Build Claude-powered AI agents that can survive production, not just demos. This practical guide is for engineers, technical leads, and architects who need agents that can use tools safely, operate reliably, and scale under real-world constraints.
The book covers the complete production stack: agent loops, context management, model selection, tools, hooks, skills, MCP servers, plugins, and the Claude Agent SDK. It then moves into the disciplines that determine whether an agent is safe and operable, including permissions, sandboxing, secrets, audit trails, managed settings, evaluation, observability, cost engineering, and failure handling.
You will learn how to bridge interactive Claude Code workflows into headless agent deployments, design reliable dispatch and session-management patterns, register tools safely, and build multi-agent systems with clear boundaries. The book also examines team workflows, deployment patterns, and production-grade reference architectures.
Thirty-one chapters and five practical appendices provide implementation guidance, code examples, a ninety-day production-readiness checklist, an evaluation starter kit, and an MCP server audit template.
If you are moving from experimentation to dependable agent systems, this book gives you the architecture, controls, and operating practices needed to make that transition deliberately.
