From Foundations to Agentic Systems
Written by doctoral researchers who study these systems and use them on real work. Not assembled from machine output. Not written from the outside. The guide that bridges research and practice.
The dual vantage point no other guide has.
The available books on Claude fell into two categories. The beginner's guide type: approachable, light on depth, useful for someone who has never opened the application. And developer documentation: accurate, comprehensive, assumes you're building with the API — no use to the analyst, researcher, or manager who needs to get real work done without writing code.
Neither was written by people who formally study these systems. Neither engaged seriously with the research on what these models actually do versus what they're described as doing. Neither held both the practitioner's need for immediately usable guidance and the researcher's need for accurate, calibrated claims.
We are close enough to the technical research to describe these systems accurately. We use them enough to know what the research doesn't capture. That dual vantage point is what this guide reflects — and what makes it unlike anything else available.
Every prompt template was run. Every code example was executed. Every claimed behavior was verified in a live session. If we say something works, it was tested. That is the standard we held ourselves to.
All 50 chapters and 11 parts laid out in full. Every section, every appendix — know exactly what you're getting before you order.
Six distinct reader profiles with curated starting points. New user, developer, researcher, executive — we tell you where to begin.
Chapter 1 in full: "What Is Claude, Really?" — the mental model that underpins everything else in the book. Read it before you buy.
Who wrote this and why it matters. Doctoral researchers with institutional access to AI research who also use these tools daily.
Short, research-informed posts on Claude, prompting, and agentic systems from the collective. Between editions, we keep writing.
Available on Amazon KDP. Paperback and digital editions. The most comprehensive guide to Claude AI available — for the 4.6 era.
"Accuracy over confidence. The AI space has a surplus of enthusiastic description and a shortage of honest assessment. We tried to write the guide we'd want to receive from a knowledgeable colleague."