What Is Anthropic and What Can You Build With Its Claude Platform?

Updated

Anthropic is the AI company behind the Claude model family, and its developer platform is where you build with those models. You start by choosing an access path — the Claude apps for direct use, the Claude Developer Console and API for custom applications, or a cloud provider like Amazon Bedrock for managed infrastructure — then pick an SDK in your language and build against the Messages API. The official docs, cookbooks, and quickstarts are the fastest route to a first working project.

Anthropic and Claude in one paragraph

Anthropic builds the Claude models; the Claude platform is the set of products and developer tools around them. For builders, the practical split is:

  • Claude apps — using Claude directly, no code.
  • Developer Console + API — keys, prompt testing, usage monitoring, and Claude Code sessions at console.anthropic.com.
  • Cloud providers — running Claude through infrastructure you already use, such as Amazon Bedrock.

Three ways to access Claude

Access path Best for What you get
Claude apps Individuals who want to use Claude without building Direct use of the model
Developer Console / API Teams building custom apps, agents, and integrations API keys, prompt testing, usage monitoring, Claude Code sessions
Amazon Bedrock Teams already standardized on AWS Fully managed access to the latest Claude models, cross-region inference, latency optimizations, fine-tuning, agents, guardrails, and deep AWS integration

One caveat worth knowing before you commit to Bedrock: per the directory's notes, Managed Agents and Anthropic server-side tools are not available there — you use the Claude API plus tool use instead. Bedrock serves Claude 5 models through the Messages-API endpoint and takes an ID prefix.

Core developer capabilities to know

The official documentation covers the full reference. The pieces that shape most projects:

  • Messages API — the primary interface for sending prompts and receiving responses.
  • Tool use — letting the model call functions you define.
  • Computer use — model-driven interaction with a computer environment.
  • Prompt caching — reusing prompt prefixes to cut repeated work.
  • Structured outputs and citations — getting responses in defined shapes, with source attribution.
  • MCP Connector — connecting the model to Model Context Protocol servers.
  • Claude Code — Anthropic's coding tool, with its own sessions and cheatsheet resources.

Choosing an SDK

Anthropic ships official SDKs across major languages, plus separate Agent SDKs for agent-style applications. Pick by your stack:

Language SDK Notes
Python anthropic-sdk-python Async support and type hints
TypeScript/JavaScript anthropic-sdk-typescript Node.js and browsers
Java/Kotlin anthropic-sdk-java Modern language features
Go anthropic-sdk-go Idiomatic design
Ruby anthropic-sdk-ruby —
C#/.NET anthropic-sdk-csharp Beta
PHP anthropic-sdk-php Beta

If you're building an agent rather than a straightforward API integration, the Agent SDKs (claude-agent-sdk-python, claude-agent-sdk-typescript) are the more direct fit; their docs live under the Agent SDK section of the platform docs. For plain request/response work, the standard SDK for your language is enough.

Where to start a first project

Three official resources shorten the path from zero to working code:

  1. Claude Cookbook — notebooks and recipes for common patterns: RAG, tool use, Skills, and MCP. Start here if you want to see a pattern working before adapting it.
  2. Claude Quickstarts — ready-to-deploy example apps. Start here if you'd rather run something end-to-end and modify it.
  3. Official documentation — the full reference for the Messages API, tool use, prompt caching, and the rest. Keep it open while you build.

A reasonable first sequence: get an API key from the Developer Console, run one cookbook notebook in your language's SDK, then adapt a quickstart into your own project. If you're on AWS, evaluate Bedrock first so you don't build against the direct API and then migrate.

Practical notes before you build

  • Model selection matters. The models overview page lists current model IDs, context windows, thinking features, and cloud provider IDs — check it rather than assuming a model name.
  • Pricing is documented, not assumed. The directory links to a models and pricing page; consult it directly for current figures rather than relying on secondhand numbers.
  • Beta SDKs carry risk. The C#/.NET and PHP SDKs are marked Beta, so plan for API changes if you adopt them.
  • Community lists help with discovery. Curated lists and extension/integration directories are useful for finding MCP servers, plugins, and tooling beyond the official set — treat them as pointers and verify against official docs.