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Claude Code

Documentation overview for Anthropic's coding agent, covering installation and use in the terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, a desktop app and the web, plus MCP, skills, hooks and scheduled tasks.

Coding agentsCommand-line tools
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What it does

The page describes Claude Code as an AI-powered coding assistant that reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and connects to your development tools. It runs on several surfaces: a terminal CLI, extensions for VS Code (and Cursor) and JetBrains, a desktop app, and a browser version that is also reachable from the Claude app on iOS and Android. Terminal install options include a native installer script for macOS, Linux and WSL, PowerShell and CMD scripts for Windows, Homebrew, WinGet, and apt, dnf or apk packages. The desktop app is offered for macOS and Windows (x64 and ARM64), with a beta build for Ubuntu and Debian. Most surfaces need a Claude subscription or Anthropic Console account, and the desktop app requires a paid subscription. Documented capabilities include writing tests and fixing lint errors, building features and fixing bugs across multiple files, creating commits and pull requests, and connecting tools over MCP. You can customize it with CLAUDE.md instructions, auto memory, skills and hooks, run parallel or custom agents through the Agent SDK, script it from the CLI in CI, and schedule recurring work with routines, desktop scheduled tasks or /loop. Sessions can move between surfaces with Remote Control, Dispatch, teleport and Slack.

Capabilities

  • Terminal CLI, VS Code and JetBrains extensions, desktop app and web
  • Connects to external tools over MCP
  • CLAUDE.md instructions, auto memory, skills and hooks
  • Parallel agents and an Agent SDK for building custom agents
  • Scriptable CLI for CI and scheduled routines
  • Remote Control and handoff of sessions between surfaces

When to use it

  • You are installing Claude Code and need the install method for your operating system
  • You want to automate code review or issue triage in CI with GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD
  • You want to customize the agent with project instructions, skills, hooks or MCP servers