Building on the Claude API
Developers moving from using Claude in chat to building products on it
Prerequisites: Comfortable in one programming language. A Claude API key. Modules 02 and 18 help but are not required.
Last verified 2026-07-28
Learning objectives
- Make and debug Messages API calls: roles, system prompts, multi-turn conversations
- Stream responses and handle stop reasons correctly
- Define tools and handle the tool-use loop
- Get reliable structured output for downstream code
- Pick models deliberately and reason about token costs
What's in this module
7 lessons · 7 exercises · ~7 min reading
Starts withFrom chat to API~1 minExecutive summary
You will learn the Claude API from first call to first agent: messages, system prompts, streaming, tool use, and structured output. End state is a small working application, an API integration with at least one tool Claude calls, running against your own key. After this module you can choose the right model (Fable, Opus, Sonnet, Haiku) for a task, estimate and control costs, and build the request patterns every production integration rests on. This is the API leg of Anthropic's Claude Certified Developer exam.
Sources
- Anthropic, "Using the Messages API", the request/response shape, stop reasons, and multi-turn structure this module builds on: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/working-with-messages
- Anthropic, "Tool use overview", how tool calls are defined, returned and handled: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/overview
- Anthropic, "Choosing a model" and "Pricing", the two pages to check before committing an architecture to a model: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/models/choosing-a-model and https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing
- Anthropic, "Effort", the primary control over token cost and latency: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/effort
- Anthropic courses (API fundamentals, tool use): https://github.com/anthropics/courses
- Anthropic quickstarts: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-quickstarts
Prefer the live room?
This module also runs inside our in-person bootcamps and workshops in Copenhagen.
More in Track J
Build Your Own MCP Connector
How the Model Context Protocol works and how to wrap an internal tool or API as a connector Claude can call.
Claude Solution Architecture
How to design a Claude solution end to end: platform choice, architecture pattern, evaluation, cost model, and safety plan: the five decisions every deployment stands or falls on.