A comprehensive training presentation and hands-on lab exercises for using Claude Code in professional software development workflows.

This course teaches professional developers how to:

• Create complete projects from scratch using Claude Code
• Navigate and understand complex codebases with AI assistance
• Implement the "branch-first" workflow for safe experimentation
• Generate comprehensive tests and documentation
• Refactor legacy code and modernize applications
• Use advanced Claude Code features like Plan Mode and custom commands
• Extend capabilities with Skills and Plugins for specialized workflows
• Customize output styles for different learning preferences
• Understand and leverage subagents for complex multi-step tasks
• Implement sophisticated automation with hooks and event-driven workflows

This repository contains all the materials for the Claude Code Training course:

• slides.md: The main Slidev presentation with interactive demos
• lab_handout.md: Progressive hands-on labs from beginner to advanced
• exercises.md: Instructor-led demos and exercises using real codebases
• half-day-outline.md: Condensed outline for half-day training sessions
• events/: Event-specific descriptions and course configurations
• custom-commands.md: Showcase of powerful custom slash commands for workflow automation
• commands/: Ready-to-use custom command files for students
• skills-and-plugins/: Examples of custom skills and plugin configurations
• hooks-examples/: Advanced hook patterns for workflow automation
• exercises/: A collection of diverse sample projects:
  • Python: Flask web app (weather-app) and legacy API (flask-api)
  • JavaScript/TypeScript: Interactive web application (lyrics-trainer)
  • Java: Modern Spring Boot service (certificate-service) and legacy Grails app (shopping-service)

1. Install dependencies:

   pnpm install

2. Start the presentation:

   pnpm dev

3. Open your browser at http://localhost:3030

• Claude Code installed and configured
• API key set: export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-key"
• Development environment for Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Java
• VS Code (optional, for IDE integration demonstrations)
• Docker (optional, for MCP and containerized workflow examples)

The lab_handout.md contains six progressive labs:

0. Project Creation from Scratch - Build a lyrics display app (recreates the lyrics-trainer origin story)
1. Claude Code Basics - Interface and project exploration
2. Code Exploration - Understanding complex codebases
3. Test Generation - Automated testing with AI
4. Documentation Creation - Professional documentation workflows
5. Legacy Code Refactoring - Modernizing Grails/Groovy applications
6. Advanced Workflows - Plan Mode, Skills, Plugins, Output Styles, Hooks, CLAUDE.md, and custom commands

Students can explore and use pre-built custom slash commands:

• Copy commands from commands/ to ~/.claude/commands/
• See custom-commands.md for detailed explanations and usage examples
• Commands include Java modernization, Spring generators, security reviews, and more

The exercises.md file contains detailed instructor guidance with specific prompts and a progressive story arc using the flask-api project as the primary demonstration vehicle.

• Branch-First Workflow: Emphasizes safe experimentation through Git branching
• Practical Learning: Real-world projects across multiple languages and frameworks
• Progressive Complexity: From simple tasks to advanced enterprise workflows
• Best Practices: Professional development patterns and security considerations
• Extensibility First: Skills and plugins provide persistent, reusable domain expertise
• Adaptive Learning: Output styles and hooks adapt to diverse learning contexts
• Intelligent Automation: Subagents handle specialized tasks automatically for optimal performance

Ken Kousen

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: kousenit.com
• Course: Professional Claude Code Training