generated: '2026-06-20'
method: searched
source: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/client-sdks, https://docs.anthropic.com/en/cli-sdks-libraries/cli/quickstart
clis:
- name: ant
  description: Official Claude API command-line tool for shell scripting and interactive
    use, with typed flags and response transforms. Maps to the Messages API and related
    endpoints.
  docs: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/cli-sdks-libraries/cli/quickstart
  auth: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable
  commands:
  - group: messages
    examples:
    - 'ant messages create --model claude-sonnet-5 --max-tokens 1024 --message ''{role: user, content: "Hello, Claude"}'''
    - ant messages create --stream --format jsonl
  flags:
  - --model
  - --max-tokens
  - --message
  - --stream
  - --format (json | jsonl)
  - --debug (prints request-id to stderr)
- name: claude
  description: Claude Code — the agentic coding tool that runs in the terminal, delegating
    coding tasks to Claude. Distinct from the ant API CLI; operates the full agent
    loop and tool execution.
  install: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
  repo: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code
  docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview
  changelog: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
notes: The CLI binaries are also catalogued in packages/anthropic-packages.yml. The
  ant CLI is a first-party Messages API client; claude (Claude Code) is a higher-level
  agent runtime.