There’s been confusion about where we can actually use a Claude subscription. This comes after Anthropic took action to prevent third-party applications from spoofing the Claude Code harness to use Claude subscriptions.
The information in this post is based on my understanding from reading various tweets, official GitHub repos and documentation (some of which may or may not be up to date). I will endeavour to keep it up to date as new information becomes available. I would love to see Anthropic themselves maintain an easily parsable page like this that shows what is and is not permitted with a Claude subscription.
We've taken action to prevent third-party clients from spoofing the Claude Code agent harness to use consumer subscriptions. Consumer subscriptions and their benefits should only be used in the Anthropic experiences they support (Claude Code CLI, Claude Code web, and via sessionKey in the Agent SDK). Third-party apps can use the API.
— Alex Albert (@trq212) January 12, 2025
From what I can gather, consumer subscriptions work with official Anthropic tools, not third-party applications. If you want third-party integrations, you need the API.
| Tool/Service | Subscription | API |
|---|---|---|
| Claude desktop and mobile apps | ✅ | ❌ |
| Claude Code CLI | ✅ | ✅ |
| Claude Code on the web | ✅ | ❌ |
| Claude Agent SDK (personal development) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Claude Code GitHub Action | ✅ | ✅ |
| Third-party applications (including coding harnesses) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Production agent deployments (with Claude Agent SDK) | ❌ | ✅ |
Official Tools
Claude Desktop and Mobile Apps
The consumer applications (desktop and mobile) are the most straightforward way to use your Claude subscription. Available at claude.com/download, these apps give you direct access to Claude for conversation, file uploads, and Projects.
Claude Code CLI
The official command-line interface for Claude Code is fully supported with Claude subscriptions. This is the tool Anthropic built and maintains specifically for developers who want to use Claude in their development workflow.
You get the full power of Claude integrated into your terminal, with access to your entire codebase, the ability to execute commands, read and write files, and use all the specialized agents that come with Claude Code.
Claude Code on the Web
The web version of Claude Code (accessible through your browser at claude.ai/code) provides the same capabilities as the CLI but through a browser interface. Upload your project files, or point it at a repository, and you can work with Claude on your codebase directly.
Claude Agent SDK
Want to experiment with building custom agents? The Claude Agent SDK lets you develop and test specialized agents powered by your Claude subscription for personal development work.
The SDK is available in both Python and TypeScript, with documentation here.
This is for personal experiments and development. For production deployments of agents, use the API instead of your subscription.
Claude Code GitHub Action
You can use your Claude subscription to run automated agents in GitHub Actions. The Claude Code Action lets you set up workflows that leverage Claude for code review, documentation generation, or automated testing analysis. Documentation is here.
Any other uses of Claude would require the use of API keys.
Summary
Your Claude subscription gives you:
- Claude desktop and mobile apps for general use
- Claude Code CLI for terminal-based development
- Claude Code on the web for browser-based work
- The ability to build custom agents through the official SDK (for personal development)
- Claude Code GitHub Action for CI/CD integration
Let me know if you have any corrections.