how-to-build-a-coding-agent

# 🧠 Build Your Own Coding Agent via a Step-by-Step Workshop

Welcome! 👋 This workshop will guide you through building your own **AI-powered coding assistant** — starting from a basic chatbot, and adding powerful tools like file reading, shell command execution, and code searching.

You don’t need to be an AI expert. Just follow along and build step-by-step!

🌐 **Want a detailed overview?** Check out the blog post: [ghuntley.com/agent](https://ghuntley.com/agent/)

---

## 🎯 What You'll Learn

By the end of this workshop, you’ll understand how to:

- ✅ Connect to the Anthropic Claude API
- ✅ Build a simple AI chatbot
- ✅ Add tools like reading files, editing code, and running commands
- ✅ Handle tool requests and errors
- ✅ Build an agent that gets smarter with each step

---

## 🛠️ What We're Building

You’ll build 6 versions of a coding assistant. 

Each version adds more features:

1. **Basic Chat** — talk to Cursor
2. **File Reader** — read code files
3. **File Explorer** — list files in folders
4. **Command Runner** — run shell commands
5. **File Editor** — modify files
6. **Code Search** — search your codebase with patterns

```mermaid
graph LR
    subgraph "Application Progression"
        A[chat.go<br/>Basic Chat] --> B[read.go<br/>+ File Reading]
        B --> C[list_files.go<br/>+ Directory Listing]
        C --> D[bash_tool.go<br/>+ Shell Commands]
        D --> E[edit_tool.go<br/>+ File Editing]
        E --> F[code_search_tool.go<br/>+ Code Search]
    end
    
    subgraph "Tool Capabilities"
        G[No Tools] --> H[read_file]
        H --> I[read_file<br/>list_files]
        I --> J[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash]
        J --> K[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash<br/>edit_file]
        K --> L[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash<br/>code_search]
    end
    
    A -.-> G
    B -.-> H
    C -.-> I
    D -.-> J
    E -.-> K
    F -.-> L
```

At the end, you’ll end up with a powerful local developer assistant!



---

## 🧱 How It Works (Architect