Prerequisites

What We Assume

This course is designed for experienced developers. Before you begin, you should be comfortable with:

  • A Unix terminal (bash or zsh) — you will spend significant time on the command line

  • Git and GitHub — branching, committing, pull requests

  • Python basics — functions, classes, decorators, virtual environments

  • REST API familiarity — HTTP methods, status codes, JSON payloads

  • Casual Claude Code experience — you have used Claude Code at least a few times and understand the basic interaction model

If any of these are unfamiliar, take time to fill the gaps before proceeding. The course moves fast and does not cover fundamentals.

Required Software

If you do not have Claude Code installed yet, follow the official installation guide at Claude Code Documentation.

Verify that the following tools are available on your system:

claude --version
python3 --version    # should be {python-version}.x
uv --version
node --version
psql --version
docker --version || podman --version

All commands should return a version number without errors. If any are missing, install them before continuing.

Install claude-code-transcripts

The claude-code-transcripts tool is used throughout the course for introspection exercises. It lets you extract and analyze real Claude Code session data.

Install it with pipx:

pipx install claude-code-transcripts

Verify the installation:

claude-transcripts --help

Postgres via Container (Optional)

If you do not have PostgreSQL installed locally, you can run it in a container. This gives you a clean, disposable database for the course project.

docker run -d \
  --name {project-name}-postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_USER={project-name} \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD={project-name} \
  -e POSTGRES_DB={project-name} \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  postgres:16

If you use Podman instead of Docker, substitute podman for docker in the command above.

Verify the database is running:

psql -h localhost -U {project-name} -d {project-name} -c "SELECT 1;"

Ready?

Your environment is set. Proceed to Module 1: The Agentic Loop to begin the course.