Tools
Claude Code has 45 built-in tools organized into 9 categories. The system prompt explicitly instructs Claude to prefer dedicated tools over general Bash commands whenever possible.
The dedicated tools rule
The system prompt explicitly tells Claude to use dedicated tools instead of Bash for common operations. This improves transparency and makes tool calls reviewable.
| Instead of | Use |
|---|---|
| cat / head / tail / sed | Read |
| sed / awk | Edit |
| echo > / heredoc | Write |
| find / ls | Glob |
| grep / rg | Grep |
All tools by category
Files
Read, write, edit and search the filesystem
Shell
Execute commands in the terminal
Web
Fetch URLs and search the internet
Agents
Spawn and communicate with sub-agents
Planning
Enter plan mode and manage git worktrees
Tasks
Create and track work items in the current session
Scheduling
Create cron jobs and remote triggers
UI
Interact with the user and invoke skills
MCP
Model Context Protocol: connect external tools
Conditional tools (feature flags)
Some tools only appear when specific feature flags are enabled. They are not available in standard Claude Code installations.
Pauses execution in autonomous mode. Required when there is nothing useful to do. Claude must never respond without calling sleep.
CronCreate, CronDelete, CronList: only available when the scheduling feature flag is enabled.
Performance and observability monitoring. Behind a separate feature flag.
Full browser automation (beyond WebFetch). Available when the browser tool flag is on.
Interactive REPL execution. Not available to external users.