AI Powered Coding with Claude Code

Learn practical workflows, hands-on coding techniques, and structured interactions

This 1.5-day hands-on workshop (3 sessions x 4.5 hours) teaches you how to leverage Claude Code's AI features to build applications faster and more efficiently — and how to go beyond single prompts into loops, automation, managed agents, and the broader Claude platform (artifacts, Cowork, and connectors). You'll learn through 21 short guided labs (10-12 minutes each), 7 per session.

Course agenda:

• Day 1 — Foundations (Labs 1-7): Claude Code basics, modes, context management, skills, subagents, plugins, hooks, and MCP. Runs in a GitHub Codespace.
• Day 2 — Loops, automation, and managed agents (Labs 8-14): Day 2 warm-up, headless pipelines, /goal, the Agent SDK (programmatic + unattended), GitHub Actions, scheduled tasks (/loop and cloud Routines), and managed agents (background, cloud, and web). Runs in the Codespace + claude.ai.
• Day 3 — The Claude platform (Labs 15-21): Day 3 warm-up, artifacts (interactive + AI-powered), Cowork in the Claude Desktop app, connectors, Cowork scheduled tasks, Live Artifacts, and a build-to-present capstone. Runs in claude.ai and Claude Desktop on your own machine.

Prerequisites: Claude paid account (any paid plan — Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise).

Pre-class setup for Day 3 (do before the Day 3 session):

1. Install the Claude Desktop app on your laptop from claude.com/download and sign in with your paid Claude account.
2. Open the app and confirm you can see the Chat, Cowork, and Code tabs.
3. (Optional, for the GitHub Actions and web labs on Day 2) Have a personal GitHub repo you can push to.

These instructions will guide you through configuring a Claude Code environment that you can use to do the labs.

1. If you don't already have a paid Claude account, sign up for one at claude.ai.

You must have a paid Claude account to use Claude Code.

2. Choose where you want to run Claude Code.

Important note: Lab commands and screenshots reflect using terminal integration in Codespace/VS Code integration. Steps and functionality in other environments may vary!

If you would like to use the GitHub Codespace zero-install option that runs in a browser, skip to step 6. Otherwise, continue with step 3.

3. Clone down the training repo locally from GitHub.

git clone https://github.com/skillrepos/ccode

4. If you want to install Claude Code on your local system (and are allowed to):

Go to Get Started, choose the Terminal tab and proceed with installation for your desired platform.

5. Go to the cloned repo, start Claude and authenticate as appropriate.

If in the terminal integration, change into your cloned directory and you can likely follow the directions in STARTUP.md to complete this task. Otherwise, consult the online documentation.

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STOP HERE if NOT using the GitHub Codespace environment.

Directions for GitHub Codespace environment setup follow.

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6. Set codespace timeout

While logged in to GitHub, go to https://github.com/settings/codespaces.

Scroll down and find the section on the page labeled Default idle timeout.

Increase the default timeout value to 90 minutes and then select the Save button.

(NOTE: If your codespace does time out at some point in the course, there should be a button to restart it. In that case, you will need to run the minikube start command again.)

7. Create your own codespace to run the labs by clicking on the button below.

Click here ------>

Then click on the option to create a new codespace.

This will run for several minutes while it gets everything ready.

8. Complete the startup/authentication steps in the file STARTUP.md.

Once the codespace is running, you will need to authenticate Claude Code in the codespace using your Claude account. Follow the steps in STARTUP.md to complete this task.