SDK

Definition

A Software Development Kit is the official client library a vendor publishes for its API, typically with helpers for authentication, retries, pagination, and typed request shapes. Examples: the Anthropic Python SDK, the Stripe Node SDK, the Slack Web API SDK. Using an SDK is almost always preferable to hand-rolling HTTP calls because the vendor maintains it as the underlying API evolves.

When to use

See also

• API — A formal contract that lets one software system call functions or fetch data from another, usually over HTTP.
• Agent SDK — Anthropic's Python and TypeScript SDK for building Claude agents that loop with tools, files, and MCP servers.