“We keep the riffraff out,” said Sarah Jenkins, VP of Vibe Checks. “You cannot just copy our style.” Anthropic blocked apps from using its code cheaply. They want full price for entry. “No sneakers allowed in the database,” she noted. “And definitely no cheap wrappers.”

The crackdown hurts local startups. “I wore my best blazer,” said coder Timmy Nguyen. “But the bouncer said my code looked cheap.” He tried to bribe the guard. It failed. Now he sits on the curb. He must use the official app. It is humiliating.

At press time, the bouncer charged a fifty-dollar cover just to look at the documentation.

Inspired by the real story: Anthropic implemented strict technical safeguards to stop third-party apps from spoofing its official coding client. Read the full story.