This document constitutes a complete pedagogical curriculum for mastering Claude Code, Anthropic's agentic CLI tool. Organized into 12 modules (A1 to A12) totaling approximately 60 lessons, it follows a rigorous progression from foundational concepts to advanced best practices, with an estimated duration of 3 to 5 hours.
Foundations (A1): Agentic coding is a paradigm shift in which the developer moves from line-by-line writing to orchestrating AI agents. Claude Code is distinguished by its terminal-first approach and provides access to three models (Haiku, Sonnet, Opus) suited to different levels of complexity.
Getting started (A2-A3): Installation is done with a single command (curl or npm). The conversational workflow relies on specific, contextualized prompts. Four golden rules of agentic prompting: be specific, provide context, state constraints, one objective at a time. The Explore → Plan → Code workflow is recommended by Anthropic for complex tasks.
Commands and memory (A4-A5): The essential slash commands (/init, /clear, /compact, /cost, /model, /rewind) structure daily work. The 4-level hierarchical memory system (Enterprise Policy, project CLAUDE.md, Project Rules, User CLAUDE.md) allows context to be shared and customized. Auto Memory allows Claude to write its own notes between sessions.
Security and context (A6-A7): Four permission modes (Normal, Auto-accept, Plan, Bypass) offer a control-autonomy spectrum. The OS sandbox (Seatbelt on macOS, bubblewrap on Linux) isolates commands at the kernel level. The 200,000-token context window requires active management via /compact and /clear.
Integrations (A8-A10): Claude Code excels at Git management (intelligent commits, conflict resolution, automated PRs). MCP (Model Context Protocol) connects Claude Code to external tools (GitHub, Brave Search, databases). Headless mode (-p flag) enables CI/CD integration via GitHub Actions with budget control.
Advanced customization (A11-A12): Custom slash commands (.claude/commands/), skills (automatically detected SKILL.md files), specialized subagents, and deterministic hooks (11+ events) enable extensive automation. The five professional patterns (Explore→Plan→Code→Test→Review, Context priming, Iterative refinement, Model surfing, Session hygiene) form the foundation of expert mastery.
Each lesson integrates a provocative Socratic hook, a guided exploration, a tutor-learner dialogue, a hands-on exercise, and an FSRS flashcard for spaced repetition.