HelixML

Claude Code

Run Anthropic's Claude Code CLI as the coding agent inside a Helix sandbox.

Claude Code is Anthropic's official command-line coding agent. When you pick it as a project's runtime, Helix launches the claude CLI inside the sandbox desktop and connects it to Zed over the Agent Client Protocol (ACP). The agent panel, file edits, and approvals all surface through the same Zed UI you'd see with any other code agent.

Pick Claude Code when you want Anthropic's latest models with the agent harness Anthropic ships and tunes itself — including its built-in tool set and prompt design.

Selecting Claude Code for a project

Set the assistant's runtime to claude_code in your project YAML:

apiVersion: helix.ml/v1alpha1
kind: Project
metadata:
  name: my-app
 
spec:
  description: "App using Claude Code"
 
  repositories:
    - url: "https://github.com/org/my-app"
      branch: main
      primary: true
 
  agent:
    name: "Claude Code Agent"
    runtime: claude_code

Unlike the other runtimes, Claude Code manages its own model selection internally, so you don't need to specify model or provider on the agent.

Credentials

Claude Code supports two credential modes, chosen via code_agent_credential_type on the agent:

API key (default)

The agent routes through the Helix proxy and uses whatever Anthropic-compatible provider you've configured under Account → AI Providers. No client-side OAuth setup required.

Subscription

If you have a Claude subscription (Pro or Max), you can authenticate Claude Code with your Anthropic account directly. Set:

  agent:
    name: "Claude Code Agent"
    runtime: claude_code
    code_agent_credential_type: subscription

The first session walks you through the OAuth flow; the resulting credentials are persisted to the sandbox so subsequent sessions reuse them. No API key passes through Helix in this mode.

When to pick Claude Code

  • You want the latest Claude models with the harness Anthropic ships and tunes for them.
  • You want your Claude subscription's quota to power the agent instead of a metered API key.
  • You want extension hooks that integrate with the Claude Code ecosystem (skills, MCPs, hooks) without rebuilding them yourself.

See Goose for project-scoped slash-command recipes, Qwen Code for an OpenAI-compatible open-source agent, or Zed Agent for the in-editor agent panel.