Intro to Claude - Claude Platform Docs Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Copy page  Anthropic offers two ways to build with Claude, each suited to different use cases: Messages API Claude Managed Agents What it is Direct model prompting access Pre-built, configurable agent harness that runs in managed infrastructure Best for Custom agent loops and fine-grained control Long-running tasks and asynchronous work To learn more about each, see Using the Messages API and the Claude Managed Agents overview.  Recommended path for new developers Follow these steps to go from zero to a working Claude integration. 1 Make your first API call Set up your environment, install an SDK, and send your first message to Claude. Go to the quickstart 2 Secure your credentials Set an expiration when you create your API key. Keep the key out of source control, client-side code, and prompts. Check whether your workload can use Workload Identity Federation instead of a static key. Read the authentication guide 3 Understand the Messages API Learn the core request and response structure, including multi-turn conversations, system prompts, and stop reasons. Read the Messages API guide 4 Choose the right model Compare Claude models by capability and cost to pick the best fit for your use case. See the models overview 5 Explore features and tools Discover what Claude can do: extended thinking, web search, file handling, structured outputs, and more. Browse the features overview  Develop with Claude Anthropic provides developer tools to help you build and scale applications with Claude. Developer Console Prototype and test prompts in your browser with the Workbench. API Reference Explore the full Claude API and client SDK documentation. Claude Cookbook Learn with interactive Jupyter notebooks covering PDFs, embeddings, and more.  Key capabilities Claude can assist with many tasks that involve text, code, and images. Text and code generation Summarize text, answer questions, extract data, translate text, and explain and generate code. Vision Process and analyze visual input and generate text and code from images.  Support Help Center Find answers to frequently asked account and billing questions. Service Status Check the status of Anthropic services. Was this page helpful? 