P
PROMPT_ENG
COURSE WORKSPACE

Starter kit

Fork this repo, clone your fork, and use it as your workspace for all four modules. By the end of the course, it will be a working AI-assisted journalism toolkit.

github.com/jamditis/mooc-starter-kit

Click Fork on GitHub to create your own copy, then clone it to your machine.

Fork on GitHub

Setup

1. Fork the repo

Go to github.com/jamditis/mooc-starter-kit and click Fork (top right). This creates your own copy on GitHub that you can push to.

2. Launch Claude Code from your home folder

You don't clone the repo yourself. Instead, you launch Claude Code from your home folder and let Claude clone the repo for you. Open a terminal and run:

$ cd ~
$ claude

This is the course's rule of thumb: the only things you ever type into your terminal yourself are cd and your agent's launch command (claude, gemini, or codex). Everything else happens inside the agent session.

3. Ask Claude to clone your fork

You're inside an active Claude Code session now. Paste this prompt, swapping in the URL of your fork:

Clone my fork of the course starter kit from
https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/mooc-starter-kit and
stay in that new folder so we can work on the course
exercises together. Read the CLAUDE.md file first so you
understand the setup.

Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your GitHub username. Claude will run the clone, change into the new folder, and read your CLAUDE.md automatically. From here on, every course exercise assumes you're inside your starter kit folder with a Claude Code session active.

What's inside

CLAUDE.md Module 1

Starter context file with placeholder sections. You'll customize it with your beat description, style rules, source standards, and terminology. Claude reads it at the start of every session.

sample-docs/ Module 1

Seven sample journalism documents: a press release, council minutes excerpt, interview notes, reader tip, news article, transcript, and a viral claim. Used in the Module 1 exercise to practice processing documents with and without context.

skills/ Module 2

Two skill templates. my-first-skill.md is a minimal template you can copy and customize. newsroom-style.md is a complete AP style skill with examples. You'll build your own custom skill in the Module 2 exercise.

scripts/ Module 3

Two starter shell scripts. summarize-article.sh processes a single file. batch-process.sh processes a folder of files. You'll build your own pipeline in the Module 3 exercise.

mcp-configs/ Module 4

An example MCP configuration file and a README explaining how it works. You'll use this as a reference when connecting Claude to your document archive in Module 4.

beat-archive/ Module 4

Empty folder where you'll add documents for the Module 4 RAG exercise. Once configured with MCP, Claude can search these documents and cite them in its answers.

Which module uses what

Module Week Files you'll work with
1 — From chat window to command line 1 CLAUDE.md, sample-docs/
2 — Custom skills 2 skills/, plus new skills you create
3 — CLI workflows 3 scripts/, plus pipelines you build
4 — Agents, tools, and data access 4 mcp-configs/, beat-archive/, final project

What you need first

> A computer with terminal access (Mac, Windows, or Linux)
> Node.js version 20 or higher
> A GitHub account (free)
> At least one AI CLI tool installed:

Gemini CLI

Free with Google account

Claude Code

Claude Max ($20/mo) or API key

Codex CLI

OpenAI API key