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Claude is not one app. It is one account behind many doors: a website, a desktop app, a phone, a terminal, a sidebar in Chrome, a bot in Slack, a panel inside Excel. Same model, same memory of your work, wildly different reach. People who feel lost in the product lineup are usually missing one idea: the doors differ in what they can touch, not in who is behind them. Learn the map once and every new feature Anthropic ships will land in a slot you already have.

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The Claude landscape

Everything orbits your account, literally. The inner ring is where you open Claude. The outer ring is where Claude comes to you. Hover to pause the motion, click any product for its dossier.
Eleven doors sounds like a lot to learn. It is not, because three rules govern all of them.

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Three laws of the landscape

Law 01One account, everywhereChats, Projects, and memory follow your login. Start a thought on the train, finish it at your desk, review it from the couch. Nothing is trapped in a device.
Law 02Features land on the web firstIf a feature exists, claude.ai has it. The browser is the reference surface. Every other door adds reach on top of it, not features instead of it.
Law 03Local reach stays localOnly the desktop app can touch the files and tools on the machine it runs on, and that reach never follows you to another device. This is a security boundary, not a sync gap.

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A workday across the landscape

A map is easier to trust once you have watched someone walk it. Here is one piece of work moving through six doors in a single day, without ever being copied, pasted, or re-explained.
Notice what made that day work. Not one door was chosen for comfort. Each one was chosen for reach: the phone because it was there, Research because the answer needed sources, the desktop because the files were local, Cowork because the task could run without a babysitter.

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What’s in this section

Claude Web vs Claude Desktop

Same account, different reach. When each one wins, and where to download everything.

Surfaces map

Projects, Artifacts, Research, Cowork, and Code. Six rooms, one building.

Chrome and Microsoft add-ins

Claude inside the pages, sheets, and decks you already have open.

Sharing and permissions

What you share, who can see it, and what leaves your session.

Lab: One deal, two surfaces

Run a Harborview renewal decision on Claude web, then Desktop Cowork. Copy the prompts, check the outputs, score the friction.

Quiz: Claude landscape

Ten instructor-led questions before you leave this section.