Claude Code
Anthropic’s coding agent: it reads your project and writes or changes code from instructions in plain language.
Not the same as a code editor with AI
An editor with AI keeps you in the file and suggests changes in place. Claude Code lives in the terminal, where git, your tests and your package manager already are — so it can run them and read what came back.
Where it bites
Its usefulness is bounded by what it read, not by what exists. Starting it in the wrong folder, or asking about a file you never pointed it at, produces a confident answer about a project it has not seen.
Covered in these lessons
Related terms
Where this comes up
Also written as claude code. Checked 2026-08-06.