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Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny

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Feb 19, 2026

Guest

Boris Cherny

Boris Cherny, Head of Claude Code at Anthropic and creator of Claude Code, led the rapid rise of agentic AI for developers. He recounts Claude Code’s origin, surprising design lessons like starting in the terminal, and why coding feels solved. They explore agents expanding beyond code, Cowork’s quick build, experimentation culture, and how teams should structure work and safety around AI tools.

01:27:45

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Episode notes

100% Of His Code Is AI-Written

Boris ships 10–30 pull requests daily and hasn't edited a line by hand since November because Cloud Code writes and reviews code.
He still reads code and keeps human checkpoints for safety and correctness.

Underfund Early, Encourage Speed

Under-resource early projects to force rapid iteration and ownership; one engineer can ship faster with clear incentives.
Encourage speed: do what you can today and use agents to automate toil so ideas ship quickly.

Printing Press As AI Analogy

The printing press is a fitting analogy: AI will democratize programming and massively increase output while lowering cost.
This transition will be disruptive but also enable unforeseen creativity and coordination over time.

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Why Boris briefly left Anthropic

03:50 • 2min

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Claude Code's first year and impact

05:36 • 2min

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Origin story of Claude Code

07:18 • 1min

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From coding to tool and computer use

08:19 • 2min

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Design lessons: under-resourcing and terminal UX

10:13 • 2min

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Release and user feedback loop

11:54 • 2min

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Experimentation and innovation culture

13:29 • 3min

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Boris's 100% AI-written code workflow

16:03 • 2min

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What's next after coding is solved

17:33 • 2min

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Using Claude to decide what to build

19:14 • 2min

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Model improvements and productivity gains

20:51 • 2min

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Downsides of rapid model change

22:30 • 2min

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Team principles: make Claude do it

24:03 • 1min

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Underfunding, tokens, and experimentation

25:33 • 2min

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Emotional side: do engineers miss coding?

28:00 • 4min

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Will learning to code still matter?

32:13 • 4min

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Which roles will AI transform next

36:11 • 2min

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Jobs, demand, and optimistic analogies

38:20 • 3min

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Advice to succeed in the AI era

40:51 • 2min

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Roles blurring: builder over titles

42:30 • 3min

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Survey: who enjoys work more with AI

45:12 • 2min

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Latent demand: product-market signals

47:23 • 5min

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How Cowork was built in 10 days

52:00 • 2min

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Three layers of AI safety at Anthropic

54:06 • 2min

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Observability and mechanistic interpretability

56:33 • 3min

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Agent anxiety and always-on workflows

59:42 • 4min

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Product tips for building AI apps

01:03:22 • 5min

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Practical tips for using Claude Code

01:08:40 • 3min

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Thoughts on competitors and Codex

01:11:16 • 1min

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Post-AGI plans and miso making

01:12:21 • 2min

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Final reflections and company thesis

01:14:19 • 2min

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Lightning round: books, media, and products

01:16:21 • 8min

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Life motto and social presence

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Boris Cherny is the creator and head of Claude Code at Anthropic. What began as a simple terminal-based prototype just a year ago has transformed the role of software engineering and is increasingly transforming all professional work.

We discuss:

1. How Claude Code grew from a quick hack to 4% of public GitHub commits, with daily active users doubling last month

2. The counterintuitive product principles that drove Claude Code’s success

3. Why Boris believes coding is “solved”

4. The latent demand that shaped Claude Code and Cowork

5. Practical tips for getting the most out of Claude Code and Cowork

6. How underfunding teams and giving them unlimited tokens leads to better AI products

7. Why Boris briefly left Anthropic for Cursor, then returned after just two weeks

8. Three principles Boris shares with every new team member

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