Agentic Loops: Quick Reference — Agentic Architecture & Orchestration (Claude Certified Architect)

Agentic Loops — Quick Reference This quick reference provides essential facts and rules for designing and implementing agentic loops using the Claude...

Agentic Loops — Quick Reference

This quick reference provides essential facts and rules for designing and implementing agentic loops using the Claude Agent SDK, a core skill for the Claude Certified Architect - Foundation certification.

Key Definitions

Agentic Loop: An autonomous cycle where an agent perceives, decides, acts, and updates context to achieve a task.
Coordinator-Subagent Pattern: A multi-agent orchestration model where a coordinator manages multiple subagents, delegating tasks and aggregating results.
Subagent Context Passing: Mechanism for transferring relevant state and information between coordinator and subagents.
Task Decomposition: Breaking complex tasks into manageable subtasks for parallel or sequential execution.
SDK Hooks: Programmatic interception points for tool calls, enabling custom logic or monitoring.
Session State Management: Handling ongoing context including resumption after interruptions and branching (forking) workflows.

Designing Agentic Loops

Define clear input and output states for each loop iteration.
Implement perception-action cycles with context updates after each step.
Use multi-step workflows with enforced sequencing via SDK hooks to maintain control flow.
Ensure error handling and fallback strategies within loops for robustness.

Orchestrating Multi-Agent Systems

Adopt the coordinator-subagent model for scalability and modularity.
Coordinator delegates subtasks based on task decomposition strategy.
Subagents operate autonomously but report results and context back to coordinator.
Manage subagent spawning dynamically depending on task complexity and resource availability.

Context Passing & Session Management

Pass minimal but sufficient context to subagents to reduce overhead.
Use context snapshots to enable session resumption after interruptions.
Implement forking to explore alternative solution paths or parallel workflows.
Maintain consistent context updates to avoid stale or conflicting information.

Task Decomposition Strategies

Sequential decomposition: Tasks split into ordered steps executed one after another.
Parallel decomposition: Independent subtasks executed concurrently by multiple subagents.
Hierarchical decomposition: Nested subtasks with multiple levels of delegation.

Applying SDK Hooks

Intercept tool calls to inject custom logic or validation.
Monitor agent decisions and actions for debugging or auditing.
Enforce workflow constraints programmatically to maintain loop integrity.

Worked Example: Basic Agentic Loop Setup

Task: Automate summarization of multiple documents.

Steps:

Coordinator receives list of documents.
Decomposes task: each document assigned to a subagent.
Subagents receive document context and generate summaries.
Subagents pass summaries back to coordinator.
Coordinator aggregates summaries into final report.
Loop continues if new documents arrive or updates are needed.

Key Points: Context passing ensures each subagent has only its assigned document; SDK hooks monitor summary generation calls; session state allows resuming interrupted summarization.

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