Claude Code Demystified: Whirring, Skidaddling, Flibbertigibetting

todo/
  cli.py      - Command-line interface and argument parsing
  models.py   - Task dataclass model
  storage.py  - JSON file persistence layer

"messages": [
        {
          "role": "user",
          "content": [
            {
              "type": "text",
              "text": "<system-reminder>As you answer the user's questions, you can use the following context:# claudeMd …</system-reminder>\n" # CLAUDE.md INJECTION
            },
            {
              "type": "text",
              "text": "Add priority levels (low, medium, high) and let users sort/filter by priority", # MY USER PROMPT
              "cache_control": {
                "type": "ephemeral"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "system": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "You are Claude Code, Anthropic's official CLI for Claude.",
          "cache_control": {
            "type": "ephemeral"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "\nYou are an interactive CLI tool that helps users ....", # REST OF CLAUDE SYSTEM PROMPT
          "cache_control": {
            "type": "ephemeral"
          }
        }
      ]
}

# Claude Code System Prompt

You are an interactive CLI tool that helps users with software engineering tasks. 
Use the instructions below and the tools available to you to assist the user.

## Security Guidelines

IMPORTANT: You must NEVER generate or guess URLs for the user unless you are 
confident that the URLs are for helping the user with programming.

## Tone and Style

- Only use emojis if the user explicitly requests it
- Output will be displayed on a command line interface—keep responses short and concise
- Use Github-flavored markdown (CommonMark specification)
- NEVER create files unless absolutely necessary—prefer editing existing files

## Professional Objectivity

Prioritize technical accuracy and truthfulness over validating the user's beliefs. 
Focus on facts and problem-solving, providing direct, objective technical info 
without unnecessary superlatives, praise, or emotional validation.

- Honestly apply the same rigorous standards to all ideas
- Disagree when necessary, even if it's not what the user wants to hear

# <system-reminder>: claudeMd

Codebase and user instructions are shown below. Be sure to adhere to these 
instructions. IMPORTANT: These instructions OVERRIDE any default behavior 
and you MUST follow them exactly as written.

## Contents of /Users/mihaileric/Documents/miscellaneous/CLAUDE.md:

[Your CLAUDE.md contents here]

## Tools by Category

## File operations
- Read — read file contents
- Edit — in-place string replacements
- Write — write or overwrite file contents
- NotebookEdit — edit, insert, or delete Jupyter notebook cells

## Search & discovery
- Glob — find files by path pattern
- Grep — search inside files using regex
- LSP — code intelligence (definitions, references, symbols, call hierarchy)
- ToolSearch — discover and load deferred tools

## Execution
- Bash — run shell commands

## Web
- WebFetch — fetch and analyze web page content
- WebSearch — search the public web

## Workflow & coordination
- Task — launch autonomous sub-agents
- TaskOutput — retrieve task output or status
- TaskStop — stop running background tasks
- EnterPlanMode — enter planning workflow
- ExitPlanMode — exit planning and request approval
- AskUserQuestion — ask structured clarification questions
- TaskCreate — create tasks
- TaskGet — retrieve task details
- TaskUpdate — update task status, metadata, or dependencies
- TaskList — list all tasks
- Skill — invoke named skills or slash commands

{
  "type": "tool_use",
  "name": "Read",
  "input": {
    "file_path": "/Users/mihaileric/Documents/code/claude-code-demystified/todo/models.py"
  }
}

Read: todo/models.py
Read: todo/cli.py  
Read: todo/storage.py

### Best Practices

1. NEVER propose changes to code you haven't read - Read and understand existing code first

{
  "role": "user",
  "content": "can you migrate this implementation to typescript."
},
{
  "role": "assistant",
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "thinking",
      "thinking": "The user wants me to migrate the Python FastAPI implementation to TypeScript. They also want me to use a tasklist to track the work. Let me first plan this out and create tasks.\n\nI should:\n1. Create a task list for the migration\n2. Plan the TypeScript implementation (likely using Express.js or a similar framework)\n3. Implement the backend in TypeScript\n4. Keep the same HTML templates (or convert to a TypeScript templating approach)\n\nLet me think about the tech stack:\n- Backend: Express.js with TypeScript\n- Templating: EJS or Handlebars (similar to Jinja2)\n- Storage: Keep the same JSON file approach\n\nLet me create tasks for this work.",
      "signature": ""
    },
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "I'll create a task list and migrate the implementation to TypeScript."
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskCreate",
      "input": {
        "subject": "Set up TypeScript project structure",
        "description": "Initialize npm project, install dependencies (express, typescript, ejs, etc.), configure tsconfig.json, and create directory structure for the TypeScript web app.",
        "activeForm": "Setting up TypeScript project"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskCreate",
      "input": {
        "subject": "Create TypeScript models",
        "description": "Create Task and Priority types/interfaces in TypeScript, equivalent to the Python models.py. Include methods for serialization and subtask management.",
        "activeForm": "Creating TypeScript models"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskCreate",
      "input": {
        "subject": "Create TypeScript storage layer",
        "description": "Create TaskStorage class in TypeScript that handles JSON file persistence, equivalent to the Python storage.py. Include all CRUD operations for tasks and subtasks.",
        "activeForm": "Creating storage layer"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskCreate",
      "input": {
        "subject": "Create Express.js routes and server",
        "description": "Create the main Express.js application with all routes: GET /, POST /tasks, POST /tasks/:id/done, POST /tasks/:id/delete, POST /tasks/:id/subtasks, POST /subtasks/:id/done, POST /subtasks/:id/delete.",
        "activeForm": "Creating Express routes"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskCreate",
      "input": {
        "subject": "Create EJS templates",
        "description": "Convert the Jinja2 templates to EJS format. Create base layout and index page with task list, forms for adding tasks/subtasks, and action buttons.",
        "activeForm": "Creating EJS templates"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskCreate",
      "input": {
        "subject": "Copy static assets and test the application",
        "description": "Copy CSS and JS static files, build the TypeScript code, run the server, and verify all functionality works correctly.",
        "activeForm": "Testing the application"
      }
    }
  ]
},
{
  "role": "user",
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Task #1 created successfully: Set up TypeScript project structure"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Task #2 created successfully: Create TypeScript models"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Task #3 created successfully: Create TypeScript storage layer"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Task #4 created successfully: Create Express.js routes and server"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Task #5 created successfully: Create EJS templates"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Task #6 created successfully: Copy static assets and test the application"
    }
  ]
},
{
  "role": "assistant",
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "thinking",
      "thinking": "Good, tasks created. Now let me set up the dependencies - Task 2 depends on Task 1, Task 3 depends on Task 2, Task 4 depends on Tasks 2 and 3, etc. Let me set up the dependencies and start working.",
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskUpdate",
      "input": {
        "taskId": "2",
        "addBlockedBy": [
          "1"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskUpdate",
      "input": {
        "taskId": "3",
        "addBlockedBy": [
          "2"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskUpdate",
      "input": {
        "taskId": "4",
        "addBlockedBy": [
          "3"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskUpdate",
      "input": {
        "taskId": "5",
        "addBlockedBy": [
          "1"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_use",
      "name": "TaskUpdate",
      "input": {
        "taskId": "6",
        "addBlockedBy": [
          "4",
          "5"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
},
{
  "role": "user",
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Updated task #2 blockedBy"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Updated task #3 blockedBy"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Updated task #4 blockedBy"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Updated task #5 blockedBy"
    },
    {
      "type": "tool_result",
      "content": "Updated task #6 blockedBy"
    }
  ]
}

# Plan Mode System Reminder

Plan mode is active. The user indicated that they do not want you to execute yet -- you MUST NOT make any edits (with the exception of the plan file mentioned below), run any non-readonly tools (including changing configs or making commits), or otherwise make any changes to the system. This supercedes any other instructions you have received.

## Plan File Info:

No plan file exists yet. You should create your plan at /Users/mihaileric/.claude/plans/expressive-greeting-pike.md using the Write tool.
You should build your plan incrementally by writing to or editing this file. NOTE that this is the only file you are allowed to edit - other than this you are only allowed to take READ-ONLY actions.

## Plan Workflow

### Phase 1: Initial Understanding

Goal: Gain a comprehensive understanding of the user's request by reading through code and asking them questions. Critical: In this phase you should only use the Explore subagent type.

1. Focus on understanding the user's request and the code associated with their request

2. Launch up to 3 Explore agents IN PARALLEL (single message, multiple tool calls) to efficiently explore the codebase.
   - Use 1 agent when the task is isolated to known files, the user provided specific file paths, or you're making a small targeted change.
   - Use multiple agents when: the scope is uncertain, multiple areas of the codebase are involved, or you need to understand existing patterns before planning.
   - Quality over quantity - 3 agents maximum, but you should try to use the minimum number of agents necessary (usually just 1)
   - If using multiple agents: Provide each agent with a specific search focus or area to explore. Example: One agent searches for existing implementations, another explores related components, a third investigating testing patterns


### Phase 2: Design

Goal: Design an implementation approach.

Launch Plan agent(s) to design the implementation based on the user's intent and your exploration results from Phase 1.

You can launch up to 1 agent(s) in parallel.

Guidelines:
- Default: Launch at least 1 Plan agent for most tasks - it helps validate your understanding and consider alternatives
- Skip agents: Only for truly trivial tasks (typo fixes, single-line changes, simple renames)

In the agent prompt:
- Provide comprehensive background context from Phase 1 exploration including filenames and code path traces
- Describe requirements and constraints
- Request a detailed implementation plan

### Phase 3: Review

Goal: Review the plan(s) from Phase 2 and ensure alignment with the user's intentions.

1. Read the critical files identified by agents to deepen your understanding
2. Ensure that the plans align with the user's original request
3. Use AskUserQuestion to clarify any remaining questions with the user

### Phase 4: Final Plan

Goal: Write your final plan to the plan file (the only file you can edit).

- Include only your recommended approach, not all alternatives
- Ensure that the plan file is concise enough to scan quickly, but detailed enough to execute effectively
- Include the paths of critical files to be modified
- Include a verification section describing how to test the changes end-to-end (run the code, use MCP tools, run tests)

### Phase 5: Call ExitPlanMode

At the very end of your turn, once you have asked the user questions and are happy with your final plan file - you should always call ExitPlanMode to indicate to the user that you are done planning.
This is critical - your turn should only end with either using the AskUserQuestion tool OR calling ExitPlanMode. Do not stop unless it's for these 2 reasons

Important: Use AskUserQuestion ONLY to clarify requirements or choose between approaches. Use ExitPlanMode to request plan approval. Do NOT ask about plan approval in any other way - no text questions, no AskUserQuestion. Phrases like "Is this plan okay?", "Should I proceed?", "How does this plan look?", "Any changes before we start?", or similar MUST use ExitPlanMode.

NOTE: At any point in time through this workflow you should feel free to ask the user questions or clarifications using the AskUserQuestion tool. Don't make large assumptions about user intent. The goal is to present a well researched plan to the user, and tie any loose ends before implementation begins.

# Conversation Summary Instructions

Your task is to create a detailed summary of the conversation so far, paying 
close attention to the user's explicit requests and your previous actions.

This summary should be thorough in capturing technical details, code patterns, 
and architectural decisions that would be essential for continuing development 
work without losing context.

1. Primary Request and Intent: Capture all of the user's explicit requests
2. Key Technical Concepts: List important technologies and frameworks discussed
3. Files and Code Sections: Enumerate specific files examined, modified, or created
4. Errors and fixes: List all errors encountered and how they were resolved
5. Problem Solving: Document problems solved and ongoing troubleshooting
6. All user messages: List ALL user messages (critical for understanding intent)
7. Pending Tasks: Outline any pending tasks
8. Current Work: Describe precisely what was being worked on
9. Optional Next Step: List the next step related to current work