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Learn how Claude agents work

This course is for complete beginners. It explains what an AI agent is, how it uses tools and skills, and five common ways to organise agent work. You don't need any programming experience to follow it.

An AI model such as Claude reads text and writes text. An agent is a program that lets the model work towards a goal on its own. It can choose actions, use tools (for example "search the web" or "read a file"), look at the results and decide what to do next, repeating until the job is done.

Start learning: Tool →

Real Claude features and general patterns

Tool use and Agent Skills are real Claude features, documented by Anthropic. Sequential, Parallel, Route, Human in the Loop and Orchestrate are general design patterns: you build them with ordinary code around Claude. They are not buttons or switches in the Claude API. Anthropic describes several of them in its article Building effective agents. Each lesson shows which kind it is.

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Recommended learning path

    This is a suggested order. Each lesson explains the terms it uses, so you can start anywhere. Tool and Skill are the building blocks, the next four are ways to arrange work, and Orchestrate brings everything together. To track progress, press Mark as completed at the bottom of a lesson. Progress is saved in this browser only.

    Topics

    How agent workflows fit together

    Think of the seven topics as layers:

    🧱 Building blocks

    Tools let the agent do things, such as search or send. Skills give the agent know-how: packaged instructions for a type of task.

    🧭 Arranging the work

    Sequential: do steps in order. Parallel: do independent steps at the same time. Route: pick the right path for each request.

    🛡️ Staying safe

    Human in the Loop lets a person approve, change or stop actions that are risky or can't be undone.

    🎼 Putting it together

    Orchestrate: a coordinator plans a large goal, hands the parts to specialists and checks the results.

    One request can use several patterns. A router picks a workflow. The workflow runs in order, at the same time, or under an orchestrator. Every agent uses tools and skills, and a person signs off before anything risky happens.

    Comparison table

    ConceptIn one lineUse it when…Avoid when…What kind of thing it is
    ToolA function the agent can ask your code to runThe answer needs live data or a real actionClaude can already answer from the text you gave itClaude API feature (tool use)
    SkillA reusable folder of instructions and resourcesYou repeat the same specialised task oftenIt's a one-off request, so a normal prompt is enoughClaude feature (Agent Skills)
    SequentialSteps run one after anotherEach step needs the previous step's outputSteps don't depend on each other (use Parallel)General pattern ("prompt chaining")
    ParallelIndependent tasks run at the same timeTasks are separate and speed mattersOne task needs another's resultGeneral pattern ("parallelization")
    RouteClassify, then send to the right handlerRequests come in clearly different typesEvery request is handled the same wayGeneral pattern ("routing")
    Human in the LoopA person approves before key actionsActions cost money, can't be undone or are publicThe action is harmless and easy to reverseGeneral pattern, supported by permission features in some Claude products
    OrchestrateA coordinator plans and delegates to specialistsA big goal needs different kinds of expertiseOne agent can do the job, which is simpler and cheaperGeneral pattern ("orchestrator-workers")

    Beginner project: Smart Support Inbox

    Goal: design, on paper or in code, an assistant that helps a small online shop answer customer emails. The project uses every concept in the course.

    1. Route: sort each email into order question, refund request, product question or unclear. Unclear emails get a polite reply asking for more detail.
    2. Tool: define a get_order_status(order_id) tool that looks up a pretend order list.
    3. Skill: write a SKILL.md called "support-reply-style" that describes the shop's tone, sign-off and refund policy.
    4. Parallel: when an email asks several separate questions, look up each one at the same time.
    5. Sequential: draft the reply, then check it against the style skill, then make the final version.
    6. Human in the Loop: every refund over $50 and every outgoing email waits for a person to click Approve.
    7. Orchestrate: a coordinator runs steps 1–6 for a batch of emails and produces a summary for the shop owner.

    You're done when: you can trace three sample emails through your design and explain which pattern handles each step and why. Each lesson has a smaller mini project that builds one of these pieces.

    Official documentation