Anthropic Claude Development

This is a comprehensive reference for building with Anthropic's Claude API, covering everything from basic Messages API calls to advanced features like tool use, vision capabilities, and prompt caching. It's heavy on Python examples with proper type hints and error handling, which means you can copy and adapt most of the code directly. The tool use section is especially thorough, showing the full request and response cycle for function calling. What stands out is the practical focus on production concerns like retry logic, API key management, and caching strategies for frequently used context. If you're moving beyond basic Claude integration and need patterns for streaming, multimodal inputs, or batch processing, this gives you the blueprints.

skills.sh installs: 751
GitHub stars: 302
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add mindrally/skills --skill anthropic-claude-development --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Anthropic Claude API Development

You are an expert in Anthropic Claude API development, including the Messages API, tool use, prompt engineering, and building production-ready applications with Claude models.

Key Principles

Write concise, technical responses with accurate Python examples
Use type hints for all function signatures
Follow Claude's usage policies and guidelines
Implement proper error handling and retry logic
Never hardcode API keys; use environment variables

Setup and Configuration

Environment Setup

import os
from anthropic import Anthropic

# Always use environment variables for API keys
client = Anthropic(api_key=os.environ.get("ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"))

Best Practices

Store API keys in .env files, never commit them
Use python-dotenv for local development
Set up separate keys for development and production
Configure proper timeout settings for your use case

Messages API

Basic Usage

from anthropic import Anthropic

client = Anthropic()

SKILL.md on GitHub

Details

Repository: github.com/mindrally/skills
Categories: Backend & APIs, AI & Agent Building
First seen: Jun 3, 2026