# Claude Code

> **TL;DR.** [Claude Code](https://claude.

- **Category:** AI / Developer Tools / Coding Agents
- **Stage:** established
- **Age:** 464 days
- **Origin date:** 2025-02-24
- **First detected:** 2026-04-15
- **Canonical URL:** https://earlyterms.com/term/claude-code
- **Sources:** 8 primary URLs

## Definition

[Claude Code](https://claude.com/product/claude-code) is Anthropic's official command-line coding agent — a terminal tool that reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands, opens PRs, and drives long-running engineering workflows through natural language. It ships as the `@anthropic-ai/claude-code` npm package plus a VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, desktop app, iOS client, and Slack integration, built on the [Claude Agent SDK](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview).

Anthropic launched Claude Code as a research preview on February 24, 2025 with no keynote or demo. It reached GA in May 2025, added a plugin marketplace in October 2025, and by the Pragmatic Engineer's Feb 2026 survey 46% of engineers called it their most loved coding tool — more than double Cursor (19%) and five times GitHub Copilot (9%).

## Analogy

Bash for AI — a long-lived shell you give objectives to, with a plugin / skill ecosystem forming around it like Homebrew or VS Code extensions.

## Why it's emerging now

The ecosystem has detached from the product: plugin marketplace (Oct 2025), skills, subagents, and seven-primitive mental models now frame Claude Code as a platform. Microsoft internally mandated it over Copilot in Feb 2026, and an Apr 16 CVSS 9.4 prompt-injection disclosure (Comment and Control) put the category's GitHub trust model under scrutiny.

## Related terms

- *parent:* Coding Agents
- *parent:* Claude Agent SDK
- *competitor:* OpenAI Codex CLI
- *competitor:* Cursor
- *competitor:* GitHub Copilot
- *competitor:* Gemini CLI
- *competitor:* OpenCode
- *competitor:* Hermes Agent
- *competitor:* OpenClaw
- *related:* Managed Agents
- *related:* MCP Server
- *related:* AGENTS.md
- *related:* CLAUDE.md
- *related:* Agent Skills
- *related:* Subagents

## Sources

1. [Claude Code — Anthropic product page](https://claude.com/product/claude-code)
2. [Claude Code — official documentation](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview)
3. [anthropics/claude-code on GitHub (115k+ stars)](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code)
4. [Anthropic — Enabling Claude Code to work more autonomously (Sep 29, 2025)](https://www.anthropic.com/news/enabling-claude-code-to-work-more-autonomously)
5. [Pragmatic Engineer — AI Tooling for Software Engineers in 2026](https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ai-tooling-2026)
6. [Hacker News — Claude Code is suddenly everywhere inside Microsoft](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46854999)
7. [LeadDev — Why Microsoft engineers are using Claude Code](https://leaddev.com/ai/why-microsoft-engineers-are-using-claude-code)
8. [Aonan Guan — Comment and Control: Prompt Injection in Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and Copilot](https://oddguan.com/blog/comment-and-control-prompt-injection-credential-theft-claude-code-gemini-cli-github-copilot/)

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_Generated by EarlyTerms · https://earlyterms.com/term/claude-code_