Claude Features & Product Lineup
About 15 minutes
Anthropic offers Claude in multiple forms: a chat interface, a developer CLI, a team collaboration suite, a design assistant, browser automation, a managed agent runtime, and an agent SDK. This page explains what each product does and helps you choose the right tool for your needs.
Product Overview
Section titled “Product Overview”graph TD
A[Claude Product Lineup] --> B[Claude Chat]
A --> C[Claude Code]
A --> D[Claude Cowork]
A --> E[Claude Design]
A --> F[Chrome in Claude]
A --> G[Claude Managed Agent]
A --> H[Claude Agent SDK]
B --> B1[General & Business Users]
C --> C1[Developers & Engineers]
D --> D1[Teams & Organizations]
E --> E1[Designers & Frontend Engineers]
F --> F1[Automation & Scraping]
G --> G1[No-Code Agent Operations]
H --> H1[Custom Agent Development]Claude Chat
Section titled “Claude Chat”Claude Chat is Anthropic’s main chat interface, accessible at claude.com/chat. It runs entirely in the browser and handles a wide range of tasks: writing, coding assistance, data analysis, research, and learning — no installation required.
Key features:
- Projects — Upload files and maintain context across conversations. Reference technical specs, meeting notes, or code files as the basis for ongoing work.
- Artifacts — Generated code, documents, SVGs, and HTML render in a separate panel for preview and iteration. Changes to the artifact are reflected immediately without scrolling through the chat.
- Model selection — Claude Opus (highest accuracy), Claude Sonnet (balanced), and Claude Haiku (fast and lightweight) are available for selection based on task complexity and cost requirements.
- File uploads — Attach PDFs, images, spreadsheets, and other files for direct analysis and Q&A.
Target users: General users to business users. No programming knowledge required. The fastest way to start using Claude.
Claude Code
Section titled “Claude Code”Claude Code is a terminal CLI tool for developers (claude command). It reads and understands the full structure of a codebase — files, dependencies, test results — and then acts: editing files, running tests, executing git commands, and calling shell tools. It functions as an autonomous agent rather than a simple code completion tool.
Core operations:
- Read, write, and edit files across a codebase (including multi-file changes)
- Run tests, check results, and fix failures in a single loop
- Execute git operations: commit, branch, diff, stash
- Run shell commands: npm, cargo, pytest, and others
- Connect to external tools via MCP server integrations
Core Concepts
Section titled “Core Concepts”The following concepts are central to using Claude Code effectively.
CLAUDE.md is a project-specific contract file that defines rules, context, and constraints for Claude Code. When Claude Code starts, it automatically reads CLAUDE.md from the repository root to understand the project scope, prohibited actions, available commands, and coding conventions. Centralizing team rules in this file customizes Claude’s behavior for the project.
Skill is a reusable task definition written as a Markdown file. Skills are invoked as slash commands (/blog, /docs, /test, etc.) and eliminate the need to repeat the same instructions. Common workflows become shared, callable procedures.
Agent is a sub-agent definition with a specific area of expertise, set of tools, and context. Roles such as “documentation agent” or “security review agent” can be defined separately and launched from the main Claude instance, running in parallel.
Sub Agent is a child agent spawned by an agent. Sub agents enable a swarm architecture where large tasks are divided and processed in parallel by multiple independent agents.
Rules are project-specific constraints governing safety, quality, and style. Stored in directories like shared/rules/ and referenced from CLAUDE.md, they enforce policies such as “never run npm run build without explicit approval” and reduce the risk of accidental destructive operations.
Hooks are scripts that run in response to Claude Code operation events — before and after file writes, before and after command execution, and so on. Hooks enable automatic test runs, change logging, and notification triggers without manual intervention.
settings.json is the Claude Code configuration file. It defines permitted shell commands, tools, environment variables, and MCP server connections. It serves as the enforcement layer for security policies that restrict Claude’s operational scope.
Command is a custom slash command placed in /.claude/commands/. Defining a Markdown file in that directory makes it callable as /command-name, allowing teams to share and reuse standard workflows.
graph LR
CLAUDE_MD[CLAUDE.md] --> |read on startup| CC[Claude Code]
SKILL[Skill] --> |invoked via /command| CC
RULES[Rules] --> |referenced as constraints| CC
HOOKS[Hooks] --> |intercept events| CC
SETTINGS[settings.json] --> |permissions & tools| CC
CC --> |spawns| AGENT[Agent]
AGENT --> |divides and delegates| SUBAGENT[Sub Agent]Target users: Software engineers and developers comfortable working in a terminal.
Claude Cowork
Section titled “Claude Cowork”Claude Cowork is a collaboration feature set for teams using Claude together. It extends individual Claude usage to shared context, shared artifacts, and access control across an organization.
Key features:
- Shared Projects — All team members reference the same context (documents, settings) when working with Claude. Suitable for cross-functional documentation management or onboarding materials.
- Team Artifacts — Code, documents, and analysis reports generated by Claude are available for collaborative editing and sharing. Reusing existing artifacts improves team-wide productivity.
- Access control — Three permission levels — Admin, Member, and Guest — control who can view and edit project context. Restricting access to projects with sensitive information is supported.
Target users: Business teams, product teams, and organizations exploring AI adoption at scale.
Claude Design
Section titled “Claude Design”Claude Design is an AI feature for UI design and prototype generation. Describe a design intent in text, and Claude Design produces implementable code or visual prototypes.
Key features:
- UI component code generation — Generates React and HTML/CSS components from text instructions. Converts design mockups into working code immediately.
- Design system integration — References existing design tokens (colors, typography, spacing) when generating components, maintaining consistency with established brand guidelines.
- Visual prototype output — Outputs are reviewable in a visual interface similar to Figma, enabling iterative refinement with designers and engineers working from a shared artifact.
- Accessibility support — Code generation considers ARIA labels, color contrast ratios, and keyboard navigation to produce accessible output by default.
Target users: UI designers, frontend engineers, and product managers who prototype interfaces.
Chrome in Claude (Computer Use)
Section titled “Chrome in Claude (Computer Use)”Chrome in Claude is the computer use capability that allows Claude to operate a web browser directly. Claude captures screenshots, clicks elements, types text, scrolls, and navigates pages autonomously.
Key features:
- Screenshot capture and analysis — Claude captures the current state of a page as a screenshot, interprets the content, and decides the next action accordingly.
- Form interaction — Automates input, submission, and confirmation steps in web forms. Suitable for repetitive data entry tasks that occur at regular intervals.
- Information gathering and web scraping — Collects information across multiple pages automatically. Applicable for research and aggregation of publicly available web content.
- Security considerations — Browser operations should always run in a sandboxed environment. Extra care is required when handling production systems or authentication credentials.
Use cases: Web scraping, automated form submission, UI behavior testing, and routine web research tasks.
Target users: Automation engineers, QA engineers, and users managing data collection workflows.
Claude Managed Agent
Section titled “Claude Managed Agent”Claude Managed Agent is a hosted agent execution environment provided by Anthropic. Defined workflows run in the cloud without building or operating the underlying execution infrastructure.
Key features:
- No-code agent deployment — Define and deploy agent workflows without writing code. Introduces agent automation without requiring deep infrastructure knowledge.
- Workflow definition — Trigger conditions, execution steps, conditional branching, and error handling are defined through a visual interface.
- Scheduling — Agents are triggered on a schedule, via webhooks, or through event-driven conditions.
- Monitoring — Execution logs, success rates, and error details are visible on a dashboard, enabling early detection of issues in running agents.
- API invocation — External systems can start and control agents via a REST API.
Target users: Business analysts, operations teams, and users who want to run agent automation without writing code.
Claude Agent SDK
Section titled “Claude Agent SDK”Claude Agent SDK is the SDK for building custom AI agents programmatically. Available in Python and TypeScript, it covers agent definition, tool registration, execution management, and multi-agent orchestration.
Key features:
- Agent definition — Define system prompts, available tools, and model selection in code. Provides precise control over agent behavior.
- Tool registration — Register functions, API calls, and database queries as tools that the agent selects and calls autonomously during execution.
- Execution management — Manage agent state, logs, and errors programmatically. Handles lifecycle management for long-running agents.
- Multi-agent orchestration — Implement orchestrator–sub-agent patterns to coordinate multiple agents. Enables parallel and distributed processing of large tasks.
- Claude Code integration — Claude Code’s agent capabilities use this SDK internally. The SDK is also available for local development and testing of agent behavior.
graph TD
SDK[Claude Agent SDK] --> ORCH[Orchestrator Agent]
ORCH --> SA1[Sub Agent A]
ORCH --> SA2[Sub Agent B]
ORCH --> SA3[Sub Agent C]
SA1 --> T1[Tool: Web Search]
SA2 --> T2[Tool: Code Execution]
SA3 --> T3[Tool: Database]Target users: Software engineers, AI engineers, and developers integrating custom agents into production systems.
Choosing the Right Product
Section titled “Choosing the Right Product”| Use case | Recommended product |
|---|---|
| Chat with an AI assistant | Claude Chat |
| Write and execute code from a terminal | Claude Code |
| Use AI across a team | Claude Cowork |
| Generate UI designs and prototypes | Claude Design |
| Automate a web browser | Chrome in Claude |
| Run agents without writing code | Claude Managed Agent |
| Build a custom agent in code | Claude Agent SDK |
Q: What is the difference between Claude Chat and Claude Code?
Claude Chat is a browser-based chat interface usable without programming knowledge. Claude Code is a terminal CLI that operates directly on a codebase — editing files, running tests, and executing git commands autonomously. The key distinction is that Claude Code takes real actions on a local project rather than generating text to copy elsewhere.
Q: How do Claude Agent SDK and Claude Managed Agent differ?
Claude Agent SDK provides programmatic control and high flexibility for engineers building custom agents in code. Claude Managed Agent offers no-code deployment and operation, making it suitable when engineering resources are limited or when rapid prototyping is the goal.
Q: Is CLAUDE.md required for every project?
It is not required, but defining project-specific rules — prohibited commands, coding conventions, directory structure — in CLAUDE.md optimizes Claude Code’s behavior for the project. It is particularly effective in team development environments.
Q: What are the security risks when using Chrome in Claude?
Because Claude operates a browser directly, automating sites that handle authentication or sensitive data requires careful consideration. Running operations in a sandboxed environment, applying the principle of least privilege, and reviewing execution logs regularly are recommended practices.
Detailed Guides in This Section
Section titled “Detailed Guides in This Section”- Claude Model Comparison & Selection Guide — Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku characteristics with use-case-based selection criteria
- Claude API Basics and Prompt Caching — SDK fundamentals, cost structure, and caching strategies
- Claude Code × MCP Integration Guide — Configuring MCP servers in settings.json and usage patterns
- Multi-Agent Design Patterns — Orchestrator-Worker, Pipeline, Specialist Pool, and Swarm patterns
- Anthropic’s Safety Philosophy and Claude’s Design — Constitutional AI, HHH principles, and RSP explained
- Claude Managed Agent: Getting Started — No-code deployment, use cases, and comparison with other agent tools
See the references for the external specifications and background sources used on this page.[1][2]
References
Section titled “References”- Anthropic, Claude Code documentation
- Anthropic, Claude API documentation