Claude Cowork is Anthropic's desktop agent. Same agentic architecture as Claude Code, but with a GUI built for knowledge workers. It can see your screen, navigate apps, fill out forms, and complete multi-step tasks on its own.
Honestly, Cowork might be the single best agent for making online purchases right now. It literally watches the checkout page and fills in the fields. Here's how to set it up.
What you need
- Claude Desktop app (macOS or Windows) with a Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan
- Cowork mode enabled in Claude Desktop
- Node.js 18+ for the AgentCard CLI
- A payment method (credit card, debit card, or USDC)
How Claude Cowork makes purchases
Cowork uses the Computer Use API to interact with your desktop. Screenshots, UI elements, button clicks, form fills — it acts like a human sitting at your computer. Which means it can:
- Open a browser and navigate to any merchant
- Add items to a cart
- Go to checkout
- Fill in card number, CVV, expiry, and billing info
- Click "Place Order"
All it needs is a card number. That's where we come in.
Step 1: Install the AgentCard CLI
Open your terminal and install:
npm install -g agentcard
Or just ask Cowork to install it. It has terminal access.
Step 2: Sign up
You can ask Cowork to handle this, or do it yourself:
agentcard signup --email you@example.com
Check your email, click the magic link. That's it — you're in.
Step 3: Ask Cowork to create a card and make a purchase
This is the fun part. One instruction does it all:
"Create a $25 AgentCard virtual card, then go to Namecheap and buy the domain mycoolproject.dev"
Cowork will:
- Open a terminal and run
agentcard create --amount 25 - Open the Stripe Checkout page and wait for your payment (or guide you through USDC payment)
- Run
agentcard details <card-id>to retrieve the card credentials - Open a browser to Namecheap
- Search for the domain
- Add it to cart and proceed to checkout
- Fill in the card details at the payment form
- Complete the purchase
The Cowork advantage: it can see
Here's the reality with most AI agents and checkout flows — they're blind. They can't see the page. Cowork is different. It literally reads your screen, finds the form labels, and fills in the right fields. Weird custom checkout? Doesn't matter. Cowork sees it and figures it out.
We've tested it against a bunch of checkout flows. It handles:
- Multi-step checkouts — shipping, billing, review, confirmation. No problem.
- CAPTCHAs — it can attempt visual CAPTCHAs (some tricky ones may need your help)
- 2FA flows — navigates them if they pop up
- Account creation — merchant requires signup? Cowork handles it mid-checkout
Example workflows
Buying SaaS subscriptions
"Create a $20 AgentCard and sign up for a Figma starter plan using it."
Cowork opens Figma, finds the pricing page, picks the plan, and enters card details. Done in under two minutes.
Ordering food
"Create a $30 AgentCard and order me a pepperoni pizza from DoorDash to my home address."
Cowork opens DoorDash, finds a nearby pizza place, adds a pepperoni pizza, applies the card at checkout, and places the order.
Paying for developer tools
"Create a $50 AgentCard and buy 1,000 Vercel function invocations on my account."
Cowork navigates to your Vercel billing page and processes the payment.
Security with Cowork
Cowork runs on your desktop and can see everything on screen. That's its superpower, but it also means you should be thoughtful:
- Right-size the card — pizza costs ~$25? Create a $30 card. Not $200.
- One card, one purchase. Don't reuse cards across tasks.
- You can watch — Cowork works on your visible desktop. You'll see exactly what it's doing.
- Freeze when done — have Cowork run
agentcard balance <card-id>, then freeze the card.
We built it this way on purpose. Even if something goes sideways, you lose the card balance at most. Never your real credit card.
Cowork vs. Claude Code for purchases
| Feature | Claude Cowork | Claude Code | |---|---|---| | Interface | Desktop GUI | Terminal | | Checkout method | Visual form-filling | CLI + programmatic | | Merchant compatibility | Any (sees the screen) | API-based merchants | | Best for | Visual checkout flows | Programmatic purchases | | Payment setup | Same (AgentCard CLI) | Same (AgentCard CLI) |
Both use the same AgentCard CLI to create cards and get details. The difference is the last mile — Cowork fills in visual forms like a human, while Claude Code works programmatically through APIs and scripts.
Get started
Install AgentCard, flip to Cowork mode in Claude Desktop, and tell it to buy something:
npm install -g agentcard
agentcard signup --email you@example.com
Then in Claude Desktop (Cowork mode):
"Create a $25 AgentCard and buy me [whatever you need]."
Cowork handles the rest.