Claude Code

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool made by Anthropic. Given instructions in plain language, it uses Anthropic's Claude AI models to read a codebase, edit files, run commands and tests, and create Git commits and pull requests. Unlike a chat assistant that suggests code, it works on the project directly, asking permission for actions according to modes the developer sets. It runs in the terminal, in code editors such as Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs, in a desktop app and on the web.

History

Claude Code began in late 2024 as a side project of Anthropic engineer Boris Cherny, who still leads it. It was released as a research preview on 24 February 2025, alongside the Claude 3.7 Sonnet model, and became generally available on 22 May 2025 with the Claude 4 models. Version 2.0 followed on 29 September 2025. Anthropic said in February 2026 that Claude Code's annualised revenue had passed $2.5 billion, more than doubling since the start of that year. In October 2026 its npm package was being downloaded about 15 million times a week.

Features

• Project memory: a CLAUDE.md file in a repository gives standing instructions that the agent reads at the start of each session.
• Tools and integrations: it connects to outside services through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard Anthropic introduced in 2024, and can run in GitHub Actions and Slack.
• Extensibility: hooks, custom slash commands, skills, plugins and subagents let teams adapt it, and the Claude Agent SDK lets developers build their own agents on the same engine.

Ecosystem

Claude Code competes with other coding agents, including Codex from OpenAI, Antigravity from Google, and Cursor. Apps such as T3 Code give one interface for running Claude Code next to other agents, and platforms such as Lakebed are designed for agents like it to build and deploy apps without a human clicking through a dashboard.