Claude Code: Anthropic's CLI Agent

Claude Code is an AI coding agent for your terminal — installable with one command.

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is Anthropic's AI agent for the command line (terminal). Instead of chatting in a web UI, you work directly inside your project folder: Claude Code can read files, write code, run commands, use Git, and run tests — all in the context of your real project.

Installation

With Node.js installed:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Then start it by running claude inside your project folder.

First steps

Open a terminal, navigate to your project folder
Type claude to start
Describe a task in plain language, e.g. "Add a dark-mode toggle to the navbar"
Claude Code reads the relevant files and proposes or makes the changes
Review the changes (look at the diff), approve or adjust

Why the terminal instead of a chat window?

Because your actual project lives in the terminal: Git, build tools, tests, the file system. An agent working directly there can really run and verify things — not just suggest code snippets you have to copy-paste yourself.

Safety

By default, Claude Code asks for your confirmation before risky actions (like deleting files or running commands).