- Updated bundled Claude CLI to version 2.1.286
- CI: pinned the model for issue triage to fix failures caused by the CLI's new default model
Claude Agent SDK by Anthropic
Pulse Score
59 / 100
Rank #17 of 157
Downloads, last 7 days
21.5M
up 14.6% vs previous week
Downloads, last 30 days
77.4M
up 0.6% vs previous 30 days
GitHub stars
8,219
about +5 a day
Latest release
0.2.163
6d ago · 10 in 30 days
Price
Free (OSS)
checked Oct 5, 2026
Overview
Anthropic's SDK that exposes the agent loop, tools and context management behind Claude Code, for building custom agents in Python and TypeScript.
Claude Agent SDK was downloaded 21.5M times from npm and PyPI in the week ending Oct 4, 2026, up 14.6% on the week before and up 0.6% over the last 30 days compared with the 30 before. The GitHub repository has 8,219 stars, 188 of them added in the last 30 days. The latest stable release is 0.2.163, published Sep 30, 2026; there were 10 stable releases in the past 30 days. It was mentioned in 6 Hacker News posts and comments over the last 30 days.
Claude Agent SDK usage and attention over time
Download the raw daily series: claude-agent-sdk.csv
Install Claude Agent SDK
| npm | npm install @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk |
|---|---|
| PyPI | pip install claude-agent-sdk |
These commands use the packages tracked on this page. The vendor may recommend a different installer; see the official documentation.
Key facts
| Maker | Anthropic |
|---|---|
| Type | Vendor agent SDK |
| License | MIT (Python SDK) |
| Interfaces | Python library, TypeScript library |
| Main language | Python |
| Open issues and PRs | 531 |
Pricing
The SDK is free to install; usage is billed through the Claude API or a Claude subscription.
, checked Oct 5, 2026. Prices change often; confirm before you buy.
Pulse Score breakdown
Adoption97
Community38
Attention3
Momentum50
Each component is scored 0 to 100 from public signals; a dash means no data for it. Methodology.
What changed: recent Claude Agent SDK releases
50 stable releases in the last 90 days · Full changelog
- Updated bundled Claude CLI to version 2.1.285
- Updated bundled Claude CLI to version 2.1.284
- Fixed follow-up turns failing after background subagents: When using query() with hooks, canusetool, or SDK MCP servers, stdin was closed too early if a subagent finished just before the turn's…
- Aligned docstrings with the code and fixed docstring formatting
- Updated bundled Claude CLI to version 2.1.283
- CI: skip wheels over PyPI's per-file limit instead of failing the release
- Updated bundled Claude CLI to version 2.1.281
- Pinned default model for e2e tests to claude-opus-5 to work around CI failures with the CLI's new default model
- verbatimprompts option: Added ClaudeAgentOptions.verbatimprompts (default False). When True, user messages are delivered to the CLI exactly as written — no @path file expansion and no…
- Updated bundled Claude CLI to version 2.1.280
- CI improvements: recompressed wheels and raised the PyPI pre-flight threshold
Claude Agent SDK alternatives
| # | Agent | Pulse | Downloads 7d | 7d | 30d | VS Code installs | Stars | Latest release | Price | Last 90 days | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 |
LangChainLangChain |
77 | 44.3M | up 1.9% | down 22.0% | — | 147K+45/day | 1.4.38d ago | Free (OSS) | ||
| 10 |
LangGraphLangChain |
69 | 16.1M | up 11.4% | down 21.8% | — | 42.7K+48/day | 1.2.13yesterday | Free (OSS) | ||
| 11 |
AI SDKVercel |
67 | 34.5M | up 13.5% | up 20.9% | — | 27.1K+18/day | 6.0.301yesterday | Free (OSS) | ||
| 13 | 63 | 8.7M | up 0.6% | up 2.0% | — | 8,679+23/day | 1.58.0yesterday | Free (OSS) | |||
| 21 |
MastraMastra |
58 | 2.2M | up 11.1% | up 19.1% | — | 28.6K+27/day | 1.74.0yesterday | Free (OSS) | ||
| 23 |
Deep AgentsLangChain |
57 | 2M | up 13.5% | up 5.0% | — | 30K+19/day | 0.7.22yesterday | Free (OSS) | ||
| No agents match that filter. | |||||||||||
Head to head: Claude Agent SDK vs LangChain · Claude Agent SDK vs LangGraph · Claude Agent SDK vs AI SDK · Claude Agent SDK vs Strands Agents
Guides that cover Claude Agent SDK
Claude Agent SDK FAQ
How much does Claude Agent SDK cost?
The SDK is free to install; usage is billed through the Claude API or a Claude subscription.
Is Claude Agent SDK open source?
Yes. Claude Agent SDK is open source, released under the MIT (Python SDK) license.
How popular is Claude Agent SDK?
Claude Agent SDK was downloaded 21.5M times from npm and PyPI in the week ending Oct 4, 2026, up 14.6% on the week before and up 0.6% over the last 30 days compared with the 30 before. The GitHub repository has 8,219 stars, 188 of them added in the last 30 days. The latest stable release is 0.2.163, published Sep 30, 2026; there were 10 stable releases in the past 30 days.
What is the latest version of Claude Agent SDK?
The latest stable release we track is 0.2.163, published on Sep 30, 2026.
What are the alternatives to Claude Agent SDK?
The closest alternatives in the same category by Pulse Score are LangChain, LangGraph, AI SDK, Strands Agents.
Where these numbers come from
npm: @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk. PyPI: claude-agent-sdk. GitHub: anthropics/claude-agent-sdk-python. See data sources for how each one is collected.