# Exercise 01: Watch the Loop

**Concept:** The Agent Loop (CC-001)
**Level:** Basic
**Time:** ~10 minutes

---

## Objective

Watch Claude Code execute a multi-step task from start to finish.
You will see the agent loop in action: Claude reads, thinks, picks
a tool, observes the result, and repeats until done.

This is your first hands-on contact with the agent loop. No prior
experience with Claude Code required beyond having it installed.

---

## Before You Start

Confirm you have:

- [ ] Claude Code installed (`claude --version` prints a version)
- [ ] This repo cloned and open in your terminal
- [ ] Started Claude Code in this directory (`claude`)

---

## Instructions

**Step 1:** Open Claude Code in this repo directory.

```bash
cd claude-code-agent-loop
claude
```

**Step 2:** Paste this prompt into Claude Code:

```
Create a file called loop-demo.md that contains:

1. Today's date and time
2. A list of all files in this directory with their sizes
3. The first 5 lines of README.md
4. A summary sentence describing what this repo is about

Do not ask me any questions. Just do it.
```

**Step 3:** Watch the terminal output carefully as Claude works.

You will see Claude make a series of tool calls. Pay attention to:
- Which tools Claude picks (Bash, Read, Write, Glob)
- The order it chooses to do things
- How it uses the output of one step to inform the next
- That you did not tell it which tools to use or what order

**Step 4:** Read the generated `loop-demo.md` file.

Check that it contains all four items from the prompt. Claude gathered
information from multiple sources (system clock, file system, file
contents) and synthesized them into one output file.

---

## Expected Output

After 15-30 seconds, you should see:

- A new file `loop-demo.md` in the repo root
- It contains today's date (from a Bash call to `date`)
- It lists files with sizes (from `ls -la` or similar)
- It includes the first 5 lines of README.md (from Read tool)
- It ends with a summary sentence about the repo

The exact content varies, but the structure should match.

**How you know the agent loop worked:**
- Claude made 3-5 tool calls without asking you anything between them
- Each tool call built on information from the previous one
- The final file synthesizes data from multiple sources

---

## What You Learned

- **The loop is autonomous:** Claude decided the order and tools on its own
- **Each step informs the next:** The loop observes results before choosing the next action
- **The task, not the steps, is what you specify:** You said what you wanted, not how to get it

---

## Clean Up

Delete the generated file so the repo stays clean:

```bash
rm loop-demo.md
```

---

## Next

Ready to go further? Move to [Exercise 02: Control the Loop](./02-control-the-loop.md).