Claude Code

Claude Code CLI (Anthropic)

Agentic coding tool by Anthropic. Reads, edits, and runs code with full project context. Supports non-interactive print mode for programmatic use.

Detect Installation

which claude  # should return a path
claude --version

Install

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

Requires authentication: run claude auth login (Anthropic account or --console for API billing).

Non-Interactive Usage (print mode)

For programmatic invocation from Research-Claw, use -p (print mode):

# Basic non-interactive execution
claude -p "Refactor the auth module to use async/await"

# Pipe content for analysis
cat src/utils.ts | claude -p "Find bugs in this file"

# JSON output for parsing
claude -p --output-format json "List all TODO comments in the project"

# Skip permission prompts (for fully automated pipelines)
claude -p --dangerously-skip-permissions "Fix all lint errors"

# Budget and turn limits
claude -p --max-turns 5 --max-budget-usd 2.00 "Add unit tests for the auth module"

# Model selection
claude -p --model sonnet "Explain this codebase architecture"

Key Flags

Research-Claw exec Patterns

# Delegate a complex coding task
exec("claude -p --dangerously-skip-permissions --max-turns 10 'Implement the feature described in TODO.md'")

# Read-only analysis with budget cap
exec("claude -p --tools 'Read' --max-budget-usd 1.00 'Review code quality and list issues'")

# JSON output for structured results
exec("claude -p --output-format json 'List all exported functions in src/'")

Docs

• CLI reference: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/cli-reference
• Common workflows: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/common-workflows