What is Claude Code?
Understand the tool and the foundation in 2 minutes, before getting started
Claude Code in a nutshell
Claude Code is an agentic AI tool from Anthropic that lives in your terminal. Unlike a classic chatbot, it can:
| Classic chatbot | Claude Code |
|---|---|
| Answers questions | Executes tasks in your code |
| Copy-paste of snippets | Reads, modifies and creates files directly |
| No project context | Understands your entire codebase |
| Manual interaction | Orchestrates autonomous sub-agents |
Claude Code reads your code, runs commands, runs tests, creates commits and PRs — all driven by natural language.
Why a foundation?
Claude Code is powerful but unstructured. Without a framework, you:
- Code without understanding the existing code (bugs)
- Implement without a plan (constant refactoring)
- Forget the tests (regressions)
- Make giant commits (unreadable history)
claude-base enforces a structured workflow with pre-configured commands, agents, skills and rules:
Explore → Specify → Plan → TDD → Audit → Commit
The 4 components of the foundation
| Component | Trigger | Example | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commands | Manual (/name) | /work:work-explore | 131 |
| Agents | Via commands | Isolated autonomous sub-agents | 63 |
| Skills | Automatic (keywords) | Triggers when "bug" is mentioned | 54 |
| Rules | Automatic (files) | Activates when a .tsx is modified | 30 |
How it fits together
You type a command
↓
The command launches an Agent
↓
The agent uses Skills (auto-detected)
↓
The Rules apply based on the modified files
Where to start?
| Your profile | Recommended path |
|---|---|
| Never used Claude Code | Claude Code Training (3h45, 9 modules) |
| Knows Claude Code, discovering the foundation | Foundation path (9h30, 5 levels) |
| In a hurry (5 min) | Quick Start |
| Developer (web, mobile, API, backend, infra…) | Stack Recipes — commands/agents/skills by stack |
| Tech lead / team | Team Guide |
| Extend the foundation | Extending Guide |