Anthropic Core Workflow B — Streaming & Batches

Overview

Two complementary patterns: real-time streaming for interactive UIs (SSE events via POST /v1/messages with stream: true) and the Message Batches API (POST /v1/messages/batches) for processing up to 100,000 requests asynchronously at 50% cost reduction.

Prerequisites

• Completed anth-install-auth setup
• Familiarity with anth-core-workflow-a (Messages API basics)
• For batches: understanding of async/polling patterns

Instructions

Streaming — Python SDK

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic()

# Method 1: High-level streaming (recommended)
with client.messages.stream(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    max_tokens=2048,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a short story about a robot."}]
) as stream:
    for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

    # After stream completes, access full message
    final_message = stream.get_final_message()
    print(f"\nUsage: {final_message.usage.input_tokens}+{final_message.usage.output_tokens}")

# Method 2: Event-level streaming (for custom event handling)
with client.messages.stream(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    max_tokens=2048,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain REST APIs."}]
) as stream:
    for event in stream:
        if event.type == "content_block_delta":
            if event.delta.type == "text_delta":
                print(event.delta.text, end="")
        elif event.type == "message_stop":
            print("\n[Stream complete]")

Streaming — TypeScript SDK

import Anthropic from '@anthropic-ai/sdk';

const client = new Anthropic();

// High-level streaming
const stream = client.messages.stream({
  model: 'claude-sonnet-4-20250514',
  max_tokens: 2048,
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Write a haiku about code.' }],
});

stream.on('text', (text) => process.stdout.write(text));
stream.on('finalMessage', (msg) => {
  console.log(`\nTokens: ${msg.usage.input_tokens}+${msg.usage.output_tokens}`);
});

await stream.finalMessage();

Streaming with Tool Use

with client.messages.stream(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    max_tokens=1024,
    tools=tools,  # Same tools array from core-workflow-a
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What's the weather?"}]
) as stream:
    for event in stream:
        if event.type == "content_block_start":
            if event.content_block.type == "tool_use":
                print(f"Tool call: {event.content_block.name}")
        elif event.type == "content_block_delta":
            if event.delta.type == "input_json_delta":
                print(event.delta.partial_json, end="")  # Tool input arrives incrementally

Message Batches API — Bulk Processing

# Create a batch of up to 100,000 requests (50% cost savings)
batch = client.messages.batches.create(
    requests=[
        {
            "custom_id": "req-001",
            "params": {
                "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
                "max_tokens": 1024,
                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize: ...article1..."}]
            }
        },
        {
            "custom_id": "req-002",
            "params": {
                "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
                "max_tokens": 1024,
                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize: ...article2..."}]
            }
        },
        # ... up to 100,000 requests
    ]
)

print(f"Batch ID: {batch.id}")          # msgbatch_01HBMt...
print(f"Status: {batch.processing_status}")  # in_progress
print(f"Counts: {batch.request_counts}")     # {processing: 2, succeeded: 0, ...}

Poll for Batch Completion

import time

while True:
    batch_status = client.messages.batches.retrieve(batch.id)
    if batch_status.processing_status == "ended":
        break
    print(f"Processing... {batch_status.request_counts}")
    time.sleep(30)

# Stream results (returns JSONL)
for result in client.messages.batches.results(batch.id):
    if result.result.type == "succeeded":
        text = result.result.message.content[0].text
        print(f"[{result.custom_id}]: {text[:100]}...")
    elif result.result.type == "errored":
        print(f"[{result.custom_id}] ERROR: {result.result.error}")

SSE Event Types Reference

Event	Description	Key Fields
message_start	Stream begins	message.id, message.model, message.usage
content_block_start	New content block	content_block.type (text/tool_use)
content_block_delta	Incremental content	delta.text or delta.partial_json
content_block_stop	Block complete	index
message_delta	Message-level update	delta.stop_reason, usage.output_tokens
message_stop	Stream complete	(empty)
ping	Keepalive	(empty)

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Stream disconnects mid-response	Network timeout	Implement reconnection with partial content
Batch expired status	Not processed within 24h	Resubmit batch
errored results in batch	Individual request invalid	Check result.error for each failed request
429 on batch creation	Too many concurrent batches	Wait; limit is ~100 concurrent batches

Resources

• Streaming Messages
• Message Batches API
• Batch Results

Next Steps

For common errors, see anth-common-errors.