Domain 1Cowork Foundations & Agentic Architecture
Sandboxed Virtual Machine (VM)
TL;DR
The isolated execution environment where Cowork runs on your local machine.
Definition
The isolated execution environment where Cowork runs on your local machine. The VM acts as a secure container — Claude can read, write, and manipulate files within it, but cannot access anything outside the folders you explicitly grant. If Claude runs bad code or makes an error, the damage stays inside the sandbox.
Exam Context
A frequently tested concept. Know that the VM runs locally (not in the cloud), that closing the app or sleeping the computer stops execution immediately, and that Computer Use operates outside the VM boundary.