October 6, 2026
Claude keeps working after you close your laptop: new Projects run in the cloud
The new Projects automatically divide work into tasks and retain shared context so each session doesn't have to start from scratch.
Ethan Mollick
@emollick
Over the past few weeks, I've moved a substantial share of my complex tasks from Cowork to the new Claude Projects (the name is confusing: these aren't the existing Projects in Claude, but a persistent chat with a dedicated cloud virtual machine). In my experience, they're much better in most respects, but the documentation isn't clear enough.
Hi! I work on Cowork. Probably no surprise, but we want to make our users as powerful as possible with Claude - and you're right that explaining and keeping up with the capabilities is hard. Affected users got both an email and an in-app notice, but I'm grateful for the feedback - I think this change was more surprising to people than I'd like it to be. This one will be a longer explainer, bear with me! The "old" version of Cowork runs model inference in the cloud, executing tool calls in an Anthropic-provided VM we shipped to your computer. We added the VM for capability, safety, and security reasons - mapping in just the data you explicitly added to your session. People loved what they were able to do with Claude but didn't love the disk, battery, and performance cost of running the VM locally. Also, people didn't love that closing your laptop means the work stops. The "new" version of Cowork runs model inference and the VM in the cloud. Each session gets its own sandbox, not sharing state with other sessions. When the VM needs something on the users' device (like a file), the desktop app is responsible for that file access tool call. To be clear, Claude will only access files in folders that the user explicitly added to the session, the same way Claude only saw files explicitly added to the VM in the "old" version. Sandboxes are destroyed when the session ends! We think this solves a lot of problems we've heard about (like using Cowork from a phone, keeping work running, or getting all the same power without losing battery to the VM) - but we'll keep iterating on new feedback we hear!
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Since Sep 17, 2026, Claude has been able to coordinate work in the new Projects and keep going after you close your laptop.
Previously, users had to split work across sessions themselves. Now Claude distributes tasks across threads, separate branches of work, and brings the results together. Threads share the project's memory. Library retains uploaded files and generated outputs for future tasks.
A different Projects. This is a new beta in the Code section on claude.ai, distinct from the existing Projects in regular Claude chat. Each project gets a persistent cloud virtual machine. In the previous Cowork, the model ran in the cloud while tools performed tasks in a virtual machine on the user's computer.
Ethan Mollick has moved a substantial share of his complex tasks from Cowork to the new Projects. In his view, the new version is better in most respects, but its capabilities are not explained clearly enough. Cowork developer Felix Rieseberg acknowledged that the change caught users off guard more than he would have liked, although affected users received an email and an in-app notification.
How to get started. Open claude.ai/code → Projects → New project, enter a name, and optionally add a Goal, repositories or files. Click Create project and describe the task. Coding tasks require a repository on github.com with push access and the Claude GitHub App installed. A token from /web-setup alone is not enough.
Access and costs according to Anthropic's documentation and pricing as of Oct 5, 2026:
| Condition | What matters | | --- | --- | | Access | The beta is available to some Claude Code users on Pro and Max. Projects in the Code sidebar indicates access. Others can join the waitlist through Anthropic's official form. | | Pro | $20 per month or $200 per year, excluding applicable taxes. | | Max | From $100 per month, excluding applicable taxes. | | Usage | Projects share the subscription's usage limit. Up to 200 new threads per day are allowed across all projects. | | Tracking | Usage by thread and model is shown in Project settings → Usage. |
Work locally is available for tasks involving a local database or private network resources. It requires Claude Code v2.1.280+ and Remote Control. These threads run while the computer is awake and the connection is active.
Mollick also published eco-library, an interactive 3D map of Umberto Eco's library of roughly 33,000 books, with sources and confidence levels for book placements, a demo link and rebuild commands in the README.
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