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Agentic AI Development

Claude Code Complete Guide

Your AI pair programmer that understands entire codebases, automates workflows, and ships features autonomously.

Everything you need to master Claude Code for cloud infrastructure, FinOps, and development velocity.

Official DocsClaude Skills Guide

šŸ“– On This Page

ā†’ What is Claude Code?ā†’ How It Worksā†’ Project Structureā†’ Real-World Use Casesā†’ CLI Commandsā†’ Getting Started

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool from Anthropic that works with your local repository. Unlike autocomplete tools, it understands your entire codebase, executes tasks autonomously, and manages specialized sub-agents.

CLIVS Code PluginJetBrainsWeb App

Contextual Understanding

Reads entire codebase, CLAUDE.md files, and project conventions

āœ“ Full project analysis
āœ“ Architecture awareness
āœ“ Session memory

Direct Execution

Edits files, runs commands, tests code, and commits changes

āœ“ File editing
āœ“ Command execution
āœ“ Git workflows

Specialized Agents

Deploy sub-agents for infra, security, FinOps, and docs

āœ“ Task-specific focus
āœ“ Auto-invocation
āœ“ Custom permissions

How Claude Code Works

Agentic Workflow

Claude Code plans, executes, and iterates autonomously ā€” no micromanagement needed

  1. 1
    Analyze: Scans codebase using grep/find/glob (no RAG pipeline)
  2. 2
    Plan: Creates execution plan based on context and request
  3. 3
    Execute: Edits files, runs tests, validates, handles errors
  4. 4
    Commit: Creates meaningful commits and pushes to branch

šŸ–„ļø Available Platforms

CLI

Natural language commands in terminal

VS Code / JetBrains

Inline diff reviews in your IDE

Web App

claude.ai ā†’ Code tab

āš” Key Capabilities

  • Edits multiple files simultaneously
  • Runs terminal commands & scripts
  • Integrates with external tools via MCP
  • Handles git workflows end-to-end
  • Fetches latest info from the web

Project Structure

Anatomy of a Claude Code Project

Claude Code uses specific files and folders to organize configuration, agents, and context

my-project/
ā”‚
ā”œā”€ā”€ .claude/
ā”‚   ā”œā”€ā”€ agents/
ā”‚   ā”‚   ā”œā”€ā”€ infra.md
ā”‚   ā”‚   ā”œā”€ā”€ docwriter.md
ā”‚   ā”‚   ā””ā”€ā”€ finops.md
ā”‚   ā”œā”€ā”€ settings.yaml          # Project-wide config
ā”‚   ā””ā”€ā”€ memory.json            # Context checkpoints
ā”‚
ā”œā”€ā”€ CLAUDE.md                  # Main repo instructions
ā”œā”€ā”€ src/
ā”‚   ā”œā”€ā”€ CLAUDE.md              # Module-specific context
ā”‚   ā””ā”€ā”€ ...
ā””ā”€ā”€ README.md

.claude/ Directory

Private metadata: agents, settings, memory, logs

CLAUDE.md Files

Project conventions, architecture, coding standards

Key Files & Configuration

CLAUDE.md Files

Your project's "playbook" ā€” teaches Claude your conventions, architecture, and rules

Example: Root CLAUDE.md

# CLAUDE.md ā€” Root

## Project Overview
Multi-cloud infrastructure for Azure & OCI

## Coding Guidelines
- Use Terraform for IaC
- All resources tagged: env, app, owner
- Azure naming: AZ-RG-{region}{env}-{service}

## Test Commands
- `pytest` for unit tests
- `terraform validate` for infra

Sub-Agents (.claude/agents/*.md)

Specialized assistants with focused expertise and custom permissions

FinOpsAgent

  • ā€¢ Cost optimization analysis
  • ā€¢ SKU recommendations
  • ā€¢ Monthly reports

InfraAgent

  • ā€¢ Network topology review
  • ā€¢ NSG/security validation
  • ā€¢ Key Vault policies

Example: .claude/agents/finops.md

# FinOpsAgent
Focus: Cost optimization across Azure & OCI

Capabilities:
- Analyze Terraform for inefficient SKUs
- Recommend storage tiers and VM sizes
- Generate monthly cost reports

Allowed Tools:
- readFile, writeFile
- runCommand("az", "oci")

Default Model: claude-sonnet-3.5

CLI Commands

Quick Reference

Essential commands for daily workflows

claude

Start interactive Claude Code session

claude -p "your prompt here"

Run single prompt

claude --continue

Resume previous session

claude --model claude-sonnet-4.1

Choose specific model

claude agents list

View available sub-agents

Real-World Use Cases

Infrastructure & DevOps

Automate reviews, enforce policies, maintain consistency

šŸ”’ Security Audits

"Review NSG rules allowing 0.0.0.0/0"

Scans, flags violations, suggests private endpoints

šŸ—ļø IaC Refactoring

"Standardize Terraform naming to snake_case"

Refactors modules, updates refs, runs validate

FinOps & Cost Optimization

Identify waste, optimize spending, enforce governance

Real Example

Growth team processed 100s of ad variations in minutes instead of hours using specialized agents

ā±ļø
23h ā†’ 5h
Time saved

šŸ’° SKU Analysis

"Analyze VM SKUs, suggest cheaper alternatives"

Report with savings + migration steps

šŸ·ļø Tag Enforcement

"Add cost center tags to untagged resources"

Updates Terraform, commits with attribution

Development Velocity

Ship faster with automated testing, reviews, and docs

āœ… Test Generation

"Write comprehensive tests for auth service"

Unit, integration, e2e with edge cases

šŸ”„ Refactoring

"Extract DB logic into repository layer"

Creates abstractions, updates calls, maintains tests

Why Teams Choose Claude Code

70-80% Time Savings

Reduce routine tasks from hours to minutes with autonomous execution

Significant Cost Savings

FinOps teams identify thousands in cloud waste automatically

Higher Code Quality

Automated reviews catch issues before they ship to production

Knowledge Sharing

Capture institutional knowledge in agents and CLAUDE.md files

Getting Started

  1. 1

    Install Claude Code

    npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

    Or use VS Code/JetBrains extensions, or access via claude.ai

  2. 2

    Create CLAUDE.md

    Add to repo root with project overview, conventions, cloud naming rules

  3. 3

    Define Sub-Agents (Optional)

    Create specialized agents in .claude/agents/ for FinOps, infra, security

  4. 4

    Run Your First Command

    claude -p "Explain the architecture of this project"

Tips for Cloud & FinOps Teams

šŸ·ļø

Include Cloud Standards

Add naming conventions and tagging rules in root CLAUDE.md for governance

šŸ’°

FinOpsAgent

Review SKU choices, budget optimizations, monthly cost reports

ā˜ļø

MCP Integrations

Connect to az costmanagement and oci usageapi for real-time data

šŸ§©

Version Control

Track all agent definitions in Git for audit trails and consistency

Resources

šŸ“˜ Official Resources

šŸ› ļø Community

Ready to Transform Your Workflow?

Start using Claude Code to automate infrastructure, optimize costs, and ship faster.

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