Inside Claude Code: how Anthropic rethought coding with agents
From a terminal hack to a new approach to agentic coding.
When Claude Code started, it wasn’t meant to be a product. It was a scrappy terminal experiment from Anthropic’s Labs team - no UI, no plan, just curiosity. But within two weeks, the prototype had 300 people using it daily. Even the CFO was controlling Spotify from the command line.
“We absolutely love deleting code.”
Siddharth Bidasaria
What you’ll learn in this episode:
Why local-first coding changed everything [05:46]
Adding file tools gave Claude access to your local environment. No setup, no sync, just code that feels native.How deleting features became a strategy [14:35]
Siddharth’s team strips tools as models improve - keeping Claude Code lean enough to adapt.Why verification is still the hardest problem [26:13]
From self-checking agents to unit tests, he breaks down what “trust” looks like in LLM-based coding.When subagents turn from elegant to chaotic [36:18]
Coordinating fleets of agents sounds powerful until permissions, memory, and observability start fighting back.The research-product flywheel [47:07]
How Anthropic’s tight link between product teams and research keeps Claude evolving fast.
“Let the model cook”
Siddharth also talks about the shift in mindset at Anthropic - from steering the model to getting out of its way. The result is something that feels less like managing an AI, and more like collaborating with one.
Notes and Links
About Sid - Siddharth Bidasaria’s bio and blog
Pokémon - Claude plays Pokémon by David Hershey
Claude Code docs - official overview from Anthropic
Data Infrastructure - how data platforms affect ML & AI
MCP - Model Context Protocol documentation
The Agent Landscape - Lessons Learned Putting Agents Into Production
Vibe DevOps - tweet thread from @levelsio