Prerequisites

Summary — what this page covers The one page to read a week before the workshop. It explains the access story (which is different for each day — the #1 thing attendees get wrong), lists the machine prerequisites, covers the BookTracker clone, and points out the free/local path so no one is blocked on an OpenAI key for Day 2. If everything on this page is true on the morning of July 9, you're ready.

Read this carefully — the two days have different access requirements.

Access — and the trap to avoid

Day 1 and Day 2 don't use the same thing. A Claude.ai Pro/Max subscription powers Claude Code on Day 1 but does NOT grant API access on Day 2. Day 2 needs an API key from the Anthropic Console. New Console accounts get a small free trial credit that covers the workshop calls.

Claude Code is not available on the Claude Free plan. If you only have Free today, upgrade to Pro before Day 1.

Day 2: a fully free/local path for embeddings

Day 2's RAG section uses an embedding service. The default path uses an OpenAI embedding key, but a fully free/local alternative is built into the labs: Ollama + nomic-embed-text (768-dim) behind the same EmbeddingService interface. No OpenAI key required. See Day 2 → Before You Begin for the Ollama setup.

Machine prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK — dotnet --version should report 10.x
• Node.js 18+ — node --version
• Git
• VS Code (used Day 1, Section 3) — or JetBrains Rider/IntelliJ with the Claude Code plugin
• Docker Desktop, running — Day 2 needs it for Qdrant (RAG) and TestContainers (CI tests). Pull qdrant/qdrant during Day 2's morning if you haven't already.
• Windows users: WSL2 — Claude Code's full feature set (hooks, subagents) requires WSL2. All terminal commands run inside WSL2.
• (Optional, free path) Ollama installed with nomic-embed-text pulled — only if you don't want to use an OpenAI key on Day 2

Install & authenticate Claude Code (Day 1)

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude --version        # verify
claude                  # browser OAuth (Claude.ai subscription) — recommended
# or set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for API-based auth

Get your Anthropic API key (Day 2)

1. Sign in at console.anthropic.com.
2. Create an API key. Confirm your account has trial credit, or add a payment method.
3. Store the key in user-secrets (don't commit it):

# Done in the BookTracker.Api project on Day 2
dotnet user-secrets init --project BookTracker.Api
dotnet user-secrets set "Anthropic:ApiKey" "sk-ant-..." --project BookTracker.Api

Clone BookTracker

git clone https://github.com/intelligentlydev/workshop-booktracker
cd workshop-booktracker
dotnet build        # confirm the solution compiles

See BookTracker for the solution layout, and your day's Before You Begin for the exact morning-of steps: Day 1 · Day 2.

A quick cost note

Typical Day 2 API usage for the workshop is well under the trial credit. The Models & Cost Reference on Day 2 explains the levers — prompt caching, Haiku for mechanical work, batch processing — that keep ongoing usage cheap.

If something doesn't install

See Troubleshooting before flagging it on the morning — most of the install issues people hit (WSL2 paths, claude not found, API 401) have one-line fixes there.