Top AI Repos — open-source AI, indexed and scored

Top AI Repos tracks AI repositories on GitHub and answers two different questions about each one: is it moving right now, and would you bet a product on it.

ghuntley/how-to-build-a-coding-agent

A workshop that teaches you how to build your own coding agent. Similar to Roo code, Cline, Amp, Cursor, Windsurf or OpenCode.

60No licenceGo

View on GitHub Website

Stars: 5,914
Forks: 673
Watchers: 32
Open issues: 2
Contributors: 4

Star history, last 90 days+137 over 71 snapshots

2026-07-31 · 5,7772026-11-04 · 5,914

Star history, last 90 days
Date	Stars
2026-07-31	5777
2026-08-07	5795
2026-08-15	5804
2026-08-18	5811
2026-08-19	5811
2026-08-20	5812
2026-08-21	5811
2026-08-22	5812
2026-08-23	5813
2026-08-24	5812
2026-08-25	5813
2026-08-27	5815
2026-08-28	5814
2026-08-29	5815
2026-08-30	5814
2026-08-31	5816
2026-09-01	5819
2026-09-03	5818
2026-09-04	5820
2026-09-05	5821
2026-09-06	5822
2026-09-07	5823
2026-09-08	5822
2026-09-09	5825
2026-09-10	5825
2026-09-14	5824
2026-09-15	5825
2026-09-17	5828
2026-09-19	5830
2026-09-20	5831
2026-09-21	5835
2026-09-22	5840
2026-09-23	5844
2026-09-24	5846
2026-09-25	5845
2026-09-26	5847
2026-09-27	5846
2026-09-28	5850
2026-09-29	5853
2026-09-30	5855
2026-10-01	5854
2026-10-02	5857
2026-10-03	5858
2026-10-04	5859
2026-10-05	5859
2026-10-06	5862
2026-10-08	5863
2026-10-10	5865
2026-10-11	5869
2026-10-12	5874
2026-10-13	5880
2026-10-14	5887
2026-10-15	5893
2026-10-16	5896
2026-10-17	5903
2026-10-18	5904
2026-10-19	5906
2026-10-20	5907
2026-10-21	5908
2026-10-22	5910
2026-10-23	5911
2026-10-25	5913
2026-10-26	5915
2026-10-27	5912
2026-10-28	5911
2026-10-29	5915
2026-10-30	5916
2026-10-31	5915
2026-11-01	5916
2026-11-03	5914
2026-11-04	5914

Today

— stars today

This week

+3 stars this week

This month

+55 stars this month

Momentum

3.0

growth rate 0.05%/day

From the README

# 🧠 Build Your Own Coding Agent via a Step-by-Step Workshop

Welcome! 👋 This workshop will guide you through building your own **AI-powered coding assistant** — starting from a basic chatbot, and adding powerful tools like file reading, shell command execution, and code searching.

You don’t need to be an AI expert. Just follow along and build step-by-step!

🌐 **Want a detailed overview?** Check out the blog post: [ghuntley.com/agent](https://ghuntley.com/agent/)

---

## 🎯 What You'll Learn

By the end of this workshop, you’ll understand how to:

- ✅ Connect to the Anthropic Claude API
- ✅ Build a simple AI chatbot
- ✅ Add tools like reading files, editing code, and running commands
- ✅ Handle tool requests and errors
- ✅ Build an agent that gets smarter with each step

---

## 🛠️ What We're Building

You’ll build 6 versions of a coding assistant. 

Each version adds more features:

1. **Basic Chat** — talk to Claude
2. **File Reader** — read code files
3. **File Explorer** — list files in folders
4. **Command Runner** — run shell commands
5. **File Editor** — modify files
6. **Code Search** — search your codebase with patterns

```mermaid
graph LR
    subgraph "Application Progression"
        A[chat.go<br/>Basic Chat] --> B[read.go<br/>+ File Reading]
        B --> C[list_files.go<br/>+ Directory Listing]
        C --> D[bash_tool.go<br/>+ Shell Commands]
        D --> E[edit_tool.go<br/>+ File Editing]
        E --> F[code_search_tool.go<br/>+ Code Search]
    end
    
    subgraph "Tool Capabilities"
        G[No Tools] --> H[read_file]
        H --> I[read_file<br/>list_files]
        I --> J[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash]
        J --> K[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash<br/>edit_file]
        K --> L[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash<br/>code_search]
    end
    
    A -.-> G
    B -.-> H
    C -.-> I
    D -.-> J
    E -.-> K
    F -.-> L
```

At the end, you’ll end up with a powerful local developer assistant!



---

## 🧱 How It Works (Architecture)

Each agent works like this:

1. Waits for your input
2. Sends it to Claude
3. Claude may respond directly or ask to use a tool
4. The agent runs the tool (e.g., read a file)
5. Sends the result back to Claude
6. Claude gives you the final answer

We call this the **event loop** — it's like the agent's heartbeat.

```mermaid
graph TB
    subgraph "Agent Architecture"
        A[Agent] --> B[Anthropic Client]
        A --> C[Tool Registry]
        A --> D[getUserMessage Function]
        A --> E[Verbose Logging]
    end
    
    subgraph "Shared Event Loop"
        F[Start Chat Session] --> G[Get User Input]
        G --> H{Empty Input?}
        H -->|Yes| G
        H -->|No| I[Add to Conversation]
        I --> J[runInference]
        J --> K[Claude Response]
        K --> L{Tool Use?}
        L -->|No| M[Display Text]
        L -->|Yes| N[Execute Tools]
        N --> O[Collect Results]
        O --> P[Send Results to Claude]
        P --> J
        M --> G
    end
    
    subgraph "Tool Execution Loop"
        N --> Q[Find Tool by Name]
        Q --> R[Execute Tool Function]
        R --> S[Capture Result/Error]
        S --> T[Add to Tool Results]
        T --> U{More Tools?}
        U -->|Yes| Q
        U -->|No| O
    end
```

## 🚀 Getting Started

### ✅ Prerequisites

* Go 1.24.2+ or [devenv](https://devenv.sh/) (recommended for easy setup)
* An [Anthropic API Key](https://platform.claude.com/settings/keys)

### 🔧 Set Up Your Environment

**Option 1: Recommended (using devenv)**

```bash
devenv shell  # Loads everything you need
```

**Option 2: Manual setup**

```bash
# Make sure Go is installed
go mod tidy
```

### 🔐 Add Your API Key

```bash
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
```

---

## 🏁 Start with the Basics

### 1. `chat.go` — Basic Chat

A simple chatbot that talks to Claude.

```bash
go run chat.go
```

* ➡️ Try: “Hello!”
* ➡️ Add `--verbose` to see detailed logs

---

## 🛠️ Add Tools (One Step at a Time)

### 2. `read.go` — Read F

Excerpt of 7,551 characters

Read on GitHub

Top contributors3 shown

ghuntley
Geoffrey Huntley · Australia
10
renovate[bot]
1
Zied031
1

Quality score

Would you bet a product on this? Bounded 0–100 and slow moving.

60/10060

Maintenance: 90%; How recently the default branch was pushed to
Releases: 25%; Recency and cadence of tagged releases
Community: 27%; Contributor breadth and bus factor
Issue backlog: 100%; Open issues measured against the size of the audience
Documentation: 97%; README depth, plus a homepage and topics
Licensing: 0%; How freely the code can be adopted

What to know before adopting

No tagged releases
No license — all rights reserved by default, not safe to reuse
No licence file — default copyright applies, all rights reserved.

Details

Created: last year
Last push: 11 days ago
Last release: none
Release tag: —
Releases in the last year: 0
Default branch: trunk
Size: 29 KB
Owner type: User
Owner location: Kangaroo Island, Australia
Discovered via: topic:tutorial
First indexed: 3 months ago
Last synced: 8 days ago

ghuntley/how-to-build-a-coding-agent

A workshop that teaches you how to build your own coding agent. Similar to Roo code, Cline, Amp, Cursor, Windsurf or OpenCode.

60No licenceGo

View on GitHub Website

Stars: 5,914
Forks: 673
Watchers: 32
Open issues: 2
Contributors: 4

Star history, last 90 days+137 over 71 snapshots

2026-07-31 · 5,7772026-11-04 · 5,914

Star history, last 90 days
Date	Stars
2026-07-31	5777
2026-08-07	5795
2026-08-15	5804
2026-08-18	5811
2026-08-19	5811
2026-08-20	5812
2026-08-21	5811
2026-08-22	5812
2026-08-23	5813
2026-08-24	5812
2026-08-25	5813
2026-08-27	5815
2026-08-28	5814
2026-08-29	5815
2026-08-30	5814
2026-08-31	5816
2026-09-01	5819
2026-09-03	5818
2026-09-04	5820
2026-09-05	5821
2026-09-06	5822
2026-09-07	5823
2026-09-08	5822
2026-09-09	5825
2026-09-10	5825
2026-09-14	5824
2026-09-15	5825
2026-09-17	5828
2026-09-19	5830
2026-09-20	5831
2026-09-21	5835
2026-09-22	5840
2026-09-23	5844
2026-09-24	5846
2026-09-25	5845
2026-09-26	5847
2026-09-27	5846
2026-09-28	5850
2026-09-29	5853
2026-09-30	5855
2026-10-01	5854
2026-10-02	5857
2026-10-03	5858
2026-10-04	5859
2026-10-05	5859
2026-10-06	5862
2026-10-08	5863
2026-10-10	5865
2026-10-11	5869
2026-10-12	5874
2026-10-13	5880
2026-10-14	5887
2026-10-15	5893
2026-10-16	5896
2026-10-17	5903
2026-10-18	5904
2026-10-19	5906
2026-10-20	5907
2026-10-21	5908
2026-10-22	5910
2026-10-23	5911
2026-10-25	5913
2026-10-26	5915
2026-10-27	5912
2026-10-28	5911
2026-10-29	5915
2026-10-30	5916
2026-10-31	5915
2026-11-01	5916
2026-11-03	5914
2026-11-04	5914

Today

— stars today

This week

+3 stars this week

This month

+55 stars this month

Momentum

3.0

growth rate 0.05%/day

From the README

# 🧠 Build Your Own Coding Agent via a Step-by-Step Workshop

Welcome! 👋 This workshop will guide you through building your own **AI-powered coding assistant** — starting from a basic chatbot, and adding powerful tools like file reading, shell command execution, and code searching.

You don’t need to be an AI expert. Just follow along and build step-by-step!

🌐 **Want a detailed overview?** Check out the blog post: [ghuntley.com/agent](https://ghuntley.com/agent/)

---

## 🎯 What You'll Learn

By the end of this workshop, you’ll understand how to:

- ✅ Connect to the Anthropic Claude API
- ✅ Build a simple AI chatbot
- ✅ Add tools like reading files, editing code, and running commands
- ✅ Handle tool requests and errors
- ✅ Build an agent that gets smarter with each step

---

## 🛠️ What We're Building

You’ll build 6 versions of a coding assistant. 

Each version adds more features:

1. **Basic Chat** — talk to Claude
2. **File Reader** — read code files
3. **File Explorer** — list files in folders
4. **Command Runner** — run shell commands
5. **File Editor** — modify files
6. **Code Search** — search your codebase with patterns

```mermaid
graph LR
    subgraph "Application Progression"
        A[chat.go<br/>Basic Chat] --> B[read.go<br/>+ File Reading]
        B --> C[list_files.go<br/>+ Directory Listing]
        C --> D[bash_tool.go<br/>+ Shell Commands]
        D --> E[edit_tool.go<br/>+ File Editing]
        E --> F[code_search_tool.go<br/>+ Code Search]
    end
    
    subgraph "Tool Capabilities"
        G[No Tools] --> H[read_file]
        H --> I[read_file<br/>list_files]
        I --> J[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash]
        J --> K[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash<br/>edit_file]
        K --> L[read_file<br/>list_files<br/>bash<br/>code_search]
    end
    
    A -.-> G
    B -.-> H
    C -.-> I
    D -.-> J
    E -.-> K
    F -.-> L
```

At the end, you’ll end up with a powerful local developer assistant!



---

## 🧱 How It Works (Architecture)

Each agent works like this:

1. Waits for your input
2. Sends it to Claude
3. Claude may respond directly or ask to use a tool
4. The agent runs the tool (e.g., read a file)
5. Sends the result back to Claude
6. Claude gives you the final answer

We call this the **event loop** — it's like the agent's heartbeat.

```mermaid
graph TB
    subgraph "Agent Architecture"
        A[Agent] --> B[Anthropic Client]
        A --> C[Tool Registry]
        A --> D[getUserMessage Function]
        A --> E[Verbose Logging]
    end
    
    subgraph "Shared Event Loop"
        F[Start Chat Session] --> G[Get User Input]
        G --> H{Empty Input?}
        H -->|Yes| G
        H -->|No| I[Add to Conversation]
        I --> J[runInference]
        J --> K[Claude Response]
        K --> L{Tool Use?}
        L -->|No| M[Display Text]
        L -->|Yes| N[Execute Tools]
        N --> O[Collect Results]
        O --> P[Send Results to Claude]
        P --> J
        M --> G
    end
    
    subgraph "Tool Execution Loop"
        N --> Q[Find Tool by Name]
        Q --> R[Execute Tool Function]
        R --> S[Capture Result/Error]
        S --> T[Add to Tool Results]
        T --> U{More Tools?}
        U -->|Yes| Q
        U -->|No| O
    end
```

## 🚀 Getting Started

### ✅ Prerequisites

* Go 1.24.2+ or [devenv](https://devenv.sh/) (recommended for easy setup)
* An [Anthropic API Key](https://platform.claude.com/settings/keys)

### 🔧 Set Up Your Environment

**Option 1: Recommended (using devenv)**

```bash
devenv shell  # Loads everything you need
```

**Option 2: Manual setup**

```bash
# Make sure Go is installed
go mod tidy
```

### 🔐 Add Your API Key

```bash
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
```

---

## 🏁 Start with the Basics

### 1. `chat.go` — Basic Chat

A simple chatbot that talks to Claude.

```bash
go run chat.go
```

* ➡️ Try: “Hello!”
* ➡️ Add `--verbose` to see detailed logs

---

## 🛠️ Add Tools (One Step at a Time)

### 2. `read.go` — Read F

Excerpt of 7,551 characters

Read on GitHub

Top contributors3 shown

ghuntley
Geoffrey Huntley · Australia
10
renovate[bot]
1
Zied031
1

Quality score

Would you bet a product on this? Bounded 0–100 and slow moving.

60/10060

Maintenance: 90%; How recently the default branch was pushed to
Releases: 25%; Recency and cadence of tagged releases
Community: 27%; Contributor breadth and bus factor
Issue backlog: 100%; Open issues measured against the size of the audience
Documentation: 97%; README depth, plus a homepage and topics
Licensing: 0%; How freely the code can be adopted

What to know before adopting

No tagged releases

Details

Created: last year
Last push: 11 days ago
Last release: none
Release tag: —
Releases in the last year: 0
Default branch: trunk
Size: 29 KB
Owner type: User
Owner location: Kangaroo Island, Australia
Discovered via: topic:tutorial
First indexed: 3 months ago
Last synced: 8 days ago

Top AI Repos — open-source AI, indexed and scored

ghuntley/how-to-build-a-coding-agent

From the README

Top contributors3 shown

Quality score

What to know before adopting

Categories

Details

ghuntley/how-to-build-a-coding-agent

From the README

Top contributors3 shown

Quality score

What to know before adopting

Categories

Details

Top AI Repos — open-source AI, indexed and scored

Trend

From the README

Top contributors3 shown

Quality score

What to know before adopting

Categories

Details

Trend

From the README

Top contributors3 shown

Quality score

What to know before adopting

Categories

Details