Claude Code

Claude Code is Anthropic's coding assistant: a Claude that works directly on the files on your computer, able to read a project, write and modify code, run commands and check what it does. It was born for the terminal (the command window), but today it's also used from the desktop app, the web and code editors like VS Code (checked in September 2026).

The difference with the Claude chat is that here you don't copy and paste: Claude Code acts. It's what's called an agent, an AI that takes several steps on its own to carry out a job. Even though it's called "Code", it's useful for more than programming: organising files, preparing documents or automating repetitive tasks. What usually confuses beginners is that it works on your real files. It asks for permission before sensitive actions, but it's wise to work with copies or with version control (a history that lets you go back) in case something goes wrong.

It's one of the tools I work with most. It appears in "Why I switched from ChatGPT to Claude", where I explain what made me switch, and I use it heavily in "I built a website with the help of artificial intelligence" and in "I built my own tool without being a programmer". If you want to try it, start in a test folder, not in your company's.