The exercise repo for the AI Coding Crash Course — a self-paced course from Matt Pocock on AI-assisted engineering with Claude Code.

This is a full-stack course platform (think a mini Udemy) built with React Router, TypeScript, SQLite, and Drizzle ORM. Throughout the course, you'll use Claude Code to explore, extend, and refactor this codebase — learning real engineering workflows for AI-assisted development along the way.

Prerequisites

• Node.js v22+ (ships with npm v10+)
• Claude Code CLI installed
• A Claude Pro or Max subscription

Getting Started

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run database migrations and seed data
npm run db:migrate
npm run db:seed

# Start the dev server
npm run dev

The app will be running at http://localhost:5173.

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start the development server
npm run build	Build for production
npm run test	Run tests with Vitest
npm run test:watch	Run tests in watch mode
npm run typecheck	Type-check the project
npm run db:migrate	Run database migrations
npm run db:seed	Seed the database
npm run reset <slug>	Reset your repo to a lesson checkpoint
npm run cherry-pick <slug>	Cherry-pick a lesson's solution

Course Structure

The crash course works through this codebase in six sections:

1. Before We Start — Repo setup, how to run the exercises, database migrations, and making your first change.
2. Concepts — The core mental models for AI-assisted coding — reference material, no code changes.
3. Getting to Know Claude Code — Sessions, context, permissions, IDE integration, and subagents.
4. Fundamentals — Exploring the codebase, building features, and using skills (grill-me, handoff) to drive real work.
5. Steering — Steering the agent with AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md, custom skills, and pruning context.
6. Planning — Writing a spec, turning it into multi-phase tickets, and implementing it phase by phase.

Navigating Lessons

Each lesson that involves code has a checkpoint commit on the live-run-through branch, addressed by its slug. To jump to any point:

# Reset to a lesson's checkpoint
npm run reset try-the-cli

# Cherry-pick a lesson's solution if you want to skip ahead
npm run cherry-pick course-star-ratings

Tech Stack

• Framework: React Router v7 with SSR
• Language: TypeScript 5.9
• Database: SQLite via Drizzle ORM
• Styling: Tailwind CSS 4 + shadcn/ui
• Testing: Vitest
• Build: Vite 7
• Real-time: Ably for live presence

License

This repository is for students of the AI Coding Crash Course. All rights reserved.