Anthropic’s Claude Code, a terminal-based AI agent, has ignited a frenzy among developers and unexpectedly drawn in non-technical users, propelling the startup toward unprecedented enterprise traction. Launched quietly in late 2024, the tool—powered by the advanced Claude Opus 4.5 model—allows natural language commands to execute complex coding tasks, manage files, and handle git workflows autonomously. Its breakthrough moment arrived as users repurposed it for everyday automation, forcing Anthropic to accelerate adaptations like the January 2026 Cowork release.

Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, revealed staggering personal stats: In 30 days, he landed 259 pull requests with 497 commits, adding 40,000 lines of code—all generated entirely by Claude Code using Opus 4.5. “Every single line was written by Claude Code + Opus 4.5,” Cherny posted on X, as cited in Reddit r/ClaudeAI. This self-reinforcing loop extended to Cowork, built in just 1.5 weeks almost entirely by Claude Code itself, according to Cherny in Fortune.

Enterprise adoption has exploded, with clients including Uber, Netflix, Spotify, Salesforce, Accenture, and Snowflake. Cherny described it as having “a very intense product market fit across the different enterprise spaces,” per Yahoo Finance. Anthropic’s web traffic doubled since December 2024, with daily unique desktop visitors up 12% year-to-date, data from Similarweb and Sensor Tower showed in Fortune.

From Terminal Tool to Viral Phenomenon

Claude Code’s rise stems from its agentic design: It reads and writes files directly in the terminal, where developers live, bypassing chatty interfaces. Early internal adoption at Anthropic was “insane,” with half the sales team using it weekly by late 2025, Cherny told WIRED. Developers now run multiple instances—Cherny manages five in terminals plus 5-10 in browsers—using hooks for long-running tasks lasting days, as detailed in VentureBeat.

A Google engineer, Jaana Dogan, marveled that Claude Code recreated a year of her team’s distributed agent orchestrator work in one hour. “I am not joking,” she posted on X, covered in Financial Express. Startups report fivefold productivity boosts; one CEO scrapped hiring plans, per WebProNews. Benchmarks from UC Berkeley place Anthropic ahead in coding and tooling.

The tool’s open-source nature on GitHub fosters plugins and extensions, including Slack integrations where tagging @Claude spins up coding sessions from chats, as noted in WebProNews. Recent v2.1.0 updates added smoother workflows, setup hooks, and VSCode support, per VentureBeat.

Cowork Brings Agents to the Masses

Users hacking non-coding tasks—vacation research, email triage, spreadsheet nudges via Slack, even oven control—prompted Cowork’s launch on January 13, 2026. This graphical interface in the Claude Desktop app grants folder access for autonomous actions, like assembling expense reports from receipts, without command-line fears, as explained in TechCrunch.

“Since we launched Claude Code, we saw people using it for all sorts of non-coding work,” Cherny said on X, quoted in SiliconRepublic. Felix Rieseberg added: “We built Cowork the same way we want people to use Claude: describing what we needed, letting Claude handle implementation,” per Axios. It runs in a virtual machine for isolation, with deletion protection after mishaps.

Safety remains paramount, aligned with Anthropic’s mission. Enterprises favor it for compliance; Cowork warns of risks like prompt injections or file deletions, advising precise instructions, as in Business Insider. Yet, agent safety is “an active area of development,” Anthropic noted.

Enterprise Dominance and Broader Ripples

By mid-2025, Anthropic claimed top enterprise market share, per Menlo Ventures, contributing 12% to $9 billion ARR in WebProNews. Slack CMO Ryan Gavin called it connective tissue for humans and agents in a Salesforce post. Expansions hit healthcare with HIPAA-ready Claude and life sciences tools for firms like Sanofi and Veeva.

Cherny hires “generalists” with “weekend projects” like kombucha brewing for curiosity, per Reddit r/technology. Events like Code with Claude 2025 showcase API, CLI, and Model Context Protocol best practices.

Critics worry of deskilling; Anthropic’s Economic Index flags higher-skill automation risks. Still, as one X user put it, it’s Anthropic’s “ChatGPT moment,” per VentureBeat. With a $10 billion raise at $350 billion valuation rumored in Fortune, Claude Code signals AI’s shift from advice to action.

Challenges Amid the Hype

Early stumbles—errors, loops—have improved, but mobile limits persist; it’s desktop-focused. Developers praise Opus 4.5’s tool use despite slowness. Chinese hackers exploited it last fall, per The Atlantic. Anthropic blocks misuse, like opencode, frustrating some.

Vibecoding empowers non-coders to build apps, but setup intimidates outsiders. Subscriptions run $20-$200 monthly. As Retool CEO David Hsu asked in WebProNews: “How far does it go beyond software engineering?” Anthropic’s labs expand experimentally, per ClaudeLog.