Agent Lore

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is a terminal-based AI agent that reads, writes, and runs code in your projects. It operates directly in your shell, not inside an editor.

Install

Requires Node.js 18+. If you need Node.js:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install node

# Or use a version manager (nvm)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash
nvm install 22

Then install Claude Code:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Source: docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/overview

Authenticate

Personal account (fastest)

claude login

Opens your browser to sign in. Your session persists across terminal restarts. Requires a Max or Team plan.

API key

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-api03-..."

Add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc to persist. Get keys at console.anthropic.com/settings/keys.

AWS Bedrock

Route through your AWS account. Add these exports to ~/.zshrc:

export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0"

Requires AWS credentials configured via aws configure. Costs appear in AWS Cost Explorer, not the Anthropic console.

Source: docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/bedrock-vertex

Initialize a project

claude /init

This scans your codebase and generates a CLAUDE.md with structure, commands, and conventions pre-filled. Customize from there.

Verify

claude --version
claude "say hello"

First session tips

• Start in your project root so Claude can see your files
• Use claude --resume to continue where you left off
• Type /help inside a session for available commands