Claude Code SOP

Claude Code SOP — Agent Orchestration Guide

Auth: Anthropic subscription (not API key)

Overview

Claude Code is a full coding agent CLI with file editing, bash execution, subagents, skills, and multi-agent teams. It’s superior to sessions_spawn for serious builds because it iterates on errors, explores codebases, and coordinates multi-file changes.

Three Modes of Operation

Mode 1: Plan → Execute (RECOMMENDED for builds)

Phase 1 — Plan (read-only analysis):

cd /path/to/project
claude -p --permission-mode acceptEdits --model sonnet --max-budget-usd 1 \
  "Analyze the codebase. Create a detailed plan in PLAN.md.
   Be specific: file paths, component names, exact changes.
   ONLY create PLAN.md, do NOT modify existing files."

Phase 2 — Execute (full permissions, batched):

claude -p --dangerously-skip-permissions --model sonnet --max-budget-usd 3 \
  "Read PLAN.md. Execute items 1-5. Run 'npm run build' after. Fix errors. Commit.
   Do NOT ask questions. Just execute."

CRITICAL: Break large plans into batches of 5–7 items per run. 14+ items in one run risks hitting the 10-min timeout.

Mode 2: Stream-JSON Interactive (for monitoring + steering)

claude -p \
  --input-format stream-json \
  --output-format stream-json \
  --verbose \
  --dangerously-skip-permissions \
  --model sonnet

Mode 3: Agent Teams (parallel workers)

CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 claude --teammate-mode tmux \
  --dangerously-skip-permissions --model sonnet \
  "Build X and Y in parallel. See PLAN.md."

Mandatory Rules

1. Project must be a git repo — git init if needed. Claude Code requires it.
2. Always include “Do NOT ask questions”
3. Always include build/verify step
4. Always include commit step
5. Batch large tasks
6. Set --max-budget-usd
7. Set timeout to 600s
8. Monitor progress
9. Update the user every 10 min

Key Flags Reference

Flag	Purpose
-p / --print	Non-interactive, exit after response
--dangerously-skip-permissions	Full auto, no prompts
--model sonnet / --model opus	Model selection
--max-budget-usd <n>	Cost cap

See Also

• Spawn SOP — Full sessions_spawn reference
• Model Catalog — Which model to use
• Checkpoints — Checkpoint protocol