Claude Code

Anthropic's agentic coding system, available as a CLI, VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, macOS and Windows desktop apps, a web surface at claude.ai/code, the Claude Agent SDK (TypeScript and Python), a GitHub Action, and a GitHub App. It reads your repo, makes multi-file edits, runs tests, and iterates on failures. The 2026 step change is dynamic workflows on Opus 4.8: it can spawn hundreds of parallel subagents in one session for codebase-scale migrations.

• Subagents and agent teams: parent session delegates to YAML-defined workers with their own context and tools
• Skills: reusable instruction packs the session calls into when triggers match; bundled set plus a 6,700-skill marketplace
• Hooks: deterministic shell commands the harness runs around tool calls, used for permissions, formatting, automated behaviour
• Plugins and MCP servers: 9,000-plus extensions across the official marketplace and community sites
• Dynamic workflows and Ultra Code mode on Opus 4.8 for parallel codebase-scale work

• Migrate a Django 4 codebase to Django 5 across two hundred files in one session
• Stand up a FastAPI service from a written spec, including tests, CI, and a Dockerfile
• Add Stripe billing to an existing Next.js app and write the regression tests
• Run a security review of the current diff as a hook before every git push
• Pair with a non-developer ops manager to script repetitive Excel and Outlook tasks via Python

Genuine learning curve if you have never lived in a terminal. Token costs add up quickly with parallel subagents; Max plan is effectively required for serious daily use. Plugin fatigue is real, ten heavy MCP servers eat the context window before you have written anything.

Included in Pro (limited usage), Max (the realistic plan for daily use at one hundred or two hundred US dollars per month), and Team Premium (one hundred and twenty-five US dollars per seat per month). API usage is metered separately at Opus 4.7 rates (five US dollars input, twenty-five US dollars output per million tokens).