Building a Research Agent with Claude
Defining the research agent's toolset
A minimal research agent needs: a web search tool, a page-fetch/read tool, and a note-taking tool to accumulate findings. This small set is enough to answer non-trivial, multi-source research questions.
Wiring the tool-use loop with the Claude API
Using the tool-use pattern from the Build with Claude API path: define your tools, let Claude request calls, execute them server-side, feed results back, and repeat until Claude produces a final synthesized answer.
Capping cost and time
Set a maximum number of tool-use iterations (e.g., 8) and a total token budget, so a research agent that gets stuck in an unproductive loop fails gracefully instead of running (and costing) indefinitely.
Key Takeaways
- A minimal research agent needs search, fetch, and note-taking tools.
- Wire it using the same tool-use loop pattern from the Claude API path.
- Cap iterations and token budget to prevent runaway cost.
- This is a direct application of the perceive-plan-act loop from Lesson 2.
Build a minimal research agent
Using the Claude API, wire a tool-use loop with a search tool (even a mocked one) and a max-8-iteration cap, and test it against a real multi-part question.