Cowork vs Code
Choose chat collaboration or file-based work deliberately.
Cowork (Claude Desktop)
For docs, specs, research, design, meeting notes. The chat-style interface with persistent projects.
Code (Claude Code terminal)
For code, scripts, debugging, refactoring. The CLI interface with file-system access.
The bridge
Most Car-Mart work spans both. A bug fix in code becomes a doc update in Cowork. A spec draft in Cowork becomes a feature in Code.
I'm starting [task]. Decide: should I use Cowork or Code? Give me the
reasoning, the first command/click to start, and the expected output shape.In your lane
Code for the bug fix. Open claude in the repo. Read the failing test. Propose 3 fixes ranked by safety. Apply #1. Verify.
Cowork for the spec. Open Claude Desktop. New chat. Draft a feature spec for [feature] using our template: Problem, User Story, Acceptance Criteria, Out of Scope.
Cowork for the dashboard mockup. Generate a table mockup for the q3-dashboard. Columns: metric, value, target, trend. Rows: 5 KPIs from the data dict in /context/q3.json.
Open Claude Code. Run one command. Open Claude Desktop. Draft one doc.