# Claude Code: A New Paradigm for Software Development Using AI
Artificial Intelligence technology is transforming software engineering rapidly. AI coding assistants have advanced beyond basic code completion and became capable of understanding the project, modifying code files, conducting tests, debugging, and helping developers complete development tasks.
Among the tools leading the transition, there is **Claude Code**.
Claude Code is an AI-powered coding agent from Anthropic that works in developers' codebase and development environment. Unlike regular coding assistants, it is able to understand, build, test and improve software.
## 🚀 From AI Coding Assistant to AI Coding Agent
Regular coding assistants provide the suggestions about the next lines of code to type.
Claude Code takes a more holistic approach.
It can receive a high-level instruction from the developer, such as:
> "Analyze this project, find the performance issues, fix the main ones, and run the tests."
It can then analyze the project, understand the relevant code files, suggest modifications and run necessary tests.
It transforms the communication from **"help me write this line of code"** to **"help me solve this engineering problem"**.
## 🧠 Understanding the Codebase
One of the key capabilities of an AI coding agent is context.
