--- title: Features overview url: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/overview description: Explore Claude's advanced features and capabilities. --- For each feature’s eligibility under zero data retention (ZDR) and HIPAA readiness, see [API and data retention](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/api-and-data-retention#feature-eligibility). For administration and governance, see the [Admin API](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/admin-api), the [Usage and Cost Analytics API](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/usage-cost-analytics-api), and the [Compliance API](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/compliance-api). ## Platform features Features of the Claude Platform that work across its APIs. Each feature’s page says where you can use it. You can discover which capabilities a model supports programmatically. The [Models API](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/models/list) returns `max_input_tokens`, `max_tokens`, and a `capabilities` object for every available model. | Feature | Description | | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Advisor tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/advisor-tool) | Lets a faster executor model consult a more capable advisor model mid-generation for a plan or a course correction. | | [Agent Skills](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/agent-skills/overview) | Reusable packages of instructions, metadata and optional scripts that Claude uses automatically when they are relevant to a task. | | ↳ [Custom Skills](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/skills-guide#managing-custom-skills) | Skills you write and upload to your workspace. | | ↳ [Pre-built Agent Skills](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/agent-skills/overview#pre-built-agent-skills) | Anthropic’s pre-built skills for PowerPoint, Excel, Word and PDF files. | | [Batch processing](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/batch-processing) | Processes many Messages API requests asynchronously in one batch, at half the standard price. | | [Browser and computer use SDK toolsets](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/browser-use-sdk) | Classes in the Python and TypeScript SDKs that connect the browser use or computer use tool to a browser or desktop that you supply. | | [Browser use tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/browser-use-tool) | Lets Claude navigate, read, and interact with webpages in your own browser environment. | | [Citations](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/citations) | Claude’s answers about your documents cite the exact passages that support each claim. | | [Classifier refusals](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/refusals-and-fallback) | Safety classifiers on some models can decline a request; the decline comes back as a normal response, not an error. | | ↳ [Client-side fallback](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/refusals-and-fallback#client-side-fallback) | A middleware in the Anthropic SDKs that retries a refused request on the fallback models you list. | | ↳ [Fallback credit](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/fallback-credit) | Bills a retry of a refused request on another model as if the conversation had been on that model from the start, so you do not pay the prompt-cache write twice. | | ↳ [Server-side fallback](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/refusals-and-fallback#server-side-fallback) | The API retries a refused request on a fallback model within the same call and returns one response. | | [Computer use tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/computer-use-tool) | Gives Claude screenshot, mouse, and keyboard control of a desktop environment. | | [Custom tools](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/define-tools) | Tools you define with a name, description and input schema. Claude asks to call them; your code runs them and returns the result. | | [Data residency](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/data-residency) | Controls for where model inference runs (inference geo) and where data is stored at rest (workspace geo). | | [Effort](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/effort) | A setting that controls how many tokens Claude spends on a response, trading thoroughness for token efficiency. | | ↳ [Per-message effort](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/effort-per-message) | Changing the effort level for later turns of a conversation with a per-message `output_config`, which keeps the prompt cache. | | [Fast mode](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/fast-mode) | Up to 2.5 times more output tokens per second from supported models, at premium pricing. | | [Files API](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/files) | Upload a file once and refer to it by `file_id` in later requests, and download files that skills or the code execution tool create. | | [MCP connector](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/mcp-connector) | Connect Claude to remote MCP servers so it can call their tools, without running your own MCP client. | | ↳ [Client-side MCP helpers](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/mcp-connector#client-side-mcp-helpers) | SDK helpers that convert between MCP types and Claude API types, for when you run your own MCP client, for example for local servers, prompts or resources. | | [MCP tunnels](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/mcp-tunnels/overview) | Connect Claude to MCP servers inside your private network over an outbound-only connection, with no inbound ports open. | | [Mid-conversation system messages](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/mid-conversation-system-messages) | A system instruction added partway through a conversation, without changing the top-level system prompt or the cached prefix before it. | | ↳ [Mid-conversation tool changes](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/mid-conversation-system-messages#mid-conversation-tool-changes) | Offer or withdraw tools partway through a conversation without changing the tools array, so the cached prefix stays valid. | | ↳ [Turn-scoped system messages](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/mid-conversation-system-messages#turn-scoped-system-messages) | A mid-conversation system message that applies only until the next user message, then stays in the history but renders nothing and costs no input tokens. | | [Multilingual support](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/multilingual-support) | Claude works in many languages, with strong performance relative to English. | | [OpenTelemetry](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/opentelemetry) | Traces your Messages API requests, tool uses, and Managed Agents sessions with OpenTelemetry spans from the Anthropic SDK and the Claude API. | | ↳ [API tracing](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/opentelemetry/api) | OpenTelemetry spans that the Claude API sends to your observability platform for each model request and tool use that it runs. | | ↳ [SDK tracing](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/opentelemetry/sdk) | OpenTelemetry spans that the Anthropic SDK emits in your application for each request it sends and each tool that its tool runner runs. | | [Parallel tool use](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/parallel-tool-use) | Claude can call several tools in one response. | | [PDF support](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/pdf-support) | Send PDFs to Claude so it can read the text, pictures, charts and tables in them. | | [Programmatic tool calling](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/programmatic-tool-calling) | Lets Claude call your tools from code in the code execution container, instead of one model round trip for each call. | | [Prompt caching](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-caching) | Reuses a cached prompt prefix from a recent request to reduce processing time and cost. | | ↳ [1-hour duration](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-caching#1-hour-cache-duration) | A 1-hour prompt cache lifetime, for a higher cache write price than the 5-minute default. | | ↳ [5-minute duration (default)](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-caching#how-prompt-caching-works) | The default prompt cache lifetime. Each use of the cached content refreshes it at no extra cost. | | ↳ [Automatic caching](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-caching#automatic-caching) | Prompt caching with one top-level `cache_control` field: the cache breakpoint goes on the last cacheable block and moves forward as the conversation grows. | | ↳ [Cache diagnostics](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/cache-diagnostics) | Compares a request with your previous one and reports where the prompt prefix changed, to explain cache misses. | | ↳ [Explicit cache breakpoints](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt-caching#explicit-cache-breakpoints) | Prompt caching with `cache_control` on individual content blocks, to choose exactly what is cached. | | [SDK middleware](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/cli-sdks-libraries/middleware) | A hook in the Anthropic SDKs that runs your code before each request is sent and after its response is received. | | [Search results](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/search-results) | Content blocks that hold your own search results, with a source and title, so Claude can cite them the same way it cites web search results. | | [Service tiers](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/service-tiers) | Lets a request use your organization’s Priority Tier capacity. | | [Session budgets](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/budgets) | A hard spending limit in US dollars on one session, measured at public list prices. | | [Streaming refusals](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/test-and-evaluate/strengthen-guardrails/handle-streaming-refusals) | A streamed response ends with `stop_reason` `"refusal"` when streaming classifiers stop it for a possible policy violation. | | [Structured outputs](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/structured-outputs) | Constrains Claude’s response to a JSON schema that you give, so the output is valid and parseable. | | [Task budgets](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/task-budgets) | Tells Claude how many tokens it has for a full agentic loop, so it can plan its work and finish before the budget runs out. | | [Thinking](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/thinking) | Claude works through a problem in thinking blocks before it writes its answer. | | ↳ [Adaptive thinking](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/thinking-steering-and-cost) | Thinking mode in which Claude decides, for each request, whether to think and how much. | | ↳ [Extended thinking](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/extended-thinking) | Manual thinking mode in which you set a fixed thinking token budget (`budget_tokens`) on each request. | | ↳ [Preserved thinking](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/preserved-thinking) | Claude uses thinking blocks from earlier turns only if the current model can read them and nothing before them (system prompt, tools, earlier messages) has changed. | | [Threshold compaction](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/compaction-threshold) | Automatic compaction: when a conversation reaches a token threshold, the API summarizes older context inside the request. | | [Token counting](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/token-counting) | Counts the tokens in a message before you send it to Claude. | | [Tool runner](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/tool-runner) | An SDK helper that runs the tool-use loop for you: it runs your tools when Claude calls them and sends the results back. | | [Tool search tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/tool-search-tool) | Lets Claude search your tool catalog and load only the tool definitions it needs. | | [Vision (images)](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/vision) | Claude can read and analyze images that you send to it. | | [Web domain restrictions](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/tools-web-restrictions) | Lists of allowed or blocked domains that control which sites the web search and web fetch tools can reach. | | [Web fetch tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/web-fetch-tool) | A server tool that lets Claude get the full content of web pages and PDF documents at given URLs. | | [Web search tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/web-search-tool) | A server tool that lets Claude search the web for current information. | ## Messages API features | Feature | Description | | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Apple Foundation Models](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/cli-sdks-libraries/libraries/apple-foundation-models) | A Swift package that makes Claude available as a language model in Apple’s Foundation Models framework. | | [Bash tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/bash-tool) | Lets Claude request shell commands, which run in a bash session that keeps its state between commands. | | [Code execution tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/code-execution-tool) | Lets Claude run Python and Bash code in a sandboxed container. | | [Context editing](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/context-editing) | Clears selected content, such as old tool results or old thinking blocks, from the conversation history as it grows. | | [Forced tool use](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/define-tools#forcing-tool-use) | Makes Claude call a tool, or one specific tool, instead of answering directly. | | [Memory tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/memory-tool) | Lets Claude store and read information across conversations in a directory of memory files. | | ↳ [Memory tool helpers](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/memory-tool#implement-the-memory-handler) | SDK helpers that handle the memory tool’s interface and tool-use loop, so your code supplies only the storage. | | [Message streaming](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/streaming) | Receiving a Messages API response incrementally, as server-sent events, while it is generated. | | ↳ [Fine-grained tool streaming](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/fine-grained-tool-streaming) | Streams a tool’s input to your client as Claude writes it, without the server first buffering and checking the JSON. | | [Message threads](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/message-threads) | Give long-running agents a faster time to first token, especially in long conversations, by sending only the new messages on each request. | | [On-demand compaction](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/compaction-on-demand) | Replaces the earlier messages of a conversation with a summary that Claude writes when your application asks for it. | | ↳ [Background compaction](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/compaction-background) | Runs the on-demand compaction request while the conversation continues on its full history, then swaps in the summary when it arrives. | | ↳ [Compaction and preserved thinking](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/compaction-thinking-blocks) | Thinking blocks in the turns you keep after on-demand compaction can stay valid, under stated conditions, on models with preserved thinking. | | ↳ [Keep-tail compaction](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/compaction-keep-recent-turns) | On-demand compaction that summarizes the older turns and keeps the last few turns word for word after the summary. | | ↳ [Tool runner compaction helper](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/compaction-on-demand#compact-in-a-loop) | A method on the SDK tool runner that sends the compaction request for you once the current turn and its tool calls finish. | | [OpenAI SDK compatibility](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/cli-sdks-libraries/libraries/openai-sdk) | A compatibility layer that lets you call the Claude API with the OpenAI SDK, meant for testing and comparing models. | | [Strict tool use](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/strict-tool-use) | Makes Claude’s tool inputs always match the tool’s JSON Schema. | | [Text editor tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/text-editor-tool) | Lets Claude view, create, and edit text files with an Anthropic-defined tool. | | [Typed structured output helpers](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/structured-outputs#usage) | SDK helpers that build the JSON schema from a type in your code and parse Claude’s response into that type. | ## Managed Agents features | Feature | Description | | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Agent configurations](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/agent-setup) | A reusable, versioned configuration of the model, system prompt, tools, MCP servers and skills that a session runs. | | [Agent toolset](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/tools) | A set of built-in tools (bash, read, write, edit, glob, grep, web fetch and web search) that the agent uses in its sandbox. | | [Cloud sandboxes](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/environments) | Isolated Linux containers on Anthropic-managed infrastructure where a session’s tools and code run. | | [Console agent builder](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/onboarding) | A visual interface in the Claude Console to create, configure and test agents. | | [Dreams](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/dreams) | A job that reads a memory store and past session transcripts and writes a new, reorganized memory store. | | [Event deltas](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/event-deltas) | Live previews of the agent’s response text on the session event stream while the model is still generating it. | | [GitHub access](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/github) | Access to GitHub from a session: repositories mounted in the sandbox, and the GitHub MCP server for pull requests. | | [Memory stores](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/memory) | Collections of text documents that an agent reads and writes, so that information persists across sessions. | | [Multiagent orchestration](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/multiagent-orchestration) | Lets the agent of a session hand work to other agents, as subagents or in workflows, and consult an advisor model. | | ↳ [Dynamic workflows](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/workflow-runs) | Programs that an agent writes to run many agents in the background and combine their results. | | ↳ [Session threads](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/session-threads) | The thread in which each agent of a multiagent session works, which you can list, stream, interrupt and archive. | | [Outcomes](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/define-outcomes) | A target result for a session, with a rubric that a separate grader uses to check the agent’s work until the target is met. | | [Permission policies](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/permission-policies) | Settings that control whether the agent’s built-in tools and MCP tools run automatically, wait for your approval, or are checked by the server on each call. | | [Scheduled deployments](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/scheduled-deployments) | Runs an agent on a cron schedule, so that the agent starts sessions by itself. | | [Self-hosted Claude Managed Agents](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/self-hosted) | The whole Managed Agents service on your own infrastructure: you host the API, the agent loop, the storage, and the sandboxes. | | [Self-hosted sandboxes](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/self-hosted-sandboxes) | Sandboxes on your own infrastructure that run the agent’s tool calls, while Claude still runs on Anthropic’s side. | | ↳ [Self-hosted workers](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/self-hosted-sandboxes-workers) | A process that you run on your own infrastructure to claim sessions from a self-hosted environment’s queue and run their tool calls. | | [Session viewer](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/session-observability) | A session viewer in the Claude Console and per-session usage totals, to see what an agent did and what it used. | | [Vaults](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/vaults) | Stores of per-user credentials for third-party services that you register once and reference by ID when you create a session. | | [Webhooks](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/webhooks) | Notifications to your HTTPS endpoint when events happen in your Managed Agents resources, such as a change in a session’s status. |