This table compares four Claude modes — Chat, Cowork, Claude Design, and Code — across use cases, file access, sub-agent support, and plugins. Chat is best for quick questions, brainstorming, and creating artifacts, with no direct file access, no sub-agents, and no plugins. Cowork focuses on multi-step workflows, research, and writing, with sandboxed file access, sub-agents, and plugin support. Claude Design is tailored for UI generation, prototyping, design systems, and idea-to-interface workflows, with sandboxed access and sub-agents but no plugins. Code is optimized for development, debugging, and project-wide refactoring, with full local file access, sub-agents, and plugins available via MCP.