What Claude Code is, and when a business user needs it

Example result.

File changed: src/data/plans.json (1 line)
- "monthly": 49,
+ "monthly": 54,
Checks: local preview shows Studio £54/month; annual price unchanged at £490
Not done: commit, push, publish (for the site owner)

Claude Code is Anthropic’s coding agent. It reads a project’s files, edits them and runs the project’s commands. It’s built for changing software, which is more than most business jobs need.

1. Decide whether you need Claude Code

If you’re not sure where the words on your site live, ask whoever built it. For folder work, see Give Claude a folder for one bounded job. The OpenAI equivalent is covered in the beginner’s guide to Codex.

Why this works: the simplest tool that can do the job leaves the least to check.

What you should see: a clear answer. Carry on only if your job is in the last row.

2. Open the project and ask for a plan

You don’t need the terminal. In the Claude desktop app, sign in and click the Code tab; on the web, go to claude.ai/code, which works on repositories you don’t have on your computer. Choose the project the owner gave you access to, and check the name shown is the right one.

Look through this project without changing any files. I need [the change], agreed in [where it was agreed]. Find the file or files where this value is stored, show me the current lines, and propose the smallest change. List anywhere else on the site that shows the same value. Don't install anything, commit, push or publish. Wait for me to review the plan.

[the change] is the exact before and after, such as “the Studio plan’s monthly price from £49 to £54”. [where it was agreed] is the email or decision it came from.

Why this works: a value on a web page is often stored somewhere else, and sometimes in more than one place. A plan finds it before anything changes.

What you should see: the file name, the current line and a one-line proposed change. If the plan includes a redesign, a clean-up or a dependency update, say no.

3. Make the change and read the diff

Make only the change in your plan. Leave every other line and file as it is. Run the project's existing preview or checks if there are any. Then show me the diff and list the files you changed.

The diff is the before-and-after view of each changed line. The desktop app shows it visually. Read every line in it, not just the one you expected. Then open the local preview and look at the page.

Why this works: the diff is the only complete record of what changed. Claude’s summary is its account of what it meant to do.

What you should see: one changed line, in the file the plan named, and the new value on the preview page.

4. Hand it to the owner

Stop here and send the owner the diff, the source of the agreed change, what you checked and anything that couldn’t be checked. Committing, pushing and publishing are the owner’s steps. A change on your screen isn’t on the live site, and “the site is updated” is the wrong message until it is. Local result, GitHub change or live website explains each finish line.

Why this works: the owner knows the release process and what else the change could affect.

What you should see: a short handover the owner can approve without asking what you did.

Check the result

• The diff contains only the lines you asked for.
• The changed value matches the agreed change exactly.
• Every other place the plan listed has been dealt with, or noted for the owner.
• Nothing was committed, pushed or published.

The usual failure: the diff has your change plus one Claude thought was implied. A related number recalculated, a label reworded, a file reformatted. It looks helpful, and it’s a change nobody agreed. You’ll spot it only by reading every line of the diff.

The diff also changes [unrequested change], which wasn't part of the agreed change. Put that back exactly as it was and keep [the agreed change]. Don't touch any other file. Show me the final diff.

[unrequested change] is the extra line; [the agreed change] is the one you asked for.

Fictional example. The marketing team agreed to raise the Studio plan from £49 to £54 a month from 1 December. Annual pricing stays at £490 until the finance review in January. The site’s prices live in one file:

"studio": {
  "monthly": 49,
  "annual": 490,
  "seats": 3
}

Claude’s plan found the file and noted that the home page reads from it. After the change, the diff showed:

− “monthly”: 49, → + “monthly”: 54, − “annual”: 490, → + “annual”: 540,

• The failure. Claude kept annual at ten times monthly, which is how the old numbers worked. The £540 figure was never agreed.
• The repair. The repair prompt with “the annual price, 490 to 540” and “monthly 49 to 54” restored £490. The final diff had one changed line.
• The handover. The owner got the one-line diff, the marketing email and a note that the annual price is due for review in January.

Task kit for this job: Download (ZIP) · Reusable instructions

Go deeper

Sources

• Claude Code docs: Overview
• Claude Help Center: Use Claude Code with your Team or Enterprise plan
• Claude: Plans and pricing