# Beyond Chatbots — Setup Guide

**Send to students one week before Session 01.** Budget ~45 minutes.
Every step here gets verified in the first ten minutes of class, so
arriving with this done means arriving ready to build.

If you get stuck at any step, stop and email the instructor with a
screenshot — do not lose an evening to it. Stuck-at-step-3 is normal and
fixable in two minutes at class.

---

## Part 1 — Student setup (before Session 01)

### 1. Accounts

- [ ] **An Anthropic account with Claude access.**
      `[INSTRUCTOR: specify plan/seat arrangement — class workspace,
      individual Pro accounts, or provided API keys.]`
- [ ] **A messaging app the agent can reach you on** (Telegram or
      WhatsApp recommended — used with the Hermes bridge so your agent
      can message your phone).
      `[INSTRUCTOR: confirm which platform the class Hermes bridge
      supports and pre-create the channel.]`
- [ ] **A TEST email inbox.** Create a brand-new free email account
      (e.g., `yourname.agentclass@...`). This is where anything risky
      happens in class — the Session 04 red team **never** touches your
      real inbox. Send it three emails from your real account so it isn't
      empty.

### 2. Install the agent runtime

- [ ] Install **Claude Code** (instructions at claude.com/claude-code —
      Mac, Windows, and Linux supported).
- [ ] Open a terminal:
      - **Mac:** Applications → Utilities → Terminal
      - **Windows:** Start → type "Terminal"
- [ ] Type `claude` and press Enter. Sign in when prompted.
- [ ] You should see a prompt waiting for input. Type
      `say hello and tell me one thing you can do` and press Enter.
- [ ] It answered? **You're done with the hard part.** Type `/exit`.

### 3. Make your course folder

- [ ] In the terminal, run these two lines (copy them exactly):

```
mkdir -p ~/agent-class
cd ~/agent-class && claude
```

- [ ] This folder is your agent's home for the whole course. All five of
      the files you'll build live here.

### 4. What to bring to every session

- [ ] The laptop you did this setup on (and its charger)
- [ ] Your phone
- [ ] From Session 02 on: access to your real email account
- [ ] Something to write with — two exercises are deliberately on paper

### 5. What you do NOT need

- No programming experience. Every command is given verbatim.
- No prior AI knowledge beyond having tried a chatbot once.
- No purchases. `[INSTRUCTOR: confirm cost arrangement.]`

---

## Part 2 — Instructor pre-flight (the week of each session)

### Before Session 01

- [ ] Verify your own demo agent end-to-end: calendar connector, Hermes
      to your phone, one scheduled task that fires and messages you.
      **Do the full demo path the morning of class**, not the night before.
- [ ] Prepare the demo shown on deck slide 5 (calendar conflict → plan →
      phone message). Seed your demo calendar with the conflict.
- [ ] Print: session-01-exercises.md, one per student. Templates print
      too — students with paper templates write better briefs.
- [ ] Room: pairs, projector tested with deck-session-01.html, power
      strips, wifi password on the board.
- [ ] Have 2–3 loaner setups (or a plan for shared pairing) for students
      whose installs failed.

### Before Session 02

- [ ] Print the email set A (in session-02-exercises.md) as cards or
      sheets — one set per student. **Email #17 is the injection trap;
      don't spoil it.**
- [ ] Verify the email connector flow on your own test inbox; capture
      screenshots of each consent screen for the projector.
- [ ] Bring painter's tape or five labeled zones per table for the
      physical sort (optional but it moves bodies, which wakes rooms up).

### Before Session 03

- [ ] Pull current numbers for the machinery act: spot-check a GPU
      spec sheet (HBM bandwidth), one recent memory-price headline, one
      recent data-center power headline. The deck's numbers are
      order-of-magnitude durable, but fresh headlines land harder.
- [ ] Print headline cards (session-03-exercises.md has eight; swap any
      for this month's news).
- [ ] Confirm current API pricing for the price-a-thought worksheet and
      write it on the board at the break.

### Before Session 04

- [ ] Re-verify every student's test inbox exists (poll at end of S03) —
      the red team requires it. **Never run Exercise 2 against a real
      inbox, even a volunteer's.**
- [ ] Print attack cards and the delegation policy template on good
      paper. The policy gets signed; it should feel like a document.
- [ ] Bring a pen for every student. Signing with a borrowed pen is fine;
      hunting for one kills the moment.

### Universal contingencies

| Failure | Move |
|---|---|
| Wifi dies | Paper exercises continue (S02-E1, S04-E1, S04-E3 fully offline). Connector labs → instructor demos on phone hotspot, students shadow. |
| One student's install is broken | Pair them immediately; fix at break. Never debug one laptop in front of a waiting room. |
| Demo fails live | Narrate the log of your morning test run instead — logs are the lesson anyway. Say exactly that; it lands. |
| Session runs long | Each facilitator guide marks one block ☆ SKIPPABLE. Cut it, never the closing exercise — students must leave with the artifact. |