Anthropic's viral new work tool wrote itself
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Anthropic is previewing a new tool for non-coders that mostly built itself, engineers at the AI firm say.
Why it matters: The viral popularity of the tool — called Cowork, and designed to help non-coders with everyday work tasks — signals a shift toward software built by AI, with humans guiding the way.
Driving the news: Anthropic's head of Claude Code, Boris Cherny, said on X that "all" of Cowork was built with Claude Code, the company's AI-powered coding tool.
- It's an example of "vibe coding" — an AI-driven approach where people mostly use prompts to create software, rather than write code themselves.
- Users can ask Cowork to create new spreadsheets from a pile of screenshots, organize messy downloads, or create draft reports from scattered notes.
What they're saying: Felix Rieseberg, of Anthropic's technical staff: "We built Cowork the same way we want people to use Claude: describing what we needed, letting Claude handle implementation, and steering as we went."
- "We spent more time making product and architecture decisions than writing individual lines of code"
- It only took a week and a half to build Cowork, Rieseberg adds.
Zoom out: The early buzz around Cowork is bringing more attention to "vibe coding" tools from other AI companies, too.
- "You don't want to be one of the ones left behind, clinging to your keyboard," technologist Chris Maconi posted on X. "Download Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, or whatever AI coding tools you can get your hands on."
Reality check: Cowork is still just a preview, limited to Claude Max subscribers using macOS.
- Dan Shipper, co-founder and CEO of AI subscription service Every, tells Axios that he has a handful of small complaints — which are really just feature requests.
- It only works on Claude's desktop app, not mobile or the web. He can only work in one folder at a time, and the UI can be a little confusing.
- "It's a work in progress," Shipper says.
What's next: Anthropic's Rieseberg is asking for feedback on the new tool.
