Get Started

This workshop runs entirely in the cloud using GitHub Codespaces. There is nothing to install on your laptop — you only need a web browser, a free GitHub account, and a Discord account.

Quick checklist

Five things to do before the first session:

  1. Get on the workshop Discord and claim your API key with /claim
  2. Sign in to GitHub (create a free account if you don’t have one)
  3. Create your copy of the workshop repo
  4. Add the API key as a Codespaces secret on GitHub
  5. Launch your codespace

Each item below walks through one of these steps in detail. You can also step through the slides one at a time.

Instructions in slide form (long form below)

Make slides full screen

The order matters: claim your key in Discord, create your repo, add the key as a Codespaces secret targeting that repo, then launch the codespace. A codespace launched before the secret is in place won’t see the key until you restart it.

1. Claim your OpenRouter API key in Discord

Workshop API keys are handed out by a bot in our Discord server.

Join the server

Open the workshop Discord invite and accept it.

Get the Participant role

Ask a TA or an instructor (in the server or in person) to give you the Participant role. The bot only hands out keys to people who have it.

Run /claim

In any channel, type /claim and press Enter. The bot replies right in the channel, but its message is visible only to you. The reply contains your personal OpenRouter API key and your daily budget. Copy the key now — you’ll paste it into GitHub in step 4.

Two other commands you may want later:

  • /key — show your key again if you lose track of it
  • /usage — see how much of today’s budget you’ve used (it resets at midnight UTC)

2. Sign in to GitHub

Before you create your repo or click any buttons on GitHub, make sure you are signed in. Go to github.com/login and sign in, or create a free account if you don’t have one yet.

This matters because GitHub hides the “Use this template” and “Code” buttons from signed-out visitors — if you’re not logged in, the next steps simply won’t show the buttons described below.

3. Create your own copy of the workshop environment

The workshop environment lives in a template repository. You’ll start by making your own copy of it.

Open the template

Open the participant environment repo on GitHub and click the green “Use this template” button near the top right.

GitHub repo page with the 'Use this template' button highlighted in the top right

Create a new repository

In the dropdown, choose “Create a new repository”.

Use this template dropdown with 'Create a new repository' highlighted

Name it

Give the repository a name (for example, workshop-2026) and click the green “Create repository” button at the bottom of the form. The owner can stay as your username.

New repository form with the Repository name field highlighted

4. Add your OpenRouter API key as a Codespaces secret

Store the key from step 1 as a Codespaces secret before you launch your codespace — that way the codespace has the key from the moment it boots.

Open your Codespaces settings

Go directly to your Codespaces settings page.

Click “New secret”

Scroll to “Codespace user secrets” and click “New secret”.

Codespace user secrets section with the New secret button highlighted

Fill in and save the secret

In the form:

  • Name: OPENROUTER_API_KEY (exact spelling, all caps)
  • Value: paste the API key the Discord bot gave you in step 1
  • Repository access: click “Select repositories” and choose the repository you created in step 3

Then click “Add secret” at the bottom.

New secret form with the Name field, Repository access dropdown, and Add secret button highlighted

5. Launch a codespace

Go back to your new repository’s page. Click the green “Code” button, switch to the “Codespaces” tab, and click “Create codespace on main”.

Repository page with the Code button and Create codespace on main button highlighted in the Codespaces tab

The first build takes around 10 minutes or more — GitHub is provisioning a container and installing R, Quarto, the workshop’s R packages, and the Pi coding agent. After this first build, reopening the codespace is fast.

6. Open a notebook

Once the codespace has finished building:

  1. Use the file explorer on the left to find the starter Quarto notebooks (files ending in .qmd).
  2. Open one to start working. You can edit text and code cells directly in the browser.

7. Meet Pi in the terminal

Your codespace includes Pi, an AI coding assistant, in the integrated terminal. We will use Pi for the first couple of days; later in the workshop we will switch to Claude Code.

  1. Open the integrated terminal (Terminal → New Terminal, or use the keyboard shortcut).
  2. Start Pi by typing pi and pressing Enter.
  3. Ask it questions in plain language — it can read your notebook, explain code, and help you make changes.

Codespace with the integrated terminal open and the pi command typed at the prompt

You are now ready to begin the workshop. If you get stuck, ask an instructor or a teaching assistant.