# The Claude Cowork desktop app, and the open-source platform on your server

> Claude Cowork's desktop app no longer runs the session: since 6 October 2026 new Pro, Max and Ultra tasks start in Anthropic's cloud. Kortix is the open-source CompanyOS: self-host it and the platform sits on a server you administer, the agents and skills stay in a repository the team owns, and the sessions run on Platinum sandboxes; that is my pick, and I work on Kortix's marketing, so weigh that accordingly.

URL: https://claudecoworkalternative.com/claude-cowork-desktop-app

## The plan decides where a Cowork task runs

Claude Cowork on Pro, Max and Ultra now executes in Anthropic's cloud. A new task started on any of the three plans runs on Anthropic's servers and the session is available on every surface, and the desktop app stops being the place the work happens. The switch landed on 6 October 2026, the same day Anthropic removed the setting that had pinned tasks to a laptop, as the [help center article on Cowork across web, desktop and mobile](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15520349-use-claude-cowork-on-web-desktop-and-mobile) records.

Tasks begun before that date are the exception, and they stay the exception. Work already started on a computer finishes there, with a banner saying it runs only on this computer. Scheduled tasks split the same way: one that already runs on a computer keeps running there, and a new one goes to the cloud. On Pro, Max and Ultra there is no control for choosing a location, and the help center says it in one line: "There's no setting to choose where a task runs on Pro, Max, and Ultra plans."

## Plan

| | Where new Cowork tasks run |
| --- | --- |
| Pro | Anthropic's cloud, on every surface |
| Max | Anthropic's cloud, on every surface |
| Ultra | Anthropic's cloud, on every surface |
| Team | Cloud sessions in beta on web and mobile |
| Enterprise | Cloud where an admin enables it |

## The 'Only on your computer' setting is gone

The setting was called "Only on your computer", and it lived under Settings > General. Anthropic removed it on 6 October. An account still set that way moves to the cloud the next time the desktop app opens, shows a notice, and cannot switch back.

One documented route still puts a task on a single machine. Claude Code in the desktop app runs on the computer and keeps the folders and history there, and a Cowork task can be carried over: open the task, choose "Download task data", unzip the download, open the folder in Claude Code, then run `/port-task-data` to pick up the context. That route is manual and per task. It suits a person rescuing one job, and it gives an administrator no way to hold a fleet's work on the fleet.

## Why the Enterprise guide describes local execution

The Claude Cowork Enterprise Admin Guide puts a different sentence in front of admins: "By default on Enterprise plans, Claude Cowork runs locally on each user's machine, with code execution sandboxed in a kernel-isolated environment. On the web and mobile, Claude Cowork sessions run in Anthropic's cloud." ([Claude Academy](https://academy.claude.com/tutorials/claude-cowork-enterprise-administrator-guide)). The line sits in the guide's endpoint prerequisites, beside the choice between an MDM push and a self-install, the domains to allowlist and the proxy rules to open.

That sentence belongs to the Enterprise desktop rollout the guide introduces. Enterprise cloud sessions are off by default and arrive only where an owner turns on "Run Cowork in the cloud" and grants the Cowork in the cloud capability to a group through custom roles, so an Enterprise deployment can be desktop-first. The guide describes what the installer asks of a fleet. The help center describes where a task executes, by plan, after the October change. For an Enterprise reader the two fit together once the plan and the admin setting are on the table, and the [Enterprise page](/claude-cowork-enterprise) covers those controls.

## What still needs the desktop app

Four capabilities reach the computer, so they keep the Claude Desktop app in the install image even when the session runs in the cloud: local file access, local connectors, browser use and computer use. A cloud session touches a connected folder only while the app is open on that machine. Close the laptop and the session keeps running with no local reach.

The folders themselves stay on the computer. Anthropic fetches a copy of a single file when a cloud task needs one, and deletes those copies when the session is deleted, which matters to anyone drafting a [data retention note](/claude-cowork-data-retention). The installer does not disappear on Pro, Max and Ultra. Its job narrows to the bridge between a cloud session and a disk.

## What self-hosting puts on your server, and what stays on Platinum

A policy that puts the work under the company's own administration has two halves, and a self-hosted Kortix instance answers them separately. The platform is software you install: the web app, the REST API, the model gateway and the database, all in one Docker Compose project on a Linux server your team administers ([the self-hosting docs](https://kortix.com/docs/host)). The compute is not on that box. Every session runs on a Platinum sandbox, and each sandbox calls back to the instance's public API URL, so the instance has to answer from the public internet. Without a Platinum API key, no session starts.

The team's control sits in the layers around the sandbox. The agents, their skill folders, the shared memory and the connector list are versioned text the team keeps in its own repository, so a change to how a job runs arrives as a diff someone reads. The database in the same stack holds the record of each session, which keeps the history inside the team's infrastructure instead of an account it has to ask for. The instance also decides the address the sandboxes call: the URL the team published, with the DNS records and certificate the install sets up.

The sandbox is one per session, and it is off the box. Kortix's docs describe a session as a single agent run: the sandbox clones the project repo, works on a new branch, and names that branch after the session id ([the docs](https://kortix.com/docs)). Session work reaches `main` through a change request. The branch and the diff are what a reviewer opens.

Compared with the desktop app, the trade is a server for a record. A laptop keeps the task on one machine, with nothing to administer and the files on its own disk, while the record of what the agent read and changed sits behind an account rather than in a repo a teammate can open. A self-hosted instance puts the platform, the database and that record in the team's own infrastructure, and takes the machine each session runs on from Platinum. Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. Self-host is free.

[Kortix against Claude Cowork](/claude-cowork-vs-kortix) lays the two side by side, and [self-hosting](/self-hosting) covers the install.

## Three checks before an install

Ask where the record lives. On a desktop deployment the history of what an agent read and changed sits behind an account and a vendor interface. On Kortix it is a session branch and a change request in a repository the team controls.

Ask what the desktop app needs from the network, then compare that list with what the firewall team will actually approve. The Enterprise guide's endpoint prerequisites are the list to work from.

Ask what happens to work already in flight. On Pro, Max and Ultra, tasks started before 6 October stay on their computers until they finish, so a rollout plan needs a date for those to drain.

## A Kortix session, from the docs

`docs.md`

```
A session is one piece of agent work.
The session runs on its own cloud computer, so it never touches your own computer or another session.
A schedule, a webhook or an event in another app starts a session with nobody at the keyboard.
```

Source: https://kortix.com/docs

## Cowork location questions, answered

### Does Claude Cowork run locally or in the cloud?

In the cloud on Pro, Max and Ultra plans. Since 6 October 2026, new Cowork tasks there run on Anthropic's servers, while tasks started earlier stay on the computer until they finish. Team plans get cloud sessions in beta on web and mobile.

### Can you choose where a Claude Cowork task runs?

No, not on Pro, Max or Ultra. Anthropic removed the location setting with the October change and states there is no way to pick a location on those plans. A task that must stay on one computer is a Claude Code job.

### What happened to Claude Cowork's 'Only on your computer' setting?

Anthropic removed it from Settings > General on 6 October 2026. Accounts still set that way moved to the cloud the next time the desktop app opened, and the change cannot be reversed.

### What still needs the Claude desktop app?

Local files, local connectors, browser use and computer use. A cloud session reaches them only while the app is open on that machine, and the connected folders stay on the computer.

## Put the platform and the record on your own server

Start with one project and one agent, then read the change request the session hands back.

[Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Read the docs](https://kortix.com/docs)

---

A guide written by someone who works on Kortix's marketing. My pick is Kortix: open source, one repo, free to self-host.

Revised 2026-11-06

Not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI or Microsoft. Claude Cowork, ChatGPT Work and Copilot belong to their owners.

© 2026 claudecoworkalternative.com