Desktop App

The Desktop app isn’t a different tool from the CLI you’ve been using — it’s the same agent, same models, same underlying loop, wrapped in a GUI. What it adds is organization (Projects), a mode for non-coding work (Cowork), and some conveniences around running things safely in parallel.

What it gives you

Desktop app capabilities

Capability	What it gives you
Projects	Group all chats for a project — shared context, one place per codebase/goal
Cowork	A general work assistant, not just for code — e.g. helps draft slides or other knowledge-work deliverables
Git worktrees	Run tasks on isolated worktrees so parallel sessions don’t collide with each other’s file changes
Per-chat controls	Choose model + effort level, attach files, use commands — same steering power as the CLI, friendlier UI

The mental model

Same underlying engine, GUI on top. Projects is for organization — one home per codebase or goal, with shared context across chats. Cowork is for work that isn’t code. Worktrees are for safe parallelism — running more than one task at a time without them stepping on each other’s file changes.

Desktop-specific settings

The Desktop app has its own settings

These live under Settings → Claude Code in the Desktop app. They’re separate from your CLI config (settings.json, CLAUDE.md, etc.) and won’t automatically match it — check both if behavior seems inconsistent between the two.

• Allow bypass permissions mode — the Desktop equivalent of --dangerously-skip-permissions. Same caution applies as on the CLI: see Security and Client Data before turning this on, especially on a machine with client codebases on it.
• Draw attention on notifications — flags the app when input is needed or a task finishes. Worth enabling for anything you kick off and then walk away from.
• Worktree location — where on disk new git worktrees get created.

Adding new skills or plugins doesn’t require touching the filesystem either — you can browse and install them directly from the Desktop UI.

Not just for code

The same agent loop — read files, use tools, produce output, iterate — works for non-coding work too, especially through Cowork: drafting and organizing documents and reports, research and summarizing, automating repetitive non-coding chores. Claude Code isn’t only for code, and the Desktop app is where that’s most obvious.

Check yourselfWhat's the actual difference between a 'Project' and a git 'worktree' in the Desktop app?

They solve different problems. A Project is an organizational container — it groups related chats together so they share context, giving you one place per codebase or goal. A worktree is a filesystem-level isolation mechanism — a separate working copy of your git repo so that a task running in it can’t collide with file changes from another task running in parallel. You can have multiple worktrees inside one Project.