well the day before. It is complex. I don't want to, I don't want to, like, I don't know, sound too dumb here or something, but it's kind of tricky. It takes a while to set up. You're going to want to watch a lot of tutorials. If you're not a developer, Claude code is much harder to get set up, and it doesn't have a lot of the cool user interfaces. There's just a lot to set up, where, in my opinion, if you're the average, maybe white collar person, or you're working in a company, you want to kind of be on the cutting edge. This is huge. Now, what I will say is it is completely taking control of your computer screen. And it is sort of slow, especially right now. And they even admit this in in in their like post, he said, we will work. Both Claude Cowork and Claude Desktop app. You can use it to click all of the buttons in a legacy app that you'd like to automate or use it to help you debug a native app you're working on. It's slow, but giving Claude any mouse and keys is so exciting to me. That's what Felix said about this. He's over at Anthropic. So it's slow is an understatement. ([Time 0:02:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5670f564-7b8b-4dff-b186-07be21d05207)) - **Run Claude On A Separate Machine** - Enable Claude Co-Work and Dispatch in the Claude desktop app settings and use the Dispatch phone sync to monitor/control a remote computer. - Run automations on a separate machine (old laptop or Mac mini) so your main computer remains usable while Claude executes slow UI actions. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer So the first thing with this particular use is that it is for, when they first rolled it out, it was for Mac, but I think just today, a couple hours ago, they added it for Windows as well. So everyone should be able to get access to this. You have to download, I the uh the specific claude um app for my mac so it's not like on the website or the web browser this has to be the app because it is taking control of your computer so You're going to go into the settings and you're going to want to toggle on claude co-work and also you're going to want to go and toggle on dispatch now dispatch is a particularly useful Feature that essentially allows it to sync up to your phone. So if your computer's open and I just have my computer set to if it is plugged in not to go to sleep and so I could be away somewhere far away and Claude can be essentially working, you know, Working remote, essentially takes over my computer screen can do literally anything I want it to do. ([Time 0:02:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e73e776c-5c75-4429-be31-fab9fd08ad6e)) - **Speed Is Intentionally Slow For Safety** - Anthropic intentionally throttled speed for safety and reliability, so current interactions feel 'honey' slow but are expected to accelerate. - This slow pacing reduces risk during UI automation while giving developers time to refine permission handling. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer He's over at Anthropic. So it's slow is an understatement. It feels kind of like it's honey, if I'm being honest. So I'm not going to overhype this and say like it's zooming around clicking. The speed will increase inevitably. But for the time being, I think they're just trying to be really careful and make it slow. ([Time 0:04:38](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b0e9cb70-c944-4cc9-8425-60ecee6e6daa)) - **Chained Automations Using AIbox Calls** - Jaeden used Claude to chain tasks: logging into sites, generating content on AIbox.ai, and extracting outputs to feed the next step. - He found it especially effective to have Claude call an AI Box tool to produce content, then capture that output for downstream automation. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer So yesterday I had it generating scripts for a project I'm working on. I had it going and logging into different websites, generating content. I had it going to AI Box, my own website, and running boxes on AI Boxes and grabbing the output of those boxes. I actually found that was one of the best ways to use it was basically to build an automation or like a tool on AI box and then give it a whole project. But, you know, when it came to the content generation, instead of trying to manually give it a huge prompt where it had to add that into its steps, it's just one of the steps was go to this Box, this link box on AI box, generate with, you know, this, these inputs, and then grab that and move it to the next part of our project. I then had it literally opening up and editing videos on CapCut. So I just told it like, hey, on my computer, there's a video editor called CapCut, open that up, pull this file in, pull that file in and start editing it in this way. ([Time 0:05:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5eb58f14-73c1-4a7b-b727-74f7e3c04377)) - **Editing Video In CapCut With Claude** - Jaeden had Claude open CapCut, import specific video files, and begin edits by following on-screen controls. - The process worked but felt very slow; actions like finding the new project button and clicking took minutes to complete. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer I then had it literally opening up and editing videos on CapCut. So I just told it like, hey, on my computer, there's a video editor called CapCut, open that up, pull this file in, pull that file in and start editing it in this way. Now, what I will say is, again, not, not very fast, like you got a lot of the work done. But like, if you sit there and watch it, sometimes it can feel painful because it's like, I am opening up CapCut. Now I am searching for the new project button. And then it's like, says like 20 things back and forth for like three minutes. It's like, okay, I'm clicking on it. And you're like, oh my gosh, it's so slow. ([Time 0:05:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/399b06b7-3597-45ae-a447-00a291e6adae)) - **Save Repeated Workflows As Skills** - After refining a workflow interactively, save it as a Skill so Claude documents required permissions and successful approaches to avoid repeated trial-and-error. - Skills produce a file listing steps and access checks (copy/paste, file and browser permissions) so reruns start with necessary approvals. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer It took me, I don't know, the better part of four hours not of like constantly chatting but i'd like send a message i'd be working on something on my other computer and then like 10 minutes Later i'd send another message or correct it but the cool thing about it is at the end of a conversation once you do work out like a whole workflow and automation with it you can say save This as a skill it will create a file where it breaks down everything that worked and also by the way sometimes it tries things they don't work and it tries them a different way when it creates That skill file at the end it will just like basically document all the ways that it worked to accomplish your task so it doesn't have to go and try different things and sometimes sometimes The way this tool works is different than the way that we are used to so I remember like when I was first using it, there was, I was like, copy this and paste it here. And it really struggled with like the copy and paste for a long time. And finally, there was like a pop up that like, had to, you know, say like, hey, do you accept the copy, like that I can use the copy and paste on your computer? And I'm like, well, of course. So then added that to the skill when I ran it again, right at the beginning, before I even kicked off the whole thing it's like, Hey, we need access to copy and paste and your browser and Your computer files. And it kind of had like this checklist and I clicked accept all, then it could run the whole process where, well, I've kind of worked through it and it was taking a long time yesterday. It was having pop-ups one by one being like, Ooh, I can't do that unless you give me access to this. So once it built that skill file it gave me all of those kind of access requirements right at the beginning that i could check off and it could go so it takes a while to get something set up But once you save it as a skill um then i just basically the skill kind of has a name and all i have to do is say hey run this skill again and it will go and do the whole process uh and it kind of Has it all figured out. ([Time 0:06:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c60d891e-2940-4c66-894b-428d842bad54)) - **Desktop Control Feels More Mature Than Browser Agents** - Claude Co-Work feels more sophisticated and usable than prior agent attempts because it controls the full desktop rather than just browser contexts. - Jaeden compared it favorably to earlier OpenAI agents and his experience with a Chrome sidebar automation, noting broader app reach. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer There's so much it could do. I mean, literally, because it can take control of your screen and it can click around. I've used a lot of these agent softwares for the last couple of years. OpenAI really kind of had a good thing going with their agents, but they just weren't quite there. And this feels much more sophisticated. This feels like it actually works. ([Time 0:09:09](https://share.snipd.com/snip/224d81a9-6823-47f5-a1c8-289f3023ae19)) - **892 Hours To Automate A 30 Second Task** - Jaeden shared a viral LinkedIn/X anecdote: Thomas Frank spent 892 hours automating a 30-second task he runs four times a year. - The story underlines that initial automation setup can be hugely time-consuming but pays off for repetitive tasks. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer So I think it probably resonated and struck a chord with a lot of people. And I had basically reshared a post that I saw on X from Thomas Frank, he said, currently 892 hours into automating a 30 second task I do four times a year, it's going to be so worth it once I get everything working. I thought that was hilarious. And I think that that's kind of what it felt like for me yesterday. But I was also figuring out the tool and all the capabilities and how to set it up and how to, you know, how to basically connect it with my Gmail and with all of my different apps and stuff That I use. So I think at the end of the day, it does kind of feel like this. It takes forever to figure out some of these automation softwares. ([Time 0:10:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e58c9bc8-be74-4955-a70e-ec99cd175ddd)) - **No Coders Should Try Claude First** - If you're a non-developer seek Claude Co-Work rather than building code-based agents like OpenClaw; no-code users get accessible UI automation and skill saving. - Developers may prefer code tools, but no-coders gain powerful automation via Claude desktop skills. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer It's going to get faster. Like, they're going to make the tool become faster and faster. Now, if you're a developer, you probably don't even need this. You're probably running something like OpenClaw or something like CloudCode that can get a lot of these types of little can get a lot of stuff done for you. But if you are a no coder, like myself, this is 100% I think the best way to work with agents and to automate stuff. It is phenomenal. I would highly recommend it. ([Time 0:11:17](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fa44a37d-4558-42e1-98d1-09d818b0461f))