Agentic coding is moving from “autocomplete” to “autonomous teammate.”
Ken Kousen’s upcoming O’Reilly book, Claude Code: Up and Running, focuses on Claude Code as a terminal-based coding agent: one that can read files, write code across multiple files, run shell commands, work with Git, and connect to tools through MCP.
🔸 SUMUP
This book is for developers who are already comfortable in the terminal but want to understand how to use agentic AI tools more seriously.
Not just “vibe coding.”
Not just “ask the AI to generate a class.”
But topics like:
▪️ permissions and trust boundaries
▪️ CLAUDE.md configuration
▪️ context windows
▪️ MCP integrations
▪️ model switching
▪️ custom slash commands
▪️ multi-agent workflows
▪️ terminal, IDE, and CI/CD usage
The promise is practical: learn how to guide an agent inside a real codebase without losing control of the engineering process.
🔸 CHAPTERS TO WATCH
The table of contents already looks very developer-oriented:
▪️ The Rise of Agent-Driven Development
▪️ Getting Started with Claude Code
▪️ Talking to Claude Code
▪️ When Vibe Coding Isn’t Enough
▪️ Permissions, Safety, and Trust Boundaries
▪️ Skills and Hooks
▪️ Subagents, Agent Teams, and Plug-ins
▪️ Working in a Codebase You Didn’t Write
▪️ MCP and External Integrations
▪️ From Prompt to Pull Request
▪️ Review, Testing, Debugging, and Failure Recovery
▪️ Beyond Claude Code
I especially like the focus on permissions, safety, existing codebases, PRs, testing, and failure recovery.
That is where agentic coding becomes engineering, not just prompting.
🔸 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Kousen is a Java Champion, software developer, trainer, speaker, and professor of practice in computer science at Trinity College.
He has spent more than two decades helping engineers with Java, Groovy, Kotlin, Spring, Gradle, and now agentic AI engineering.
He is also the author of several O’Reilly titles, including Kotlin Cookbook, Help Your Boss Help You, and Gradle Recipes for Android.
So this is not “AI hype from nowhere.”
It is agentic coding explained by someone who understands developers, teaching, and production software. ☕
#ClaudeCode #AgenticAI #SoftwareEngineering #Java #AIForDevelopers #MCP #DevTools #OReilly #KenKousen #Programming #DeveloperTools
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