The Complete Developer's Guide to Claude Code with MCP Servers
Accelerate your development workflow with AI-powered coding assistance
Quick Start • Documentation • Pricing • Examples • Community
Claude Code is Anthropic's official CLI tool for AI-assisted development. This standalone command-line interface brings Claude's capabilities directly to your terminal and development workflows. Combined with MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, it creates a powerful AI-enhanced coding environment.
- 10x Development Speed: Multi-agent orchestration accelerates complex tasks
- Universal Integration: Connect to any data source, API, or tool via MCP
- Intelligent Scaling: From simple scripts to enterprise architectures
- Persistent Knowledge: Cross-session memory and context retention
- Extended Thinking: Deep reasoning for complex problems
Claude Code uses the Anthropic API pricing model:
| Plan | Price | Usage Limit | Model Access | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | ~20 messages/day | Limited access | Testing |
| Pro | $20/mo | ~45 messages/5hr | Sonnet models | Individual use |
| Max 5x | $100/mo | ~225 messages/5hr | All models | Power users |
| Max 20x | $200/mo | ~900 messages/5hr | All models | Heavy usage |
| Team | $25-30/mo/user | Team features | All models | Teams |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom quotas | All models | Large orgs |
API Token Pricing:
- Sonnet 4: $3/1M input tokens, $15/1M output tokens
- Opus 4: $15/1M input tokens, $75/1M output tokens
# Install Claude Code CLI
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
# Set up authentication
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-api03-..."
# Start interactive session
claude
# Optional: Enhanced features with Claude-Flow
npx claude-flow@latest init --sparc
# Your first swarm command
./claude-flow swarm "Build a REST API with authentication" \
--strategy development \
--max-agents 5 \
--parallel
The screenshot above shows Claude Code's terminal interface in action, demonstrating:
- Interactive CLI session with natural language commands
- File operations reading and editing code directly
- Tool integration with bash commands and specialized functions
- Real-time feedback and code generation capabilities
Note: These trigger phrases are experimental and not confirmed by official documentation.
# Progressive thinking levels (experimental)
"think about this problem" # Basic reasoning
"think hard about this" # Extended computation
"think harder about this" # Deep analysis
"ultrathink about this" # Maximum reasoning# Launch specialized agent teams
./claude-flow swarm "Build e-commerce platform" \
--strategy development \
--mode hierarchical \
--max-agents 8 \
--parallel \
--monitor{
"mcpServers": {
"database": {
"command": "mcp-server-postgres",
"args": ["--connection-string", "postgresql://localhost/mydb"]
}
}
}
Track your token usage and costs with the ccusage tool:
npm install -g ccusage
ccusage daily --live
Claude Code provides granular permission controls and supports containerized environments for safe execution.
This comprehensive guide was created using Claude-Flow's swarm orchestration:
./claude-flow swarm "Create comprehensive Claude Code guide" \
--strategy researcher \
--max-agents 5 \
--parallel \
--monitorFive specialized AI agents worked in parallel:
- Agent 1: Researched Anthropic's best practices
- Agent 2: Analyzed ccusage repository
- Agent 3: Studied Claude-Flow capabilities
- Agent 4: Synthesized content
- Agent 5: Produced final documentation
- GitHub Issues - Report bugs or request features
- Discord Community - Join discussions
- Stack Overflow - Q&A
This guide is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
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