---
type: entity
subtype: person
title: "Boris Cherny"
description: "Creator of Claude Code whose 'coding is largely solved' remark was widely misread; he clarified that great engineers matter more than ever."
tags: [anthropic, claude-code, ai-engineer]
videos: [the-creators-of-claude-code-and-openclaw-dont-prompt-their-agents-anymore, is-software-engineering-finally-dead, why-the-best-ai-coding-tools-abandoned-rag-and-what-they-use-instead]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# Boris Cherny

Boris Cherny is a creator and maintainer of [Claude Code](../tools/claude-code.md), and in this catalog he is the practitioner whose public statements Cole uses to mark where [The Evolution of AI Coding](../../concepts/the-evolution-of-ai-coding.md) is heading. The defining quote is his description of how he now works: "Boris, the creator of Claude Code, said... I don't prompt Claude anymore. I write loops and the loops do the work. My job is to write loops" ([0:01:40]). That single line captures the move past hand-holding prompts toward orchestrated, self-running agent loops, and Cole underscores the scale it enables: "Boris Cherny says that there are days he manages tens of thousands of AI agents at once" ([0:06:10]).

His influence is large enough that his words get over-read, and Cole is careful to correct the record. When a podcast remark was taken to mean software engineering was finished, "he literally clarified later on X that software engineering is still very important" ([0:03:28]), adding the fuller framing: "Someone has to prompt the clouds. Talk to the customers... Engineering is changing and great engineers are more important than ever" ([0:03:44]). That nuance is why Cole ties Boris to [Human in the Loop](../../concepts/human-in-the-loop.md), [Intent Engineering](../../concepts/intent-engineering.md), and [Validation](../../concepts/validation.md) rather than to pure autonomy. Cole also treats Boris as a bellwether whose takes carry weight and therefore warrant scrutiny: "Boris Cherny, he's one of the maintainers of Claude Code. A lot of people take his tweets as gospel" ([0:07:19]).

## Realizes

- [The PIV Loop](../../concepts/the-piv-loop.md) - Cole's core agentic-coding cycle of Plan, Implement, Validate that structures every unit of AI-driven work.
- [Intent Engineering](../../concepts/intent-engineering.md) - Shifting the engineer's job from writing code to precisely expressing intent that an AI agent implements.
- [Human in the Loop](../../concepts/human-in-the-loop.md) - Keeping a human as the approver and steerer of agentic work rather than fully automating, so AI augments engineers instead of replacing them.
- [Validation](../../concepts/validation.md) - Building explicit checks into agentic workflows so the AI verifies its own output against real success criteria before moving on.

## Related

- [Claude Code](../tools/claude-code.md) - Anthropic's terminal-based agentic coding assistant that is the subject of this complete-guide walkthrough.
- [The Evolution of AI Coding](../../concepts/the-evolution-of-ai-coding.md) - How AI coding assistants moved from novelty to daily driver, and where the landscape, adoption, and commentary are heading.
- [Context Engineering](../../concepts/context-engineering.md) - The deliberate practice of curating exactly what goes into an LLM's limited context window - system messages, schemas, chat history, and dynamic variables - to avoid overload and keep outputs sharp.
- [Cole Medin](./cole-medin.md) - AI engineer and educator whose YouTube channel and Dynamous community teach agentic coding; creator of Archon and the source of this entire knowledge base.
- [Nick Baumann](./nick-baumann.md) - An original creator of Cline who argued the RAG narrative is a 'mind virus' for autonomous coding agents.
- [Dario Amodei](./dario-amodei.md) - CEO of Anthropic, cited as the highest-profile source of the 'AI will write 90% of code' and 'software engineers go extinct in 2026' predictions Cole pushes back on.
- [Peter Steinberger](./peter-steinberger.md) - Creator of OpenClaw, cited alongside Boris Cherny as a proponent of loop engineering - writing loops instead of prompting agents, backed by a near-infinite token budget.

## Sources

- [The Creators of Claude Code and OpenClaw don't Prompt Their Agents Anymore?!](../../sources/the-creators-of-claude-code-and-openclaw-dont-prompt-their-agents-anymore.md) - "[0:01:40] Boris, the creator of Claude Code, said... I don't prompt Claude anymore. I write loops and the loops do the work. My job is to write loops."
- [Is Software Engineering Finally Dead?](../../sources/is-software-engineering-finally-dead.md) - "[0:03:44] Someone has to prompt the clouds. Talk to the customers... Engineering is changing and great engineers are more important than ever."
- [Why the Best AI Coding Tools Abandoned RAG (And What They Use Instead)](../../sources/why-the-best-ai-coding-tools-abandoned-rag-and-what-they-use-instead.md) - "[0:07:19] Boris Cherny, he's one of the maintainers of Claude Code. A lot of people take his tweets as gospel."
