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.

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:

rm loop-demo.md

Ready to go further? Move to Exercise 02: Control the Loop.

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