When Boris Cherny joined Anthropic in late 2024, he didn’t set out to build a revolutionary coding assistant. He was just curious — curious about how far Anthropic’s Claude language model could go if it were given the freedom to act like a true collaborator instead of a chatbot. What began as a side experiment on his terminal soon evolved into Claude Code — one of the most powerful AI coding assistants in the world, now used by hundreds of engineers and teams every day.
The Curiosity That Sparked a Revolution
Boris’s first prototype wasn’t designed for developers at all. It was a playful command-line tool that let Claude do simple things like open files, play music, or read folders. But something unexpected happened.
When Boris gave Claude deeper access to his system, the model began thinking like a developer. It explored his file system, analyzed dependencies, traced imports, and even started fixing bugs autonomously.
In that moment, Boris uncovered what AI researchers call “product overhang” — hidden capabilities within a model waiting to be unlocked. He realized Claude wasn’t just a conversational assistant. It could be a colleague — one capable of navigating entire codebases and reasoning through complex systems.
That realization gave birth to Claude Code, an AI-powered tool that could read, write, and improve software on its own.
From Experiment to Engineering Ally
What started as Boris’s one-man project quickly attracted internal attention. Joining forces with Sid Bidasaria, Boris expanded the experiment into a small but fiercely agile team. Together, they introduced the concept of “subagents” — modular AI units specialized in tasks like automated testing, documentation, and code review.
Their mantra was simple: ship fast, learn faster.
In true startup spirit (inside a research lab), they released new updates daily, continuously refining Claude Code through real-world developer feedback.
By mid-2025, the once-solo project had grown into a 10-person cross-functional team, combining engineers, designers, and data scientists united by one goal — to make AI an active partner in software creation.
Beyond Developers: A Tool That Writes the Future of Work
As Claude Code matured, something surprising happened — non-engineers started using it. Data scientists automated SQL pipelines. Analysts generated reports through natural language. Designers used it to create prototypes.
What began as a developer assistant was evolving into a general-purpose AI agent capable of tackling any workflow involving logic, structure, and creativity.
For Boris, this was proof that Claude Code wasn’t just about writing better software — it was about redefining how humans and machines collaborate.
The Mind Behind the Machine
Boris’s leadership philosophy is as much about discipline as it is about curiosity. He encourages his team to push boundaries, but always with safety and alignment at the core — a reflection of Anthropic’s mission to build AI systems that are not just powerful, but reliably beneficial.
He champions an AI-first engineering culture, where every feature is co-created with the model itself. The result? A development cycle where humans and AI continuously teach and refine each other — a process that mirrors the future of software engineering.
A Glimpse Into the Future
Today, Claude Code sits at the forefront of agentic AI — tools that can plan, reason, and act across systems. The next generation of Claude Code promises even more autonomy: persistent memory, multi-agent collaboration, and dynamic context awareness.
Boris envisions a world where engineers no longer wrestle with syntax and setup. Instead, they focus on creativity, architecture, and innovation — while their AI partners handle the grind.
The Accidental Visionary
In many ways, Boris’s story is one of accidental genius — an experiment that outgrew its creator and became a catalyst for a new era of software development. His journey embodies the core spirit of innovation: curiosity, courage, and a willingness to explore the unknown.
With Claude Code, Boris Cherny hasn’t just built another developer tool.
He’s redesigned the relationship between humans and code — turning the dream of an intelligent programming partner into everyday reality.
