Claude Agent SDK — Build Agents with Claude Code Power

What it is

The Claude Agent SDK is Anthropic's official TypeScript SDK for building AI agents with Claude Code's full capabilities. It provides file editing, command execution, codebase understanding, and complex workflow orchestration through a clean programmatic API. Available as an npm package.

It is designed for developers who want to embed Claude Code's agent capabilities into their own applications, CI pipelines, or automation scripts rather than using the interactive CLI.

How it saves time or tokens

The SDK handles tool management, conversation state, and error recovery automatically. Instead of building your own agent loop with raw API calls, you get Claude Code's battle-tested orchestration out of the box. The working directory parameter ensures the agent operates in the right context without manual path management.

How to use

1. Install: npm install @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk
2. Set your API key: export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-...
3. Create a Claude instance and call claude.agent() with a prompt and working directory

Example

import { Claude } from '@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk';

const claude = new Claude({
  apiKey: process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
});

// Analyze a codebase
const result = await claude.agent({
  prompt: 'Analyze this codebase and create a summary of the architecture',
  workingDirectory: './my-project',
});

console.log(result.output);

// Fix a bug
const fix = await claude.agent({
  prompt: 'Find and fix the null pointer exception in the auth module',
  workingDirectory: './my-project',
});

console.log(fix.output);

Related on TokRepo

• AI Tools for Coding -- Developer tools for AI-assisted programming
• AI Tools for Agents -- Tools for building AI agent systems

Common pitfalls

• Requires Node.js 18+ and a valid Anthropic API key with sufficient quota
• The agent has file system access in the working directory; ensure proper sandboxing in production environments
• Long-running agent tasks can consume significant tokens; set budget limits for automated pipelines