What is Claude Code and How Does It Work with ChatQT?

What is Claude Code / Claude CLI?

Claude Code (also called Claude CLI) is Anthropic's official tool that gives you the Claude model directly inside the terminal. Instead of copy-pasting between browser and editor, Claude works with you in the project folder itself:

Reading and editing project files
Running commands in the shell and seeing the output
Writing commits, creating pull requests and reviewing diffs
Running tests and debugging errors

This means Claude Code is built for coding, refactoring, automation and repetitive project tasks — not for a simple conversation.

How does it work?

Behind the scenes, Claude Code calls the same standard Anthropic API. It needs three things to set up:

API key for authentication (`ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`).
The endpoint URL that requests are sent to (`ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL`).
The model ID you want to use (`ANTHROPIC_MODEL`).

Then Claude works in a tool-use loop : the model decides which file to read or which command to run, the CLI executes that tool, returns the output, and this cycle continues until the final answer.

Why with ChatQT?

In Iran, direct access to Anthropic's service is usually impossible; there are both IP restrictions and the hassle of paying with an international card. ChatQT provides an Anthropic-compatible endpoint on `api.chatqt.com/api`:

No VPN — requests reach Anthropic from ChatQT's side
Rial payment and credit top-ups on a PAYG basis
Persian support and instant activation

This means you have the same official Claude Code on your own terminal—you just change `BASE_URL` and `AUTH_TOKEN`.

Quick start

First, from the ChatQT developer console create an API key. Then create or edit the `~/.claude/settings.json` file:

Prompt

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "YOUR_CHATQT_KEY",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.chatqt.com/api"
  }
}

Now just run the `claude` command in the project folder. For more details (choosing the exact model ID, fixing errors, configuring a proxy) see the complete Claude CLI with ChatQT guide section.

When should we use the web app instead of the CLI?

Claude Code is excellent for coding, but not everything is coding. If you want to use reasoning mode of Claude (i.e., Extended Thinking or reasoning) — like deeply analyzing a problem, multi-step math, logical reasoning, or reviewing a long document — the best experience is in the ChatQT web app :

In the the ChatQT web app Claude's reasoning-focused models (like Claude Opus) are selectable with one click.
The model's chain of thought is shown live.
You can switch between different models (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok and QT) and compare answers.
There's no need to set up a config file or environment variable.

In short:

Coding, refactoring, automation, scripting → Claude CLI with a key the ChatQT console
Reasoning, analysis, writing, comparing models → the ChatQT web app

Conclusion

Claude Code is a professional tool for developers, and with ChatQT you can use it without a VPN and with Rial payment. Get the API key from developer console and if your work is more about reasoning and analysis than coding, go straight to the ChatQT web app .

For technical details, see the API, to buy credit go to Buy Claude and for a quick chat to AI Chat .