Claude terms explained: Projects, Artifacts, Cowork, and scheduled tasks

TL;DR: If you have only used Claude for chat, the Projects, instructions, Artifacts, Live Artifact, Cowork, scheduled tasks, and marketplace in the sidebar will look unfamiliar. These six slots are not separate features. They are one flow that widens from a single chat. This article walks through that flow in order.

If you have only used Claude for chat, here is where the question marks start. One day you open the sidebar and see unfamiliar names lined up together: Projects, instructions, Artifacts, Live Artifact, Cowork, scheduled tasks, and marketplace. From the names alone, it’s hard to tell how they differ or what order to learn them in.

In fact, these words are not a list of separate features. They form one flow that widens from a single question-and-answer chat. Context builds up so you don’t repeat the same background each time (Projects). Results persist on their own (Artifacts). Claude carries out multiple steps by itself (Cowork). Work runs automatically at set times (scheduled tasks). The diagram below shows that flow.

Contents

1. Projects and instructions: a place where you do not have to explain it each time
2. Artifacts: results that stay outside the chat scroll
3. Live Artifact: a screen that shows the current state each time it opens
4. Cowork: carrying multiple steps through to the end on its own
5. Scheduled tasks: running on their own at set times
6. Marketplace: a place where you do not have to explain the procedure from scratch
7. The map at a glance
8. Further reading

Projects and instructions: a place where you do not have to explain it each time

One-line definition: A project is a persistent workspace in Claude that groups multiple conversations, materials, and instructions in one place. Instructions are a system prompt that automatically applies to every conversation in that project.

When you run into it: If you open a new conversation on the same topic and keep retyping “this is what I do, and this is the tone I want,” that is where a project belongs. Claude’s official documentation also describes projects as “independent workspaces with their own conversation history and materials.”

What changes: Open a new conversation inside a project and the instructions and uploaded materials follow automatically. You no longer need to repeat background, and the more conversations pile up, the faster it actually gets. Instructions are rules that apply to every conversation in the project, so you don’t have to repeat requests like “always answer in this role” in each chat. Projects are available to all users, including free accounts, and the free plan allows up to 5 projects (verified August 31, 2026).

Artifacts: results that stay outside the chat scroll

One-line definition: An artifact is a finished result that appears in a separate panel next to a chat response. Documents, tables, and code with substantial length can be opened and edited directly in the app.

When you run into it: It appears when you ask Claude for a result with some substantial length, such as code, a document, or a table. The official documentation describes the criteria for an artifact as “substantial, self-contained content that users might modify or reuse.” However, artifacts are only created when the “Code execution and file creation” feature is turned on in settings. The official documentation highlights this prerequisite in bold.

What changes: The result doesn’t get buried in the chat scroll. It appears separately in the right panel, so you can keep the conversation going while still looking at the result. The official documentation also describes a feature for publishing a result as a public link (available on Free, Pro, and Max plans). Copying the link lets people without an account open it, and you can also get an embed code, which is the code you paste into a website.

Live Artifact: a screen that shows the current state each time it opens

One-line definition: A Live Artifact is an interactive HTML dashboard that Cowork creates and keeps updating (a screen you operate by clicking). It takes forms such as a tracker, a dashboard, a comparison tool, or a reference page.

When you run into it: Use it when you need to keep tracking or comparing something on screen, rather than reading organized data once as a table. Examples the official documentation gives include a progress tracker for each project, a competitor trend dashboard, and a morning brief that gathers today’s schedule and messages on one page. Live Artifacts are a Cowork feature and are available only on paid plans. Creating them is possible only in the desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux beta). They are not available on the web or on mobile.

What changes: It differs from a regular artifact in three ways. It stays in the Live artifacts tab of the Cowork sidebar on that computer, so you don’t need to search for it in chats. Each time you open it, it re-fetches data from connected apps and local files, showing the state as of today rather than the day it was created. Each update saves a version, so you can roll back to a previous one. However, this data is stored only on that computer. It does not follow you if you switch devices, and it does not appear in the web or mobile artifact view.

The public-link capability from the Artifacts section above does not carry over to this one. The official documentation states that Live Artifacts cannot be shared at all on Pro or Max plans, that on Team and Enterprise plans they can be shared only within the organization, and that public publishing is not possible on any plan.

Cowork: carrying multiple steps through to the end on its own

One-line definition: Cowork is a workspace where, once you state the result you want, Claude makes a plan, reads and writes files, runs the necessary tools directly, and handles the task through to the end.

When you run into it: Use it for work that isn’t finished by one question and one answer, such as organizing several files or gathering materials into a report. Cowork differs from chat in three ways. It handles multiple steps on its own rather than giving a single reply. It works with real files and tools within the folders you grant permission to and the tools you connect. And it waits for your approval before important actions.

What changes: Cowork tasks run as sessions in the cloud (beta), so they keep going even if you close the laptop or step away, and you can open the same session on another device to pick it up. Which plans are available varies by surface and feature. For example, the computer use feature, where Claude looks at the screen and clicks, is a research preview on Pro and Max plans (verified August 31, 2026). Cowork itself is available on paid Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans.

Scheduled tasks: running on their own at set times

One-line definition: Scheduled tasks (Schedules) is a Cowork feature where the same task runs on its own at set times and leaves results behind.

When you run into it: Use it when you want to stop asking for recurring work by hand, such as a daily morning summary or a weekly report. The official documentation gives examples like summarizing a day’s Slack messages, email, or calendar events; gathering spreadsheet or Drive materials into a weekly report; and regularly tracking a specific topic or competitor trends.

What changes: Scheduled tasks run remotely, so they execute on the set cycle even when your computer is asleep or the desktop app is closed. Connected tools, skills, and installed plugins can be used exactly as in regular Cowork tasks. Scheduled tasks are available on all paid Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans (verified August 31, 2026).

Marketplace: a place where you do not have to explain the procedure from scratch

One-line definition: The marketplace is where you find and install skills or plugins that other people have built, from a catalog.

When you run into it: Use it when, instead of explaining a work procedure to Claude from the beginning every time, you want to first check whether a proven procedure already exists. If you have been keeping your own procedures in a notepad and pasting them in each time, this is like downloading an app from an app store.

What changes: In the app, it takes just a few clicks. Open the Customize menu in the left sidebar, go to the Plugins tab, and press “Browse plugins,” and the Knowledge Work marketplace catalog that Anthropic attaches by default appears. Press “Install” on the item you want and you’re done. The separate procedure for registering a marketplace is needed only as an exception, when you add a repository outside this default catalog (for example, Anthropic’s official skills repository at github.com/anthropics/skills). In the developer CLI (Claude Code), the same tasks can also be done with commands. Plugins are available on paid Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, and the free plan does not support them (verified August 31, 2026).

The map at a glance

The plan conditions and feature scope in this article were verified directly from each feature document on support.claude.com on August 31, 2026. This area changes often, so before working on something where a decision depends on it, verify again the same way.

Further reading

• What are projects? (Anthropic Help Center) An official explanation of what projects are and how conversation history and materials are grouped.
• Use live artifacts in Claude Cowork (Anthropic Help Center) Covers the difference between Live Artifacts and regular artifacts, with real examples.