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The Agentic Engineer: Mastering Claude Code for the SDLC

Course Summary

This course provides developers and engineers with the implementation strategies and best practices for building production-ready agentic systems using Claude Code. Participants will explore advanced context management, secure integration and real-world patterns for automating the software development lifecycle. The course focuses on moving beyond basic chat-based interactions to create efficient, reliable, and autonomous workflows. While introducing an agentic framework for organizational alignment, the course emphasizes hands-on mastery of Claude Code’s native features, such as custom Skills and Checkpoints.

Prerequisites:

To get the most out of this session, participants should have:

  • Strong experience and programming proficiency (e.g., Python, JavaScript)
  • Familiarity with command-line tools and Git workflows
  • Prior foundational generative AI experience using Claude (via API or Claude.ai) 
  • Basic understanding of prompt engineering

Purpose
Build production-ready agentic systems using Claude Code
Audience
Core Technology Teams seeking to integrate AI-powered coding assistants safely into global workflows
Role
Software Developers | AI/ML Engineers | Technical Managers
Skill level
Intermediate
Style
Lecture | Hands-on Activities | Labs
Duration
4 days
Related technologies
AI/ML | Generative AI | Git

 

Learning objectives
  • Set up Claude Code for daily task delegation and autonomous refactoring
  • Apply context-management strategies to handle large-scale applications without data leakage
  • Use MCP to securely connect agents to internal data and external APIs
  • Design reliable agentic patterns to handle complex work-like unit testing and legacy migrations
  • Apply production patterns for auditing AI-generated code and monitoring for security vulnerabilities

What you'll learn:

In this The Agentic Engineer: Mastering Claude Code for the SDLC course, you'll learn:

Claude Code Fundamentals

  • Key differences between Claude.ai and the Claude Code CLI
    • Executing commands in a terminal-based environment
    • The shift from Generative AI (chatbots) to Agentic AI (autonomous agents)
  • Configuring the CLI and managing permissions for local repository access
    • Accessing the file system and repo structure
    • Environment-specific configurations
  • Core commands for planning refactors, writing code, and running tests
    • Delegating "drudge work"
      • Updating legacy code
      • Writing unit tests autonomously
    • Leveraging the agent to fix its own errors
  • Using Checkpoints for experimentation and safe rollbacks of AI actions
    • Managing state snapshots during complex refactors
    • Creating a "fail-safe" environment

Context Management & Secure Integrations

  • Token management strategies for 200K windows in large codebases
    • Preventing hallucinations while staying within limits
    • Optimizing context for large-scale applications
  • Implementing selective inclusion and context filtering to protect PII
    • Using .claudeignore to avoid processing sensitive or restricted files
    • Aligning agentic deployment with security and privacy standards
  • Introduction to MCP
    • Using the Model Context Protocol to connect agents to internal systems
      • Standardizing how agents access internal data silos and legacy documentation
      • Custom MCP servers to bridge AI agents and enterprise tools
  • Building progressive disclosure patterns and tool-use strategies for developer agents
    • Designing "Skills" as a context optimization pattern
    • Structuring tool permissions

Agentic Workflows & Orchestration

  • Creating hierarchical subagent configurations for complex engineering tasks
    • Orchestrating specialized agents
    • Structuring .md subagent configuration files
  • Introduction to bMAD
    • Using the bMAD framework to structure personas
      • Defining "Analyst" and "Architect" personas
      • Applying bMAD principles
  • Passing requirements and managing memory between specialized agents
    • Maintaining state and context across multi-agent workflows for large features
    • Establishing hand-off patterns between human oversight and agentic execution
  • Implementing spec-driven development where humans audit AI-generated plans
    • Writing to high-level orchestration and plan review
    • Human-in-the-loop governance

Governance & Real-World Application

  • Auditing and reviewing agent-produced code for security vulnerabilities
    • Developing new soft skills for reviewing "code you didn't write"
    • Ensuring safe deployment by auditing agent output
  • CI/CD Integration
    • Strategies for embedding Claude Code into automated pipelines
      • Automating PR reviews and bug-fixing scripts
      • Integrating agentic verification steps into the deployment lifecycle
  • Monitoring & Reliability
    • Identifying and fixing common agentic failure modes
      • Establishing patterns for debugging agent loops or incorrect context retrieval
      • Utilizing monitoring patterns to track "AI ROI" and efficiency gains

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