# Anthropic documentation

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/anthropic-documentation/

5 people recommended Anthropic documentation in Hacker News comments and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 5 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Official, free developer documentation and courses from Anthropic, recommended as the reliable source for building with Claude. Critics say parts of it are padded with fluff and lack practical prompting guidance.

Summary written by Claude from 9 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Official, reliable source for Claude (4 comments in the sample): "Anthropic and OpenAI both have decent stuff on there, plus their own docs have examples." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000641)) "the official documentation by Anthropic has been the source you'd need" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48084248)) "I think Anthropic's docs are better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47029850))

## What people warn about

- Padded with fluff and filler (2 comments in the sample): "I read OpenAI or Anthropic's documentation nowadays and it's just so full of useless junk" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47893157)) "it was just fluff. For example there were exactly zero hints on how to do your prompts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48847381))
- Lacks practical prompting guidance (1 comment in the sample): "They don't have any of these and the guide you mentioned isn't related to what I asked" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50159164))

## Other online documentations people recommend

- [ArchWiki](https://hackerapproved.com/p/archwiki/): 79 recommend, 5 mixed, 4 criticize
- [MSDN](https://hackerapproved.com/p/msdn/): 15 recommend, 1 mixed, 9 criticize
- [Gentoo Wiki](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gentoo-wiki/): 8 recommend, 1 mixed, 3 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Anthropic documentation", https://hackerapproved.com/p/anthropic-documentation/ (5 recommend, 0 mixed, 4 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.