Where Does a Claude Agent Run?

Different Claude tools run agents in different places. The choice shapes what the agent can do.

Claude (claude.ai)

The agent runs inside a gVisor container on the server side. No local setup required—everything runs remotely. The container is ephemeral; each session starts fresh and leaves no traces.

Claude Code

The agent runs on your machine. It can execute every command and access every file that your logged-in user can access. For advanced users concerned about blast radius, start a sandbox first (like a microVM) and run Claude Code inside that isolated environment.

Claude Cowork

The agent runs on a VM. On macOS, it uses the Virtualization framework; on Windows, it uses HCS. The VM has its own Linux kernel and filesystem. But the agent loop itself runs outside the VM—only code execution happens inside.

Each design is a tradeoff. Server-side isolation is safe but ephemeral. Local execution is powerful but risky. VM-based execution gives you isolation with some local access.