Anthropic’s agentic coding tool that reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and opens pull requests from the terminal, IDE, desktop, web or mobile.
- Same agent in the terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, desktop, web, mobile and Slack
- Agentic search maps large repositories without hand-picking context
- Handles long refactors and migrations and can open pull requests itself
- Asks permission before editing files or running commands
- Not available on the free Claude plan
- Heavy agent sessions can push users from Pro to the pricier Max tier
- Terminal-first design has a learning curve for developers used to inline autocomplete
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude models, built Claude Code as an agentic coding tool rather than a chat window. It reads a codebase, edits files, runs commands and can carry work from an issue to a pull request, asking for permission before it changes files or executes anything. It is a separate product from the Claude chatbot, though both share one subscription.
The terminal is the core interface, working alongside the command-line tools a developer already uses. The same agent runs in VS Code (including forks such as Cursor and Devin Desktop), JetBrains IDEs, a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, the browser at claude.ai/code, and the iOS and Android apps. Tasks can also start from Slack or run through GitHub Actions. Claude Code uses agentic search to map large repositories without manual context selection, handles multi-hour refactors and migrations, and works with GitHub, GitLab and CLI tools to read issues, write code, run tests and open PRs. The desktop app groups sessions into Projects for supervising several agents at once, and Team and Enterprise plans get Code Review.
The tool is aimed at developers comfortable delegating whole tasks, from bug fixes and test writing to large migrations, and at teams that want one agent across the terminal, IDE and CI. It is not part of the free Claude plan: access starts with Claude Pro, and heavier daily use usually pushes people toward Max or the API-billed Console, where costs follow standard token pricing.
