Anthropic has developed the ultimate coding agent, Claude Code, which stands out as the premier tool for learning about agents. My previous methods of reading documentation and source code are now vastly inferior and significantly less efficient than utilizing this powerful tool.

Here is a demo on how it helps me learn two agents SDKs, one is Claude the other is OpenAI.

📘 Claude Agent SDK for Python – Quick Learning Guide

🎯 What is it?

The Claude Agent SDK is a Python library that lets you build AI agents powered by Claude. It’s built on top of the same infrastructure that powers Claude Code (the CLI tool you’re using right now).

Key Difference from OpenAI Agents SDK:

• OpenAI SDK: You manage everything (conversation, tools, state)
• Claude SDK: Built-in context management, integrated with Claude Code, hooks system

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🚀 Two Ways to Use It

1. Simple Mode: query() – One-off Questions, no conversation history needed
2. Conversation Mode: ClaudeSDKClient – Multi-turn Chat, keep context across queries

🛠️ Custom Tools – The Power Feature

What are Tools? Functions that Claude can call to do things (like your MCP tools: RBICS, NSS, etc.) key benefits is in-progress, no subprocess management like my current MCP server, type-safe, easy to debug and better performance.

🎣 Hooks – Intercept Agent Behavior

Hooks let you run code at specific points in the agent’s execution: there are preToolUse, PosttoolUse, UserPromptSubmit these hook events

⚙️ Configuration: ClaudeAgentOptions

🔗 Connecting to Your Existing MCP Server

📊 Comparison: Claude SDK vs OpenAI Agents SDK

Feature	Claude Agent SDK	OpenAI Agents SDK
Context Management	Built-in	Manual (SQLiteSession)
Tool Definition	@tool decorator	@function_tool
MCP Integration	Native, in-process	Via subprocess (stdio)
Streaming	Built-in AsyncIterator	Manual setup
Hooks	Yes (PreTool, PostTool)	Via Agent lifecycle
Conversation State	ClaudeSDKClient manages	You manage Sessions
Azure Support	Standard Claude API	Custom client needed

First test run simple query

 import anyio
  from claude_agent_sdk import query

  async def main():
      print("Testing Claude Agent SDK...")
      print("="*60)

      async for message in query(prompt="What is 2 + 2? Just give me the number."):
          print(message)

      print("="*60)
      print("Success! SDK is working.")

  if __name__ == "__main__":
      anyio.run(main)

succeeded:

Response:
------------------------------------------------------------
SystemMessage(subtype='init', data={'type': 'system', 'subtype': 'init', 'cwd': 'C:\\Users\\ncarucci\\Documents\\Gitfolder\\index-solution-agent-claude', 'session_id': '1f0172a1-9607-4c95-a94b-aa2a9ad2708c', 'tools': ['Task', 'Bash', 'Glob', 'Grep', 'ExitPlanMode', 'Read', 'Edit', 'Write', 'NotebookEdit', 'WebFetch', 'TodoWrite', 'WebSearch', 'BashOutput', 'KillShell', 'SlashCommand'], 'mcp_servers': [], 'model': 'claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929', 'permissionMode': 'default', 'slash_commands': ['compact', 'context', 'cost', 'init', 'output-style:new', 'pr-comments', 'release-notes', 'todos', 'review', 'security-review'], 'apiKeySource': 'none', 'output_style': 'default', 'agents': ['general-purpose', 'statusline-setup', 'output-style-setup'], 'uuid': '6941aa07-3eb4-4ced-9793-a22e67da4dae'})
AssistantMessage(content=[TextBlock(text='4')], model='claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929', parent_tool_use_id=None)
29', parent_tool_use_id=None)
ResultMessage(subtype='success', duration_ms=1812, duration_api_ms=1745, is_error=False, num_turns=1, session_id='1f0172a1-9607-4c95-a94b-aa2a9ad2708c', total_cost_usd=0.0361536, usage={'input_tokens': 3, 'cache_creation_input_tokens': 9184, 'cache_read_input_tokens': 5432, 'output_tokens': 5, 'server_tool_use': {'web_search_requests': 0}, 'service_tier': 'standard', 'cache_creation': {'ephemeral_1h_input_tokens': 0, 'ephemeral_5m_input_tokens': 9184}}, result='4')