Claude’s Power-Up: Anthropic Unleashes Four Game-Changing API Features

From Python Sandboxes to 1-Hour Caching, the AI Just Got a Lot Smarter

Anthropic just dropped a bombshell for developers building with Claude. The company announced four new beta features for its API—code execution, MCP connector, Files API, and extended prompt caching—that collectively transform how AI agents handle complex tasks. Available as of May 22, 2025, these tools promise to supercharge workflows from data analysis to enterprise automation. Let’s break down why this update matters.

“This isn’t just incremental—it’s a paradigm shift for AI-assisted coding and task automation,” says an early tester.

The headliner is the code execution tool, which lets Claude run Python in a secure sandbox during API calls. Need to clean a messy CSV, generate visualizations, or preprocess datasets? Claude can now execute the code directly, with 50 free hours of compute daily before billing kicks in at $0.05/hour per container. For data scientists, this eliminates constant context-switching between IDE and AI.

Then there’s the MCP connector, a silent but mighty upgrade. It auto-discovers tools on remote MCP servers (think Zapier or Asana) and handles authentication and errors without requiring custom client code. One developer reports automating a 14-step project management workflow in under an hour—previously a multi-day coding slog.

“The Files API alone saved us 300+ monthly API calls just for document preprocessing,” notes a legal tech CTO.

That Files API is another efficiency win. Upload contracts, reports, or research papers once, then reference them across sessions without re-uploading. Combined with the code tool, it enables batch processing of hundreds of documents—imagine extracting financial data from quarterly reports at scale.

But the stealth MVP might be prompt caching, now with a 60-minute TTL (up from 5 minutes). For long-running agents, Anthropic claims this slashes costs by 90% and latency by 85%. Translation: chatbots and analytical agents get faster and cheaper overnight.

These join Anthropic’s existing toolkit—web search, citations—to create a Swiss Army knife for AI-augmented work. The implications? Smarter data pipelines, self-debugging prototypes, and agents that finally deliver on the “auto-magical workflow” hype. One caveat: it’s still beta. But if early results hold, the bar for what’s possible with API-driven AI just skyrocketed.