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Messages/Building with Claude

Features overview

Explore Claude's advanced features and capabilities.

Claude's API surface is organized into five areas:

  • Model capabilities: Control how Claude reasons and formats responses.
  • Tools: Let Claude take actions on the web or in your environment.
  • Tool infrastructure: Handles discovery and orchestration at scale.
  • Context management: Keeps long-running sessions efficient.
  • Files and assets: Manage the documents and data you provide to Claude.

If you're new, start with model capabilities and tools. Return to the other sections when you're ready to optimize cost, latency, or scale.

For administration and governance, see the Admin API, the Usage and Cost API, and the Compliance API.

Feature availability

Features on the Claude Platform are assigned one of the following availability classifications per platform (shown in the Availability column of each following table). Not all features pass through every stage. A feature may enter at any classification and may skip stages.

ClassificationDescription
Beta*Preview features used for gathering feedback and iterating on a less mature use case. Availability may be limited, including through sign-up requirements or waitlists, and may not be publicly announced.

Features may change significantly or be discontinued based on feedback. Not guaranteed for ongoing production use. Breaking changes are possible with notice, and some platform-specific limitations may apply. Beta features on the Claude API and Claude Platform on AWS have a beta header.
Generally available (GA)Feature is stable, fully supported, and recommended for production use. Should not have a beta header or other indicator that the feature is in a preview state. Covered by standard API versioning guarantees.
DeprecatedFeature is still functional but no longer recommended. A migration path and removal timeline are provided.
RetiredFeature is no longer available.

* May carry a qualifier indicating narrower availability or added constraints (for example, "beta: research preview"). See the feature's page for details.

Platform labels: Claude API (Anthropic first-party) · Claude Platform on AWS (Anthropic-operated on AWS) · Bedrock (AWS-operated) · Vertex AI (Google-operated) · Microsoft Foundry (Anthropic-operated on Azure)

Model capabilities

Ways to steer Claude and Claude's direct outputs, including response format, reasoning depth, and input modalities.

You can discover which capabilities a model supports programmatically. The Models API returns max_input_tokens, max_tokens, and a capabilities object for every available model.

FeatureDescriptionZero Data Retention (ZDR)Availability
Context windowsUp to 1M tokens for processing large documents, extensive code bases, and long conversations.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Adaptive thinkingLet Claude dynamically decide when and how much to think. The recommended thinking mode for Opus 4.7. Use the effort parameter to control thinking depth.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Batch processingProcess large volumes of requests asynchronously for cost savings. Send batches with a large number of queries per batch. Batch API calls cost 50% less than standard API calls.Not ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)
CitationsGround Claude's responses in source documents. With Citations, Claude can provide detailed references to the exact sentences and passages it uses to generate responses, leading to more verifiable, trustworthy outputs.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Data residencyControl where model inference runs using geographic controls. Specify "global" or "us" routing per request through the inference_geo parameter.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)
EffortControl how many tokens Claude uses when responding with the effort parameter, trading off between response thoroughness and token efficiency. Supported on Opus 4.7, Opus 4.6, Sonnet 4.6, and Opus 4.5.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Extended thinkingEnhanced reasoning capabilities for complex tasks, providing transparency into Claude's step-by-step thought process before delivering its final answer.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
PDF supportProcess and analyze text and visual content from PDF documents.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Search resultsEnable natural citations for RAG applications by providing search results with proper source attribution. Achieve web search-quality citations for custom knowledge bases and tools.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Structured outputsGuarantee schema conformance with two approaches: JSON outputs for structured data responses, and strict tool use for validated tool inputs.ZDR eligible (qualified)*Claude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)

Tools

Built-in tools that Claude invokes through tool_use. Server-side tools are run by the platform; client-side tools are implemented and executed by you.

Server-side tools

FeatureDescriptionZDRAvailability
Advisor toolPair a faster executor model with a higher-intelligence advisor model that provides strategic guidance mid-generation for long-horizon agentic workloads.ZDR eligibleClaude API (Beta)

Claude Platform on AWS (Beta)
Code executionRun code in a sandboxed environment for advanced data analysis, calculations, and file processing. Free when used with web search or web fetch.Not ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Web fetchRetrieve full content from specified web pages and PDF documents for in-depth analysis.ZDR eligible*Claude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Web searchAugment Claude's comprehensive knowledge with current, real-world data from across the web.ZDR eligible*Claude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)

Client-side tools

FeatureDescriptionZDRAvailability
BashExecute bash commands and scripts to interact with the system shell and perform command-line operations.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Computer useControl computer interfaces by taking screenshots and issuing mouse and keyboard commands.ZDR eligibleClaude API (Beta)

Claude Platform on AWS (Beta)

Bedrock (Beta)

Vertex AI (Beta)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
MemoryEnable Claude to store and retrieve information across conversations. Build knowledge bases over time, maintain project context, and learn from past interactions.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Text editorCreate and edit text files with a built-in text editor interface for file manipulation tasks.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)

Tool infrastructure

Infrastructure that supports discovering, orchestrating, and scaling tool use.

FeatureDescriptionZDRAvailability
Agent SkillsExtend Claude's capabilities with Skills. Use pre-built Skills (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, PDF) or create custom Skills with instructions and scripts. Skills use progressive disclosure to efficiently manage context.Not ZDR eligibleClaude API (Beta)

Claude Platform on AWS (Beta)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Fine-grained tool streamingStream tool use parameters without buffering/JSON validation, reducing latency for receiving large parameters.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
MCP connectorConnect to remote MCP servers directly from the Messages API without a separate MCP client.Not ZDR eligibleClaude API (Beta)

Claude Platform on AWS (Beta)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Programmatic tool callingEnable Claude to call your tools programmatically from within code execution containers, reducing latency and token consumption for multi-tool workflows.Not ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Tool searchScale to thousands of tools by dynamically discovering and loading tools on-demand using regex-based search, optimizing context usage and improving tool selection accuracy.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)

Context management

Infrastructure for controlling and optimizing Claude's context window.

FeatureDescriptionZDRAvailability
CompactionServer-side context summarization for long-running conversations. When context approaches the window limit, the API automatically summarizes earlier parts of the conversation. Supported on Opus 4.7, Opus 4.6, and Sonnet 4.6.ZDR eligibleClaude API (Beta)

Claude Platform on AWS (Beta)

Bedrock (Beta)

Vertex AI (Beta)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Context editingAutomatically manage conversation context with configurable strategies. Supports clearing tool results when approaching token limits and managing thinking blocks in extended thinking conversations.ZDR eligibleClaude API (Beta)

Claude Platform on AWS (Beta)

Bedrock (Beta)

Vertex AI (Beta)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Automatic prompt cachingSimplify prompt caching to a single API parameter. The system automatically caches the last cacheable block in your request, moving the cache point forward as conversations grow.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Prompt caching (5m)Provide Claude with more background knowledge and example outputs to reduce costs and latency.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Prompt caching (1hr)Extended 1-hour cache duration for less frequently accessed but important context, complementing the standard 5-minute cache.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)
Token countingToken counting enables you to determine the number of tokens in a message before sending it to Claude, helping you make informed decisions about your prompts and usage.ZDR eligibleClaude API (GA)

Claude Platform on AWS (GA)

Bedrock (GA)

Vertex AI (GA)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)

Files and assets

Manage files and assets for use with Claude.

FeatureDescriptionZDRAvailability
Files APIUpload and manage files to use with Claude without re-uploading content with each request. Supports PDFs, images, and text files.Not ZDR eligibleClaude API (Beta)

Claude Platform on AWS (Beta)

Microsoft Foundry (Beta)

* Structured outputs: Your prompts and Claude's outputs are not stored. Only JSON schemas are cached, for up to 24 hours since last use. Web search and web fetch: ZDR-eligible except when dynamic filtering is enabled. See ZDR details.

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  • Feature availability
  • Model capabilities
  • Tools
  • Server-side tools
  • Client-side tools
  • Tool infrastructure
  • Context management
  • Files and assets