Claude Code is an AI coding agent made by Anthropic. It reads a codebase, edits files, runs commands and works through tasks such as fixing bugs, writing tests and building features. Anthropic released it as a preview in February 2025 and made it generally available in May 2025.
It started as a command line tool that runs in the developer's terminal. It now also works inside VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, on the web, in a desktop app and in Slack. It can connect to outside tools through the Model Context Protocol, and teams can extend it with custom commands and hooks. It runs on Anthropic's Claude models.
Claude Code is included in Claude Pro and Max subscriptions, and in Team and Enterprise plans. Developers can also pay per use through the Claude API. Anthropic publishes the Claude Agent SDK so developers can build their own agents on the same base.