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Claude Code: the terminal agent — Code with AI

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An agent that lives where your code lives

Anthropic's Claude Code is an agentic coding tool: it reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and works with git. It runs in your terminal, and the same engine is available in VS Code and JetBrains, a desktop app, and on the web at claude.ai/code. It needs a Claude subscription or an Anthropic API account.

📝 Read the full lesson notes

An agent that lives where your code lives

Anthropic's Claude Code is an agentic coding tool: it reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and works with git. It runs in your terminal, and the same engine is available in VS Code and JetBrains, a desktop app, and on the web at claude.ai/code. It needs a Claude subscription or an Anthropic API account.

CLAUDE.md: its project memory

Claude Code reads a CLAUDE.md file from your project at the start of every session — your stack, commands, conventions and gotchas. Run /init and it'll draft one by exploring your code. (If your repo already has an AGENTS.md for other agents, it can read that too.)

A good CLAUDE.md is the single biggest upgrade to its output.

Shortcuts and commands worth memorizing

  • Shift+Tab — cycle permission modes, including plan mode (it researches and proposes a plan, no edits until you approve).
  • @path/to/file — point it at specific files.
  • ! at the start of a line — run a shell command yourself and share the output with Claude.
  • Esc — interrupt. Esc Esc — rewind to an earlier point (it checkpoints its edits).
  • /clear — fresh context for a new task. /model — switch models.
  • claude -p "…" — run it headless in scripts and CI: git diff main --name-only | claude -p "review these files".

Level up: subagents, hooks, skills, MCP

Subagents handle side tasks (research, reviews) in their own clean context. Hooks run your shell commands automatically before/after actions — e.g. auto-format after every edit. Skills package reusable workflows like /review-pr. MCP connects Claude Code to tools like GitHub, Jira, Slack or your database.

You don't need any of these on day one — but they're how teams make it fit their workflow.

Try it: understand a codebase in minutes

Give me a tour of this codebase: what it does, how it's structured, the main data flow, and the 3 files I should read first. Then suggest 3 small improvements, ranked by value.

Part of 💻 Code with AI in the free AI Bootcamp.