====== Claude Code Mastery Roadmap ====== ===== Overview ===== * Level 0 → Basic Prompting * Level 1 → Structured Prompt Engineering * Level 2 → Rules & Skills Layer * Level 3 → MCP & Tool Use * Level 4 → Agent Architecture * Level 5 → RAG for Large Codebases * Level 6 → CI/CD Automation * Level 7 → Multi-Agent Systems * Level 8 → Production AI Engineering Platform ---- ===== Level 0 — Basic Prompting ===== **Goal:** Use Claude effectively in daily coding tasks. **Learn:** * Role prompting * Clear constraints * Output formatting * Step-by-step reasoning * Diff generation **Keywords:** * Prompt engineering * Zero-shot vs Few-shot * Chain-of-thought * Structured output * Markdown diff ---- ===== Level 1 — Structured Prompt Engineering ===== **Goal:** Make prompts predictable and reusable. **Learn:** * Prompt templates * Role / Task / Constraints / Output format structure * Self-critique loops * Persona switching * JSON output enforcement **Keywords:** * Meta-prompt * Output schema * Deterministic formatting * Guardrails * Prompt injection awareness ---- ===== Level 2 — Rules & Skills Layer ===== **Goal:** Create reusable AI capabilities. **Learn:** * Global system rules * Skill abstraction * Prompt libraries * Code-style enforcement * Domain-specific DSL prompts **Keywords:** * System prompt * Skill templates * Reusable instruction blocks * Behavioral constraints * AI coding standards ---- ===== Level 3 — MCP & Tool Use ===== **Goal:** Let Claude interact with your codebase. **Learn:** * Model Context Protocol (MCP) * Tool calling * Filesystem access * Git integration * Context window management **Keywords:** * MCP * Tool invocation * Function calling * Agent tool loop * Context control ---- ===== Level 4 — Agent Architecture ===== **Goal:** Build Claude as a reasoning agent. **Learn:** * Observe → Plan → Act → Reflect loop * Multi-step reasoning * File search orchestration * Error recovery loops * Iterative refinement **Keywords:** * ReAct pattern * Agent loop * Reflection prompting * Autonomous task execution * Task decomposition ---- ===== Level 5 — RAG for Large Codebases ===== **Goal:** Scale Claude to large repositories. **Learn:** * Embeddings * Vector databases * Chunking strategies * Retrieval ranking * Code summarization **Keywords:** * Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) * Vector DB (FAISS, Pinecone, Weaviate) * Similarity search * Context compression * Hybrid search ---- ===== Level 6 — CI/CD & Automation ===== **Goal:** Integrate Claude into development lifecycle. **Learn:** * Git hooks * PR review bots * GitHub Actions * Structured diff comments * AI quality gates **Keywords:** * AI code review * Pre-commit hooks * Pull request summarizer * CI automation * Static analysis augmentation ---- ===== Level 7 — Multi-Agent Systems ===== **Goal:** Multiple AI roles collaborating. **Example Agents:** * Architect Agent * Refactor Agent * Test Generator Agent * Security Agent * Performance Agent **Keywords:** * Multi-agent orchestration * Task planner agent * Tool router * Hierarchical agents * Cooperative AI ---- ===== Level 8 — Production AI Engineering Platform ===== **Goal:** Build internal AI coding infrastructure. **Learn:** * Token budgeting * Cost optimization * Logging & observability * Output evaluation metrics * Human-in-the-loop systems **Keywords:** * AI observability * Token efficiency * Acceptance rate metrics * Prompt versioning * Model fallback strategy ---- ===== Advanced Topics ===== * AST-based code modification * Tree-sitter parsing * Semantic diff generation * LLM hallucination detection * Spec-driven development * AI security hardening * Sandboxed execution ---- ===== Recommended Learning Timeline ===== **Month 1** * Level 0–1 * Structured prompts + JSON output **Month 2** * Level 2 * Git hook integration **Month 3** * Level 3–4 * Agent loop + MCP **Month 4** * Level 5 * RAG for your repository **Month 5** * Level 6+ * CI automation + Metrics ---- ===== Final Mindset ===== Claude Code is not just AI that writes code. It becomes a programmable reasoning engine integrated into your engineering workflow. Serious power begins at Level 4 and above.