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I am still just shocked that Claude Code was written in Typescript, not C++, Rust or Python. It also somehow messed up my alacritty config when I first used it

I am still just shocked that Claude Code was written in Typescript, not C++, Rust or Python. It also somehow messed up my alacritty config when I first used it. Who knows what other ~/.config files it modifies without warning.

tmountain 7mo ago
I'm surprised Python is on that list. TypeScript doesn't seem like a terrible choice, as it can leverage vast ecosystems of packages, has concurrency features, a solid type system, and decent performance. C++ lacks as robust of a package ecosystem, and Python doesn't have inbuilt types, which makes it a non-starter for larger projects for me. Rust would have been a great choice for sure.
- Levitating 7mo ago
  > I'm surprised Python is on that list. I mostly mentioned it because it is pre-installed on some (linux) systems. Though of course if you're trying to obfuscate the sourcecode you need to bundle an interpreter with the code anyway. But it has historically been used for big programs, and there are well established methods for bundling python programs into executables.
- DrewADesign 7mo ago
  Python and C++ have been used for countless large projects— each one for many more than typescript. It’s all about trade-offs that take into account your tasks, available coders at the project’s commencement, environment, etc.
  - rkozik1989 7mo ago
    People like to put companies that are household names on pedestals, but the choices they make are mostly guided by what their people can do and which choices give them the most value for free. They mostly operate how smaller companies do but they have a bigger R&D budget to address issues like scale that the larger market has little incentive to solve.
    - DrewADesign 7mo ago
      Also, this product is like a year old… it has barely hit its teething phase. I wouldn’t be surprised if the core is still the prototype someone whipped up as a proof of concept. I reckon some believe these companies are basically magical, and are utterly astonished when they’re shown to be imperfect in relatively uninteresting ways. I’m a lot more concerned about the sanity of the AI ecosystem they operate in than the stability of some front-end Anthropic made.
- balamatom 7mo ago
  >Python doesn't have inbuilt types Technically, neither does JavaScript.
  - nicce 7mo ago
    Well, nobody mentioned it technically. Like nobody mentioned Assembly but it is under the hood.
    - balamatom 7mo ago
      False analogy.
      - deleted 7mo ago
        [deleted]
- kurtis_reed 7mo ago
  "Python doesn't have inbuilt types" False.
WaterRun 7mo ago
Anthropic acquired Bun. Clearly, Bun is not a runtime for C++, Rust, or Python. For an engineering project, strongly typed TypeScript was basically the only possible choice for them.
- Levitating 7mo ago
  I am not following your logic. Anthropic acquired Bun and so all of their end-user software should use it? Or am I missing sarcasm?
  - klohto 7mo ago
    Why do you think they acquired Bun. To look at it? Also you needed a leak to know that CC, that is out for 1 year, is in TS?
    - Levitating 7mo ago
      > Why do you think they acquired Bun I don't know why they acquired Bun. Surely not because there's no other means to write command line programs. > Also you needed a leak to know that CC, that is out for 1 year, is in TS? What, are you shaming people for not being aware what (obfuscated) code some 1 year old software is written in?
      - WaterRun 7mo ago
        So what do you think the obfuscated .js code in a 2026 engineering project was generated with? Nim?
  - WaterRun 7mo ago
    Is Anthropic's acquisition of Bun alone still not enough to infer their tech stack? What more obvious signals would be needed? Also, honestly, given the speed constraints of large models, it makes almost no difference what language an agent is written in. The small performance differences between programming languages do not even begin to matter compared with network latency, let alone the speed at which a large model streams tokens.
dominotw 7mo ago
Boris Cherney is author of a oreilly book about typescript
- WiSaGaN 7mo ago
  Yeah, this seems like a personal choice, which does work out given the current result.
pveierland 7mo ago
They have an annoying sandbox issue which pollutes your repository root with a set of empty files. Not the cleanest tool, but the paradigm is a big upgrade to previous AI coding. .bash_profile .bashrc .claude .env .gitconfig .gitmodules .idea .mcp.json .profile .ripgreprc .vscode .zprofile .zshrc config https://github.com/anthropic-experimental/sandbox-runtime/issues/139 https://github.com/anthropic-experimental/sandbox-runtime/is...
ivanjermakov 7mo ago
> Who knows what other ~/.config it modifies without warning Me. My .config is git-versioned :)
braebo 7mo ago
Because Typescript is the best language for most things.
- firemelt 7mo ago
  is it using oclif?

tmountain 7mo ago

I'm surprised Python is on that list. TypeScript doesn't seem like a terrible choice, as it can leverage vast ecosystems of packages, has concurrency features, a solid type system, and decent performance. C++ lacks as robust of a package ecosystem, and Python doesn't have inbuilt types, which makes it a non-starter for larger projects for me. Rust would have been a great choice for sure.

Levitating 7mo ago
> I'm surprised Python is on that list. I mostly mentioned it because it is pre-installed on some (linux) systems. Though of course if you're trying to obfuscate the sourcecode you need to bundle an interpreter with the code anyway. But it has historically been used for big programs, and there are well established methods for bundling python programs into executables.
DrewADesign 7mo ago
Python and C++ have been used for countless large projects— each one for many more than typescript. It’s all about trade-offs that take into account your tasks, available coders at the project’s commencement, environment, etc.
- rkozik1989 7mo ago
  People like to put companies that are household names on pedestals, but the choices they make are mostly guided by what their people can do and which choices give them the most value for free. They mostly operate how smaller companies do but they have a bigger R&D budget to address issues like scale that the larger market has little incentive to solve.
  - DrewADesign 7mo ago
    Also, this product is like a year old… it has barely hit its teething phase. I wouldn’t be surprised if the core is still the prototype someone whipped up as a proof of concept. I reckon some believe these companies are basically magical, and are utterly astonished when they’re shown to be imperfect in relatively uninteresting ways. I’m a lot more concerned about the sanity of the AI ecosystem they operate in than the stability of some front-end Anthropic made.
balamatom 7mo ago
>Python doesn't have inbuilt types Technically, neither does JavaScript.
- nicce 7mo ago
  Well, nobody mentioned it technically. Like nobody mentioned Assembly but it is under the hood.
  - balamatom 7mo ago
    False analogy.
    - deleted 7mo ago
      [deleted]
kurtis_reed 7mo ago
"Python doesn't have inbuilt types" False.

WaterRun 7mo ago

Anthropic acquired Bun. Clearly, Bun is not a runtime for C++, Rust, or Python. For an engineering project, strongly typed TypeScript was basically the only possible choice for them.

Levitating 7mo ago
I am not following your logic. Anthropic acquired Bun and so all of their end-user software should use it? Or am I missing sarcasm?
- klohto 7mo ago
  Why do you think they acquired Bun. To look at it? Also you needed a leak to know that CC, that is out for 1 year, is in TS?
  - Levitating 7mo ago
    > Why do you think they acquired Bun I don't know why they acquired Bun. Surely not because there's no other means to write command line programs. > Also you needed a leak to know that CC, that is out for 1 year, is in TS? What, are you shaming people for not being aware what (obfuscated) code some 1 year old software is written in?
    - WaterRun 7mo ago
      So what do you think the obfuscated .js code in a 2026 engineering project was generated with? Nim?
- WaterRun 7mo ago
  Is Anthropic's acquisition of Bun alone still not enough to infer their tech stack? What more obvious signals would be needed? Also, honestly, given the speed constraints of large models, it makes almost no difference what language an agent is written in. The small performance differences between programming languages do not even begin to matter compared with network latency, let alone the speed at which a large model streams tokens.

dominotw 7mo ago

Boris Cherney is author of a oreilly book about typescript

WiSaGaN 7mo ago
Yeah, this seems like a personal choice, which does work out given the current result.

pveierland 7mo ago

They have an annoying sandbox issue which pollutes your repository root with a set of empty files. Not the cleanest tool, but the paradigm is a big upgrade to previous AI coding. .bash_profile .bashrc .claude .env .gitconfig .gitmodules .idea .mcp.json .profile .ripgreprc .vscode .zprofile .zshrc config https://github.com/anthropic-experimental/sandbox-runtime/issues/139 https://github.com/anthropic-experimental/sandbox-runtime/is...

ivanjermakov 7mo ago

> Who knows what other ~/.config it modifies without warning Me. My .config is git-versioned :)

braebo 7mo ago

Because Typescript is the best language for most things.

firemelt 7mo ago
is it using oclif?