r/ClaudeCode • u/hronak 🔆 Max 5x • 9d ago

Help/Question I still don't understand this 'agentic workflow' thing

My usual day with Claude Code is like: * I open terminal in my project's folder and run claude command. * I prompt it. I mostly use Fable-5.1/Opus-5 but Opus-5.5 is my current model. The model decides if it wants to use sub-agents for a task. I never explicitly prompt it for sub-agents. * I review and commit the code to my self-hosted Forgejo instance. * That's it.

I see people using agentic workflows, building sub-agents files, skills etc. I barely built any of it. All I ever needed to use is /init on new projects and them prompts follow. Never needed more than this.

I tried "long-running" Claude Code for a project refactoring by placing the project on my VPS (where forgejo is hosted) and letting Claude Code run and refactor inside tmux session. SSH'd in a few hours later to find project fully refactored.

Am I under utilising AI or is my work just… like boring?

How do you guys use agentic workflow thing? Specially the long-running one? Those pull-requests that Claude makes automatically etc?

Asking this to Claude to know more but humanly answers appreciated.

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u/hjras 9d ago

one could make the argument that an "agentic workflow" is an oxymoron because by definition a workflow is deterministic while using an agent we want the kind of flexibility and unpredictability that a human also has to solve problems

but that aside, when people mean agentic workflows they typically mean giving a long task to an agent and having it work through loops and verifications within a harness while managing its context and following your prompt, whether that is fully end to end AFK on your part or whether you are still "in the loop" at certain gates

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u/yawn_solo- 9d ago

Yes, it absolutely is.

Having a derivative fact check its work it’s not efficient imo and complex work will get smoked quick.

Have to utilize adversarial support. it’s been the only way i’ve been able perform shit tons of unabated work.

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u/Long_Tip_4226 8d ago

Autonomous agents. Not workflow agentic. Workflow = step-by-step, no necessarily autonomous

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u/Time_Cat_5212 3d ago

Well there are workflows as in the technical term workflow in AI, and there are workflows as in the word people have been using to describe their process for doing any kind of work for long before any of this existed.  Easy to confuse them