The Anthropic CLI is the official command-line interface for the Claude API, maintained by Anthropic in the open. It brings API workflows to the terminal, so developers can interact with Claude and manage API resources without leaving their shell. The repository has about 693 stars on GitHub and was updated in October 2026.
As part of the official Claude API SDK family, the CLI gives scripting-friendly access to the same platform that powers Claude integrations: sending messages, working with models and handling the API’s resources in a way that fits pipelines, shell scripts and CI jobs. Being a first-party tool, it tracks the API closely as new capabilities ship, and its behavior matches the official documentation, which is linked as this entry’s website. For teams that standardize on Claude, a supported CLI removes the need to hand-roll curl calls or maintain internal wrappers for routine operations and quick experiments.
It complements Anthropic’s language SDKs for Python, TypeScript and other ecosystems, covering the many moments where a single shell command is faster than writing a throwaway script just to test a prompt or inspect a resource.
The CLI itself is free and open source under the MIT license. Using it to call the Claude API consumes API credits under Anthropic’s standard usage pricing, but the tool adds no cost of its own.
The Anthropic CLI is for developers and DevOps engineers who build on Claude and prefer terminal-first workflows. It is handy for quick API tests, scripted evaluations, automation glue and anyone who lives in the shell while integrating LLMs.