Claude Code

Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent. It runs in your terminal, reads your project and makes changes, runs Git and fixes bugs from plain requests. It's also on the web, desktop, VS Code, JetBrains, Slack and GitHub Actions.

Developers who want to hand off coding tasks from the terminal.

Skip it if you don't pay for Claude. It isn't on the Free plan.

Included with Claude Pro ($20/mo, $17/mo yearly) and Max (from $100/mo). Not on the Free plan. Checked Oct 14, 2026 on the official pricing page.

• Reads your project files itself, so you don't have to paste in context.
• It asks before it changes a file. Shift+Tab switches how much it can do without asking.
• Handles Git in plain language: commits, branches, merge conflicts.

• Not on Claude's Free plan. It needs Pro ($20/mo) or higher, a Console account or a cloud provider.
• It's terminal first. If you want a full editor, Cursor fits better.

For handing off tasks to a coding agent our Best pick is Claude Code. The runner-up is OpenAI Codex, and the free pick is GitHub Copilot. Claude Code has no free plan.

1. Install it: on macOS, Linux or WSL run curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash.
2. In your project folder run claude and log in with your Claude account.
3. Ask it something, like "what does this project do?", then give it a small change.