Navigating the Claude desktop app

The Claude desktop app puts Claude on your computer. That lets Claude open from any app with a shortcut, work in more of your apps and websites, and directly read, edit, or save files in your folders to carry a task further from start to finish.

Working in code? See the Claude Code desktop docs.

Conversations, projects, memory, skills, uploads, voice, and your connectors (email, calendar, Slack, Drive) work the same on the web, your phone, and the desktop app.

1. Claude is one shortcut away

In the Claude desktop app, quick entry is a small Claude window that opens on top of whatever app you're in and stays in front as you switch apps. Reach it a few ways:

• Type: Double-tap Option on a Mac, or use the shortcut you set in Settings on Windows or Linux (beta), then type your question.
• Speak (Mac): Press Caps Lock, talk, then press it again (turn it on in Settings).
• Menu bar or system tray: Click the Claude icon in the menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows). Turn it on or off with the Menu bar or System tray setting in Settings.

On a Mac you can also show your screen. Hover over a window to send a screenshot of it, or drag to capture part of the screen (the first time, choose Turn on screenshots). To attach a file, drag it onto the app icon or open it with Claude.

Voice, dictation, and uploads work on the web, your phone, and the desktop app (dictation isn't available on Linux yet); the desktop app lets you reach these features in Claude quickly, from whatever app you're in.

Things to ask:

• What do these numbers mean, and which one should I keep an eye on?
• Summarize what's on my screen right now.
• Help me word a reply to this message.

2. Claude can work in your files, apps, and websites

On the desktop app, Claude can work directly in the files, apps, and websites where your work already is. Instead of carrying material to Claude and results away, you let Claude handle the whole task in place. You choose what Claude can use, and Claude works only with what you share: folders, apps, websites, or your screen.

Folders

On the web you might upload or drag in files. On the desktop app, Claude can go directly to your folders to read and edit what it needs and save finished work back to them.

To give access:

1. Under the message box, add a folder.
2. Allow Claude to edit the files in it.

With that permission, Claude reads what it needs from the folder and saves finished work back to it.

Once Claude can see a folder, you can ask Claude to:

• Pull the numbers from a folder of PDF invoices into one spreadsheet.
• Sort a cluttered Downloads folder into clearly named subfolders.
• Each month, add the new invoices to that same spreadsheet, building a running record.

A task like that can later run on a schedule.

Apps

Connectors are available wherever you use Claude and connect tools like your email, docs, and CRM. In addition to those, the desktop app lets you add extensions like Apple Notes or Messages on a Mac. Add them from Extensions in the desktop app. See the extensions guide.

Things to ask:

• Turn the action items from this thread into a new Apple note.
• Text Sam that I'm running ten minutes late.
• Pull my notes on the Rivera account into a summary I can send.

Websites

The built-in browser is a browser panel inside the desktop app, next to your task. Claude can open sites, read pages, click, type, and fill forms in it, and you watch each step as it happens. It has its own tabs and history, separate from your own browser, so your Chrome stays free for you while Claude works in its own window.

1. In Settings, set the built-in browser as your preferred browser.
2. Ask Claude to use a website.
3. The first time Claude acts on that site, you choose to allow it once, allow it always for that site, or deny it.

Things to ask:

• Find the opening hours and phone number on this restaurant's site.
• Fill out this online form using the details in my folder.
• Check whether this part is in stock on the supplier's site.

A task in Claude, on the web or the desktop app, can also work in your own Chrome through the Claude in Chrome browser extension. The same extension opens Claude in Chrome next to the page you're on.

Your screen, through computer use (beta)

For work that isn't in your files, connected tools, or on the web, computer use lets Claude work in other apps and programs by using your screen, mouse, and keyboard. Claude usually tries a connector first, then the built-in browser, and turns to computer use when neither fits, because clicking through one step at a time is the slowest of the three.

Computer use suits installed software with no connector, like an accounting program, a design tool, or an internal company app, and work that moves between apps, such as taking figures from one program into another.

Once it's turned on in Settings, Claude uses computer use on its own when a task needs it, or when you ask for it directly. While it works, Claude is moving the cursor and typing.

Things to ask:

• Enter the receipts in this folder into my accounting app.
• Copy the figures from this spreadsheet into our internal ordering system.
• Resize these images in my photo editor and export them to this folder.

Record a skill

Skills are saved instructions that let Claude repeat a workflow the way you do it, whenever that work comes up. Some workflows are easier to show than to write down, so you can record one instead.

1. Start it from the plus menu in the message box.
2. Do the task once, saying what you're doing as you go.
3. Choose Done, and Claude turns the recording into a skill.

The skill is then available in Claude. While recording, don't type passwords or secrets, or show sensitive information or private conversations.

Things to record:

• Pull each store's weekly sales from its dashboard into our shared sheet.
• Copy new leads from the form into the CRM the way I do it.
• File each week's reports into the right folders by client.

All of it together

The desktop app lets a single task draw on your local files, your connectors, and the web together. Uploading and connectors already work everywhere; here they combine with Claude's ability to view, edit, and save files directly on your computer.

Try prompts like:

• Read my resume in my Downloads folder and my project files in Google Drive, then look through job sites for roles that fit and shortlist the best ones.
• Compare the invoices in my Vendors folder against the bills in Gmail, then check each vendor's website for current pricing.
• Read the deck in my Pitch folder, check my calendar for the client meeting, and look up their latest news on their website.

3. Claude can keep going while you're away

Start a big task and step away. It keeps going after you close the window, and you can check on it or answer its questions from the web or the mobile app.

When the task is working in a folder, an app, or the browser on your computer, that computer is part of the task, so keep it on and awake with the desktop app open. Keep computer awake in Settings stops it from idle-sleeping while the app is open. The display can still turn off, and closing the laptop lid still puts it to sleep.

Get started

Download the desktop app for Mac, Windows, or Linux (beta).