Anthropic Cowork feature creates 10GB VM bundle on macOS without warning
github.com
March 2, 2026
1 min read
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64/100
Summary
The cowork feature in Claude Desktop creates a 10GB VM bundle that leads to significant performance degradation, including slow startup, UI lag, and slow responses. The VM bundle file, located at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/vm_bundles/claudevm.bundle/rootfs.img, grows to 10GB and is not cleaned up, causing performance issues to worsen over time during a single session.
Key Takeaways
- The cowork feature in Claude Desktop creates a 10GB VM bundle that significantly slows down performance, causing slow startup, UI lag, and delayed responses.
- Performance degrades over time even after cleaning up the VM bundle, with CPU usage increasing from 24% at idle to 55% after several minutes of use.
- Deleting the VM bundle and cache provides a temporary performance improvement of approximately 75%, but the degradation recurs shortly after.
- The expected behavior includes stable CPU usage without degradation and automatic cleanup of VM bundles after cowork sessions.
Community Sentiment
Positives
- The Claude Cowork feature leverages a VM to provide a dedicated environment for AI agents, enhancing their ability to write custom scripts and solve user problems effectively.
- Using a VM for AI development allows separation from the user's local environment, which can lead to improved safety and performance in executing tasks.
Concerns
- There are concerns that the quality of AI-generated products may decline as reliance on AI tools increases, potentially diminishing the role of professional developers.
- The lack of effective storage management in applications leads to excessive disk usage, which can hinder user experience and efficiency.