Who is Claude? The AI That Actually Gets It

Tired of copy-pasting code between your editor and browser AI tools? There's a better way. Claude Code lives in your terminal and actually understands your entire codebase.

Try This Right Now

Anthropic now offers native installers - no Node.js required:

# macOS / Linux - one command install
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
 
# Windows PowerShell (run as Administrator)
irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
 
# Or via Homebrew (Mac/Linux)
brew install --cask claude-code

Navigate to any project and start: cd your-project && claude

Ask Claude anything: "What does this project do?" or "Find where authentication happens." It reads your files, understands context, and responds intelligently.

What is Claude?

Claude is an AI assistant built by Anthropic, designed to be helpful, harmless, and honest. Unlike chatbots that bolt safety on as an afterthought, Claude uses Constitutional AI - ethical principles trained directly into the model.

The current lineup includes:

• Claude Sonnet 4 - Fast, capable, excellent for coding (72.7% on SWE-bench)
• Claude Opus 4 - Maximum intelligence for complex reasoning
• Claude Haiku 4 - Lightning fast for simple tasks

Claude powers the AI features in Cursor, Replit, and dozens of other developer tools. When companies bet millions on AI code generation, they choose Claude.

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is Anthropic's official terminal tool that brings Claude directly into your development workflow. No more browser tabs. No more copy-paste. Just natural language commands that actually work.

Here's what makes it different:

# Understand your codebase instantly
claude "explain how the authentication flow works"
 
# Make real changes
claude "add error handling to all API routes"
 
# Handle git workflows
claude "create a PR for these changes with a good description"

Claude Code reads your files, runs commands, edits code, and manages git - all while maintaining 200K tokens of context. That's roughly 150,000 words, enough to hold your entire project in memory.

Why Developers Are Switching

Terminal-native workflow: No IDE plugins to break. No subscriptions to manage. Just your terminal.

Real file access: Claude Code doesn't just suggest edits - it makes them. Review changes, approve them, ship.

Context that persists: Create a CLAUDE.md file in your project root, and Claude remembers your coding standards, architecture decisions, and workflows across sessions.

Multi-file intelligence: Ask Claude to refactor a feature across ten files. It understands the connections and makes coherent changes.

Your Next Steps

Ready to go deeper? Here's where to start:

1. What is Claude Code? - Understand the core concepts and capabilities
2. Installation Guide - Detailed setup for Mac, Windows, and Linux
3. Your First Project - Build something real in your first session
4. Configuration Basics - Customize Claude Code for your workflow

The future of coding isn't about chatbots. It's about AI that lives where you work and actually gets things done. Claude Code is that future, available today.