What is Claude Code?

VIDEO PROCESSING...

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool built by Anthropic. It reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands, and integrates directly into your development workflow.

**Why it matters:** Traditional AI coding tools generate snippets you paste. Claude Code is fundamentally different — it operates inside your project, reads your files, understands your architecture and takes action autonomously. It's the difference between a search engine and a coworker.

Key insight

Claude Code is not a chatbot. It's an agent — it takes actions in your environment (reads files, edits code, runs commands) instead of just answering questions.

You can use Claude Code in multiple environments:

+Terminal CLI — primary interface, full power+VS Code — inline diffs, @-mentions, conversation history+JetBrains — IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm+Desktop App — visual diff review, parallel sessions+Web (claude.ai/code) — no local install, cloud sessions

bash

1# Start Claude Code in any project
2cd your-project
3claude
4
5# Or pass a task directly
6claude "explain what this project does"

bash

1# Claude Code works across your full workflow:
2claude "explain what this project does"         # Understand
3claude "fix the login bug and run tests"        # Fix
4claude "write tests for the auth module"        # Test
5claude "create a PR with these changes"         # Ship

Your turn

Before the next lesson, go to claude.ai/code and open a project. Type: "What does this code do?" — see what happens.