AI & models
Agent
An AI that doesn't just answer — it takes actions in a loop to reach a goal: read a file, decide the next step, run a command, check the result, repeat. Claude Code is an agent. A plain chatbot only talks; an agent does things on your behalf.
Why it matters
Part of What an AI agent is → Seeing Claude as an agent explains why it asks permission before acting — it can actually touch your files and run commands, not just describe them.