Claude Code Changed How I Work (And Why You Should Try It)

Last month, I watched a senior developer spend 45 minutes writing a bash script to automate log rotation across 12 servers. The script worked, eventually—after debugging three syntax errors and a permissions issue he’d overlooked.

That same afternoon, I described the same task to Claude Code. Seven minutes later, I had a working script that also handled edge cases the developer hadn’t considered: disk space checks, graceful handling of locked files, and email notifications on failure.

This isn’t a knock on that developer. He’s brilliant. But Claude Code represents something genuinely new: an AI that doesn’t just suggest code snippets—it actually understands your codebase, executes commands, and iterates until the job is done.

Here’s what you need to know.

What Claude Code Actually Is (And Isn’t)

Claude Code is Anthropic’s command-line AI coding agent. Unlike chatbots that spit out code for you to copy-paste, Claude Code runs in your terminal and takes action. It reads your files, runs commands, writes code, executes tests, and commits to git—all through natural language.

Think of it as the difference between asking someone for directions versus having them drive you there.

What it is:

  • An agentic AI that lives in your terminal
  • A tool that understands entire codebases, not just the file you’re looking at
  • An assistant that can execute multi-step workflows autonomously
  • A coding partner that learns your project’s patterns and conventions

What it isn’t:

  • A replacement for understanding code yourself
  • A magic wand that eliminates the need for code review
  • Perfect—it makes mistakes, sometimes confidently
  • Free (though the value often justifies the cost)

If you’re exploring AI tools for your IT career, Claude Code represents the bleeding edge of what’s possible today.

The Features That Actually Matter

I’ve been using Claude Code daily for three months. Here’s what separates it from other AI coding tools.

Codebase Understanding

Most AI assistants see one file at a time. Claude Code maps your entire project—architecture, dependencies, naming conventions, test patterns. When you ask it to add a feature, it knows where similar features live, what patterns you use, and how to stay consistent.

For IT professionals managing complex infrastructure, this matters. Your Ansible playbooks, Terraform configs, and monitoring scripts all follow conventions. Claude Code picks up on those conventions and maintains them. If you’re just getting started in IT, this kind of tooling accelerates your learning curve significantly.

Autonomous Execution

Here’s where it gets interesting. Claude Code doesn’t just suggest—it does. Tell it to:

  • “Find all hardcoded credentials in this repo and replace them with environment variables”
  • “Write tests for the authentication module and run them”
  • “Debug why the deployment script fails on Ubuntu 22.04”

It will read files, make changes, run commands, interpret outputs, and iterate until the task is complete. You approve each step, but the cognitive load shifts from “how do I do this?” to “is this what I want?”

According to Anthropic’s engineering blog, many engineers now use Claude for over 90% of their git interactions. That matches my experience—committing, branching, rebasing, and resolving conflicts through natural language feels surprisingly natural.

The Checkpoint System

This is subtle but crucial. Claude Code automatically saves your code state before each change. Hit Esc twice (or use /rewind) and you instantly jump back to any previous state.

No more “wait, what did it just change?” panic. No more manually tracking what the AI modified. You can experiment freely, knowing you can always roll back.

Multi-Agent Workflows

For complex projects, Claude Code can spin up “subagents” to handle parallel tasks. One agent builds the backend API while another works on frontend integration. One writes code while another reviews it.

This isn’t theoretical—it’s how larger development tasks actually get done efficiently. And for IT teams managing sprawling infrastructure, the ability to parallelize AI-assisted work is a genuine productivity multiplier.

Real Workflows Where Claude Code Shines

Let me get specific about where I’ve found Claude Code most valuable.

Infrastructure Automation

If you’re writing Terraform, Ansible, Bash scripts, or PowerShell—anything that configures infrastructure—Claude Code is exceptional. It understands cloud provider nuances, security best practices, and the subtle differences between “works in testing” and “works in production.”

Last week I asked it to create a zero-downtime deployment pipeline for a containerized app. It produced a working GitHub Actions workflow with health checks, rollback triggers, and Slack notifications. The whole thing took 20 minutes of my time, mostly reviewing its work.

For IT professionals managing cloud infrastructure across AWS, Azure, or GCP, this kind of automation assistance compounds quickly.

Debugging Production Issues

At 2 AM, when your monitoring alerts fire and logs are exploding, you don’t want to think—you want answers. Claude Code excels here.

Point it at error logs. Tell it what’s breaking. Watch it trace through your codebase, correlate symptoms with potential causes, and suggest (or implement) fixes. It won’t always be right, but it dramatically accelerates the diagnostic process.

One caveat: always verify fixes in a staging environment first. Claude Code is confident, but that confidence occasionally exceeds its accuracy. Understanding how to handle burnout and stress is still on you—AI won’t fix on-call fatigue.

Documentation and Onboarding

Ask Claude Code to explain your codebase to a new team member. It will generate architecture overviews, document complex functions, and create onboarding guides that actually reflect how your code works—not how someone wished it worked six months ago.

This alone makes it valuable for teams. Documentation rot is real, and having an AI that can regenerate accurate docs on demand changes the economics of keeping things updated.

Code Review and Refactoring

Claude Code can review code for issues that linting tools miss: stale comments, misleading variable names, duplicated logic, security anti-patterns. It’s not perfect, but it catches things humans overlook, especially during long review sessions when fatigue sets in. For those interested in cybersecurity careers, the security-focused code review features are particularly valuable.

For refactoring, describe what you want (“make this module more testable” or “extract this repeated pattern into a utility function”) and watch it work. The ability to iterate through large refactors conversationally is genuinely faster than doing it manually.

The Honest Limitations

I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t cover where Claude Code falls short.

It Makes Mistakes

Research from METR found that experienced developers using AI tools actually took 19% longer on tasks—despite predicting AI would make them 24% faster. The gap comes from time spent reviewing, correcting, and understanding AI-generated code.

Claude Code is no exception. It will occasionally:

  • Introduce subtle bugs
  • Misunderstand requirements
  • Use deprecated APIs
  • Generate code that works but violates your conventions

This isn’t a dealbreaker, but it means you can’t blindly trust outputs. Treat Claude Code as a very capable junior developer who needs supervision, not an infallible oracle.

Cost Considerations

Claude Code requires either a Claude Pro subscription ($20/month) or Claude Max ($100-200/month for heavier usage). For individual developers, the Pro tier often suffices. For teams doing intensive AI-assisted development, Max becomes necessary.

Here’s the reality: Claude Code consumes more tokens than regular chat. Each session includes your codebase context, system instructions, multi-step reasoning, and iterative refinement. Heavy users will hit Pro limits and either need to upgrade or wait for resets.

Calculate whether the time savings justify the cost for your specific workflow. In my experience, if Claude Code saves 30+ minutes per week of productive time, the Pro subscription pays for itself. Understanding realistic IT salary expectations helps contextualize this investment.

Learning Curve

Despite the “natural language” promise, using Claude Code effectively takes practice. You’ll need to learn:

  • How to scope requests clearly
  • When to break tasks into smaller chunks
  • How to guide it when it heads in wrong directions
  • What types of tasks it handles well vs. poorly

Budget a week or two of intentional practice before expecting peak productivity. This mirrors how long learning programming fundamentals takes—initial investment pays off exponentially.

It’s Not Magic for Non-Coders

If you’re an IT professional who doesn’t write code regularly, Claude Code might disappoint. It’s fundamentally a coding tool. Yes, it can help with scripts and automation, but the greatest value comes when you understand enough to review its work.

If you’re looking to build programming skills from scratch, start there first.

How to Get Started

Ready to try it? Here’s the practical path.

Step 1: Check Your Subscription

Claude Code requires Claude Pro ($20/month) or Claude Max ($100-200/month). Sign up at claude.ai/pricing if you haven’t already.

If you’re evaluating before committing, note that the Claude free tier doesn’t include Claude Code access.

Step 2: Install the CLI

Claude Code installs via npm:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Alternatively, if you prefer not to use npm globally:

npx @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Then authenticate with your Anthropic account.

Step 3: Start Simple

Don’t try to rebuild your entire infrastructure on day one. Start with small, bounded tasks:

  • “Explain what this script does”
  • “Add error handling to this function”
  • “Write a unit test for this module”

As you build confidence, expand to larger tasks. The checkpoint system means you can always roll back if things go sideways.

Step 4: Leverage IDE Integration

Claude Code offers native extensions for VS Code (including Cursor and Windsurf) and JetBrains IDEs. If you live in an editor, the integration is smoother than switching to terminal constantly.

That said, the terminal interface has its own advantages—it’s faster for quick tasks and doesn’t require context-switching if you’re already in the command line.

Step 5: Learn the Power Commands

A few commands worth memorizing:

  • /rewind - Jump back to any previous code state
  • Ctrl+R - Search your prompt history
  • /help - See all available commands
  • Esc Esc - Quick checkpoint restore

The official Claude Code documentation covers everything, but these get you 80% of the value.

Claude Code vs. Other AI Coding Tools

How does Claude Code compare to alternatives? Here’s my honest take.

vs. GitHub Copilot

Copilot excels at inline code completion—that predictive text while you type. It’s less capable for multi-step tasks, codebase-wide changes, or autonomous workflows.

If you want AI that finishes your sentences, use Copilot. If you want AI that finishes your projects, Claude Code does more.

Many developers use both: Copilot for moment-to-moment coding, Claude Code for larger tasks.

vs. Cursor

Cursor is an AI-first code editor with impressive capabilities. The main difference is architectural: Cursor is an editor, Claude Code is an agent you can embed anywhere.

If you’re willing to switch editors, Cursor is excellent. If you’re committed to VS Code, JetBrains, or terminal workflows, Claude Code fits into your existing setup.

vs. Aider and Other CLI Tools

Aider was one of the first CLI-based AI coding tools. Claude Code is more polished, with better context management, checkpoint systems, and multi-agent capabilities. But Aider is open-source and free, which matters for some use cases.

For professional use where reliability matters, Claude Code is the more robust choice. For experimentation or budget-constrained projects, Aider remains viable.

Impact on Your IT Career

Here’s the bigger picture question: how does mastering tools like Claude Code affect your career trajectory?

The Productivity Premium

According to CNBC research, workers with AI skills earn an average $18,000 premium over peers without AI proficiency. That gap continues to widen as AI tools become more central to development workflows.

But the premium isn’t just about “knowing AI”—it’s about using AI effectively. Anyone can ask ChatGPT to write a function. Fewer people know how to leverage agentic tools for complex, multi-step workflows. That expertise is where the real value lies.

If you’re working on salary negotiation strategies, demonstrated AI proficiency is increasingly worth highlighting.

The Skill Shift

The JetBrains State of Developer Ecosystem 2025 report found that skills requirements are changing 66% faster in AI-exposed occupations. What that means practically: the things that made you valuable five years ago aren’t the same things that will make you valuable five years from now.

Learning Claude Code isn’t just about productivity today—it’s about staying relevant as the industry evolves.

What This Means for Different Roles

System Administrators: Claude Code accelerates automation and scripting tasks. You’ll spend less time writing bash scripts and more time designing systems.

DevOps Engineers: Infrastructure-as-code workflows become dramatically faster. Terraform, Ansible, and CI/CD pipelines are all areas where Claude Code shines.

Developers: Code generation, debugging, and refactoring all benefit. But you’ll need to develop stronger code review skills to catch AI mistakes. Your soft skills matter here too—explaining requirements clearly to AI is similar to communicating with teammates.

IT Managers: Understanding what these tools can do helps you set realistic expectations and identify high-value automation opportunities. Preparing for technical interviews in this landscape means demonstrating AI proficiency.

For anyone navigating an IT career transition, AI tool proficiency is becoming table stakes.

My Recommendations

After three months of daily use, here’s where I’ve landed:

Try it. The Pro subscription is $20/month. If you’re a working IT professional, that’s nothing compared to the potential time savings.

Start small. Don’t attempt massive projects initially. Build familiarity with bounded tasks first.

Trust but verify. Review everything Claude Code produces. It’s a powerful tool, not an infallible one.

Track your time. Actually measure whether it’s making you faster. If after two weeks you’re not seeing productivity gains, either adjust your approach or reconsider whether it fits your workflow.

Invest in fundamentals. Claude Code amplifies your existing skills—it doesn’t replace them. The developers who get the most value are those who already understand code well enough to evaluate AI outputs. Consider building a foundation with Python or JavaScript—both work exceptionally well with Claude Code.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Claude Code free to use?

No. Claude Code requires either a Claude Pro subscription ($20/month) or Claude Max subscription ($100-200/month). API users can access Claude Code through pay-per-token pricing, but this typically costs more for heavy usage than the subscription options.

Can Claude Code write entire applications from scratch?

Technically yes, but practically it works better for iterative development. You’ll get better results starting with a basic structure and having Claude Code extend it incrementally rather than asking for a complete application in one shot. Complex projects benefit from breaking work into smaller, reviewable chunks.

Is Claude Code safe to use with production codebases?

Claude Code includes permission controls—it asks before writing files or executing commands. That said, use normal security hygiene: don’t give it access to credentials, use it on feature branches rather than main, and review all changes before merging. The checkpoint system helps you recover if something goes wrong.

How does Claude Code handle sensitive data?

Claude Code processes your code through Anthropic’s servers, so standard data privacy considerations apply. For highly sensitive codebases, review Anthropic’s privacy policies and consider whether cloud-based processing meets your compliance requirements. Some organizations may prefer local alternatives for certain projects.

Does Claude Code work with any programming language?

Claude Code works with most popular programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Java, C++, and shell scripting. It’s particularly strong with languages that have extensive public training data. Obscure or proprietary languages may see reduced quality.

The Bottom Line

Claude Code is the most capable AI coding tool I’ve used. It’s not perfect, it’s not free, and it requires skill to use effectively. But for IT professionals who write any amount of code, automation scripts, or infrastructure configs, it’s worth learning.

The broader trend is clear: AI skills are becoming essential, not optional, for IT career advancement. Claude Code is one of the most practical ways to build those skills while solving real problems.

Start small. Experiment freely—checkpoints have your back. And pay attention to whether it’s actually making you faster. For most people, the answer is yes.

For a deeper dive into IT certifications and how they complement AI skills, check out our topic hub. Building the right combination of credentials and practical AI proficiency positions you well for the evolving job market.

Sources and Citations