[FEATURE] Expose the "Run Cowork in the cloud" toggle on Pro and Max, or provide any local-execution path for individual users

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Cowork now runs in the cloud by default. The setting that restores local execution, "Run Cowork in the cloud," exists, but it is owner-controlled on Team and Enterprise only. Individual Pro and Max users who chose Cowork specifically because it ran on their machine have no way to get that back at any price they can actually buy.
What changed

I use Cowork for a research practice anchored to a local folder: roughly 1,100 files in Google Drive, a state file and a dependency graph that every session reads and updates, and a dozen custom skills that operate on those files. I chose Cowork over the alternatives because the agent loop ran on my machine with direct access to that folder.

Since the move to cloud sessions:

A session reaches my files only through the device bridge, and only while the desktop app is open on the machine that started the session.
Every read, edit and search is a round trip from Anthropic's servers to my machine. Work that used to be instant is visibly slow, and a routine state-file update now costs several transfers.
The local folder attached to my Cowork project no longer does anything. Per the docs, "Projects tied to a local folder support Cowork sessions on desktop only." The attachment still appears configured in the UI and silently has no effect, which cost me real time before I worked out why.
Folder access has to be granted again in every new session.

Why the documented workaround is not available to individual users

The architecture docs say an owner can turn cloud sessions off and leave local desktop Cowork running. That control exists only on Team and Enterprise. For a one-person business to reach it, the path is:

Create a Team org on a business domain (public domains are refused for the creating account).
Pay a two-seat minimum on a plan documented as "not intended for individual use."
Add the personal domain as a permitted domain, invite the personal account, and migrate.
Accept that custom skills have "no migration path," along with connected-app sign-ins, self-added connectors, published artifacts, and existing Cowork cloud sessions. The migration is one-way.

That is substantial cost plus irreversible loss to recover a capability that was already working.

Proposed Solution

Expose "Run Cowork in the cloud" as a per-user setting on Pro and Max, defaulting to on. Users who want cross-device continuity keep it. Users whose work is anchored to a local folder can turn it off and get the previous behavior.

Two smaller changes that would each help on their own, if the toggle is out of scope:

Make a project's attached local folder function in cloud sessions, or state clearly in the UI that the attachment is inert outside desktop sessions.
Let folder grants persist per project instead of resetting every session.

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

Configuration and settings

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

Relationship to #61398

Issue #61398 asks for cross-device session continuity in Cowork. I am not asking for that to be reverted; continuity is worth having, and it is the thing I would have asked for. The problem is that it shipped bundled with remote execution and the loss of direct local file access, with no way to choose one without the other.

Two things worth knowing before you post. The silent-inert-folder-attachment point is the strongest item in here, because it is a plain bug rather than a preference, and it is the one most likely to get fixed regardless of what happens to the toggle. And I left your file counts approximate ("roughly 1,100," "a dozen") rather than exact, since precision there invites a quibble and adds nothing.