Build a Coding Agent Like Claude Code with Spring AI

Description

Everyone's talking about AI agents, but what actually makes something an agent? In this video, we break down what agents really are, how they differ from agentic workflows, and then build a fully autonomous coding agent from scratch using Spring AI and the new Spring AI Agent Utils library. We start by clearly defining what an AI agent is. A model that can reason, use tools, observe results, and loop until a goal is complete without human direction. Then we walk through the difference between agentic workflows (predefined steps) and truly autonomous agents. Finally, we build "Sprout" — a Claude Code-inspired coding agent in a Spring Boot 4 application using Spring AI 2.0, complete with file system tools, shell access, grep/glob capabilities, chat memory, and agent skills. - Understand the clear definition of an AI agent vs. an agentic workflow - Set up Spring AI Agent Utils in a Spring Boot 4 / Spring AI 2.0 project - Give your agent tools like file system access, grep, glob, and shell execution - Implement chat memory so your agent retains conversation context - Use agent skills to define reusable, domain-specific behaviors for your agent 0:00 - Intro 0:30 - What is an AI Agent? Definition explained 2:00 - Agentic Workflow vs. Autonomous Agent 3:30 - Introducing Spring AI Agent Utils 5:00 - Available tools: grep, glob, file system, shell 6:00 - Creating the project from start.spring.io 7:00 - Adding dependencies and configuring Anthropic 8:30 - Building the chat client and command line runner 11:00 - Setting up system message and default tools 13:00 - Building the interactive CLI loop 15:00 - First test: asking about the codebase 16:00 - Adding chat memory for conversation context 17:00 - Adding agent skills 19:00 - Enabling debug logging for tool & skill tracking 20:30 - Testing: Create a HelloWorld REST controller 22:00 - Seeing skills invoked in the logs 23:00 - Wrap up and what's next 🔗Resources & Links mentioned in this video: GitHub Repo: https://github.com/danvega/codingagent Spring AI Agent Utils on GitHub: https://github.com/spring-ai-community/spring-ai-agent-utils Spring Initializr: https://start.spring.io Spring AI Community GitHub: https://github.com/spring-ai-community 👋🏻Connect with me: Website: https://www.danvega.dev Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealdanvega Github: https://github.com/danvega LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danvega Newsletter: https://www.danvega.dev/newsletter SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL: http://bit.ly/2re4GH0 ❤️