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Claude API Skill for Claude

Anthropic Claude API patterns for Python and TypeScript. Covers Messages API, streaming, tool use, vision, extended thinking, batches, prompt caching, and Claude Agent SDK. Use when building applications with the Claude API or Anthropic SDKs.

2k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
1
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
265
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/loulanyue/awesome-claude-notes --skill claude-api

The instruction itself

21 sections, as written by the author

Claude API

Build applications with the Anthropic Claude API and SDKs.

When to Activate

  • Building applications that call the Claude API
  • Code imports anthropic (Python) or @anthropic-ai/sdk (TypeScript)
  • User asks about Claude API patterns, tool use, streaming, or vision
  • Implementing agent workflows with Claude Agent SDK
  • Optimizing API costs, token usage, or latency

Model Selection

| Model | ID | Best For |

|-------|-----|----------|

| Opus 4.1 | claude-opus-4-1 | Complex reasoning, architecture, research |

| Sonnet 4 | claude-sonnet-4-0 | Balanced coding, most development tasks |

| Haiku 3.5 | claude-3-5-haiku-latest | Fast responses, high-volume, cost-sensitive |

Default to Sonnet 4 unless the task requires deep reasoning (Opus) or speed/cost optimization (Haiku). For production, prefer pinned snapshot IDs over aliases.

Python SDK

Installation

pip install anthropic

Basic Message

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic()  # reads ANTHROPIC_API_KEY from env

message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "Explain async/await in Python"}
    ]
)
print(message.content[0].text)

Streaming

with client.messages.stream(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about coding"}]
) as stream:
    for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

System Prompt

message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
    max_tokens=1024,
    system="You are a senior Python developer. Be concise.",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Review this function"}]
)

TypeScript SDK

Installation

npm install @anthropic-ai/sdk

Basic Message

import Anthropic from "@anthropic-ai/sdk";

const client = new Anthropic(); // reads ANTHROPIC_API_KEY from env

const message = await client.messages.create({
  model: "claude-sonnet-4-0",
  max_tokens: 1024,
  messages: [
    { role: "user", content: "Explain async/await in TypeScript" }
  ],
});
console.log(message.content[0].text);

Streaming

const stream = client.messages.stream({
  model: "claude-sonnet-4-0",
  max_tokens: 1024,
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Write a haiku" }],
});

for await (const event of stream) {
  if (event.type === "content_block_delta" && event.delta.type === "text_delta") {
    process.stdout.write(event.delta.text);
  }
}

Tool Use

Define tools and let Claude call them:

tools = [
    {
        "name": "get_weather",
        "description": "Get current weather for a location",
        "input_schema": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "location": {"type": "string", "description": "City name"},
                "unit": {"type": "string", "enum": ["celsius", "fahrenheit"]}
            },
            "required": ["location"]
        }
    }
]

message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
    max_tokens=1024,
    tools=tools,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What's the weather in SF?"}]
)

# Handle tool use response
for block in message.content:
    if block.type == "tool_use":
        # Execute the tool with block.input
        result = get_weather(**block.input)
        # Send result back
        follow_up = client.messages.create(
            model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
            max_tokens=1024,
            tools=tools,
            messages=[
                {"role": "user", "content": "What's the weather in SF?"},
                {"role": "assistant", "content": message.content},
                {"role": "user", "content": [
                    {"type": "tool_result", "tool_use_id": block.id, "content": str(result)}
                ]}
            ]
        )

Vision

Send images for analysis:

import base64

with open("diagram.png", "rb") as f:
    image_data = base64.standard_b64encode(f.read()).decode("utf-8")

message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[{
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
            {"type": "image", "source": {"type": "base64", "media_type": "image/png", "data": image_data}},
            {"type": "text", "text": "Describe this diagram"}
        ]
    }]
)

Extended Thinking

For complex reasoning tasks:

message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
    max_tokens=16000,
    thinking={
        "type": "enabled",
        "budget_tokens": 10000
    },
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Solve this math problem step by step..."}]
)

for block in message.content:
    if block.type == "thinking":
        print(f"Thinking: {block.thinking}")
    elif block.type == "text":
        print(f"Answer: {block.text}")

Prompt Caching

Cache large system prompts or context to reduce costs:

message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
    max_tokens=1024,
    system=[
        {"type": "text", "text": large_system_prompt, "cache_control": {"type": "ephemeral"}}
    ],
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Question about the cached context"}]
)
# Check cache usage
print(f"Cache read: {message.usage.cache_read_input_tokens}")
print(f"Cache creation: {message.usage.cache_creation_input_tokens}")

Batches API

Process large volumes asynchronously at 50% cost reduction:

import time

batch = client.messages.batches.create(
    requests=[
        {
            "custom_id": f"request-{i}",
            "params": {
                "model": "claude-sonnet-4-0",
                "max_tokens": 1024,
                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": prompt}]
            }
        }
        for i, prompt in enumerate(prompts)
    ]
)

# Poll for completion
while True:
    status = client.messages.batches.retrieve(batch.id)
    if status.processing_status == "ended":
        break
    time.sleep(30)

# Get results
for result in client.messages.batches.results(batch.id):
    print(result.result.message.content[0].text)

Claude Agent SDK

Build multi-step agents:

# Note: Agent SDK API surface may change — check official docs
import anthropic

# Define tools as functions
tools = [{
    "name": "search_codebase",
    "description": "Search the codebase for relevant code",
    "input_schema": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {"query": {"type": "string"}},
        "required": ["query"]
    }
}]

# Run an agentic loop with tool use
client = anthropic.Anthropic()
messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "Review the auth module for security issues"}]

while True:
    response = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-sonnet-4-0",
        max_tokens=4096,
        tools=tools,
        messages=messages,
    )
    if response.stop_reason == "end_turn":
        break
    # Handle tool calls and continue the loop
    messages.append({"role": "assistant", "content": response.content})
    # ... execute tools and append tool_result messages

Cost Optimization

| Strategy | Savings | When to Use |

|----------|---------|-------------|

| Prompt caching | Up to 90% on cached tokens | Repeated system prompts or context |

| Batches API | 50% | Non-time-sensitive bulk processing |

| Haiku instead of Sonnet | ~75% | Simple tasks, classification, extraction |

| Shorter max_tokens | Variable | When you know output will be short |

| Streaming | None (same cost) | Better UX, same price |

Error Handling

import time

from anthropic import APIError, RateLimitError, APIConnectionError

try:
    message = client.messages.create(...)
except RateLimitError:
    # Back off and retry
    time.sleep(60)
except APIConnectionError:
    # Network issue, retry with backoff
    pass
except APIError as e:
    print(f"API error {e.status_code}: {e.message}")

Environment Setup

# Required
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

# Optional: set default model
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="claude-sonnet-4-0"

Never hardcode API keys. Always use environment variables.

원문

  • 영문 원문

탐색

  • 한국어 문서 안내
  • 기여 가이드

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take loulanyue/awesome-claude-notes-claude-api from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.

Install what it needs

The instructions reference pip, npm. Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.