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RUNQuick start

For instructors.

Run models, the consent checklist, the cost summary, and the dry-run gotchas — everything to handle before day one.

This is the part most "teach kids to code with AI" plans skip, and it's the one that can actually shut you down. Handle the accounts, ages, and consent before day one — this page is your pre-flight checklist for the adult running the course.

For the full compliance detail, read Before you start first; this page is the practical quick-start.

Concepts

The hard constraint

Anthropic requires Claude / Claude Code accounts to be 18+. That's a terms-of-service rule, not a suggestion. App stores (Apple/Google) can report a likely-under-18 status under new US state laws, and an account believed to belong to a minor can be restricted or closed — even if an age was entered incorrectly at signup. Your students are 15–17, so they cannot each have their own Claude Code account. Build the course around that fact instead of pretending it isn't there: an adult owns and supervises the AI account; students own their projects. (See Anthropic's minimum age requirement.)

The other services are friendlier but not all open. Minimum ages and notes for a 15–17 class:

  • Claude / Claude Code — 18+. Students can't own accounts. Use a supervised, instructor-owned setup (below).
  • GitHub — 13+. OK with parental consent. Used for code + deploys.
  • Vercel — 16+; under-18 needs parent/guardian permission for AI features. OK for most of your group with consent.
  • Supabase — 13+ (not intended for under-13). OK with consent.
  • Resend — account/age terms apply; treat as adult-owned. Use ONE instructor-owned account with a verified domain.

Exact numbers and links are in the sources below. Rules change — re-check before each cohort.

Three ways to run it compliantly (pick one)

  1. Instructor-piloted (recommended for total beginners). You drive Claude Code on the projector. Students read every line, predict what it'll do, and tell you what to prompt. Counter-intuitively this is great pedagogy — it forces them to articulate intent instead of button-mashing. Best for the first 2–3 modules.

  2. Supervised stations. A few instructor-authenticated machines (your Anthropic login) at stations. Students pair up and rotate. You're the adult present and accountable for the account. Pairing also halves your support load and is how real engineers work.

  3. Instructor-authenticated, student-personalized. Each student gets their own GitHub/Vercel/Supabase logins (with parental consent), but Claude Code always runs under your adult Anthropic account on shared/managed machines. Students own their project; you own the AI account.

Don't do: have students create Claude accounts with fake birthdays. It violates the terms, the account can be restricted or closed mid-class, and it's a bad lesson to teach. Model the honest path.

Student activity

Consent & logistics checklist

  • Parental/guardian consent form covering GitHub, Vercel, Supabase, and AI-tool use (your school may have a template).
  • Decide your run model (1, 2, or 3 above) and provision accounts before day one.
  • One instructor Anthropic account with a paid path — Claude Code is not on the free Claude plan. See the cost summary for the three compliant options.
  • One instructor Resend account + a domain you control for sending email (a cheap domain is worth it; shared sandbox sending is limited).
  • Everything else runs on free tiers: Vercel Hobby, Supabase Free, GitHub Free. Budget ≈ the Claude plan + a domain.
  • Set ground rules: no real personal data in student databases, no secrets in code, be kind in anything AI-generated and public.

Cost summary

What you actually pay for is the AI account and a domain. Everything else is free-tier.

The AI account (one of three compliant paths)

Claude Code needs a paid Anthropic plan or key — the free Claude plan excludes Claude Code. Pick whichever fits a single instructor account:

  • Claude Pro — $20/mo. Enough to start. The simplest option.
  • Claude Max — $100/$200/mo. Raises the usage ceiling if many students share heavily and hit limits.
  • Pay-as-you-go Anthropic API key (Console billing). Claude Code also works with an API key billed through the Anthropic Console — often cheaper for a single instructor account, and it's the same "API key" idea students meet again in Module 7.

Everything else (free)

  • Vercel — Hobby $0. Non-commercial/personal use — perfect for a class. Don't monetize student sites on it.
  • Supabase — Free $0. Note: free projects pause after ~7 days of inactivity — a real gotcha mid-course (un-pause from the dashboard, ~1 min cold start).
  • Resend — Free $0. 100 emails/day, 3,000/month — plenty for a class. Domain verification needed to send as your own address.
  • GitHub — Free $0.

Where it breaks

These are the dry-run gotchas that bite if you find them in front of 20 teenagers instead of alone.

  • School networks block things. They love to block ports, terminals, and OAuth pop-ups. Test the whole flow on the exact machines and network the students will use, and allowlist the domains in advance.
  • Node version (only matters for the npm install method). Node 18+ is required only if you install Claude Code via npm (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code) — in which case install the current Node LTS. The now-recommended install is the native installer (curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash) or Homebrew/WinGet, which need no Node at all. Source: Claude Code setup.
  • Can't sign in to Claude Code. Needs a paid plan or API key (see cost summary); the free Claude plan excludes Claude Code. Check the run model.
  • Supabase free project paused after ~7 days idle. If you teach weekly, projects may be asleep at the start of class — un-pause from the dashboard. Warn students so it's not "my site is broken."
  • Emails land in spam / don't send. Pre-verify your sending domain (DNS records can take time to propagate). Instructor-owned and set up once, in advance.
  • Secrets pushed to GitHub. The #1 beginner mistake. Make .env / .gitignore a ritual from Module 4. If a key leaks, rotate it.

Check for understanding

Before day one, confirm you can answer these for your own setup:

  1. Which of the three run models are you using, and whose Anthropic account is the AI running under?
  2. Have you provisioned and consent-covered every account a student will touch?
  3. Did the full project actually deploy end-to-end on the real classroom machines and network?

For the instructor

Do a full dry run of the whole project on the exact machines and network the students will use, alone, before day one. School networks block ports, terminals, and OAuth pop-ups — find that out yourself, not in front of the class.

A few module-specific notes worth pre-loading:

  • Module 2 (deploy) is the highest-risk module for setup friction and the highest-reward for morale. Budget extra time. If accounts or network are shaky, fall back to instructor-piloted: you deploy one site live, then each student personalizes via your station. Getting one real URL on screen still lands the hook.
  • Module 4 (database) reliably runs long because of accounts + keys + the security concept. Consider splitting it across two sessions. The secrets-hygiene lesson is one of the most valuable real-world things in the whole course — don't rush it.
  • Module 6 (email) needs the domain verified and the Resend key ready in advance; DNS propagation is not something you want 20 teens waiting on. Consider providing the key via your run model rather than each student making a Resend account.
  • Module 7 (AI feature) is where the pay-as-you-go API key reappears for students. Keep the feature tiny, the instructor owns the key, and watch usage for cost surprises.

Pacing: the course is modular, so there's no fixed clock. Rough guide: each module is one 60–90 min session, but Modules 2, 4, and 7 often run long. It's fine to split any module across two sessions. Shipping beats finishing the syllabus.

Sources & current limits (verify before each cohort)

Current as of June 2026. Pricing, free-tier numbers, and age rules change often — re-check before each new group.

Age / terms:

Tools, install & cost:

← All modules