Anthropic's Surprise Hit: How Claude Code Became an AI Coding Powerhouse

In this episode of The MAD Podcast, Matt Turck interviews Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code at Anthropic, about the agentic coding AI that operates in the terminal. They discuss the accidental beginnings of Claude Code, starting as a personal tool for automating note-taking and evolving into a product generating significant revenue. Boris explains how Claude Code works by allowing engineers to describe desired changes, with the model then manipulating the code. The conversation covers the product's architecture, its operation at the CLI level, the use of Model Context Protocol (MCP) for tool integration, the introduction of sub-agents, memory management using Claude.md files, and the balance between autonomy and human oversight. Boris also shares insights into use cases, the impact on developer onboarding, and his personal workflows, as well as his perspective on the future of coding and the AI coding landscape.