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Before you start.

Accounts, age & consent — the part most “teach kids to code with AI” plans skip, handled 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 it before day one — before you've got 20 teenagers in a room expecting to build something.

The hard constraint

Anthropic requires Claude / Claude Code accounts to be 18+. This is a real terms-of-service rule, not a suggestion. App stores (Apple/Google) can report a likely-under-18 status under new US state laws, and accounts believed to belong to a minor can be restricted or closed — even if an age was entered incorrectly at signup. See Anthropic's minimum age requirement.

Your students are 15–17, so they cannot each have their own Claude Code account. An adult owns and supervises the AI account. Build the course around that fact instead of pretending it isn't there.

The other services are friendlier but not all open. Here's where each one stands 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+, and under-18 needs a parent/guardian's permission for AI features (see Vercel's AI product terms). OK for most of your group with consent.
  • Supabase — 13+. OK with consent.
  • Resend — account/age terms apply; treat as adult-owned. Use ONE instructor-owned account with a verified domain.

Rules change — re-check the linked pages before each cohort.

Three ways to run it compliantly (pick one)

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, it can get the account killed mid-class, and it's a bad lesson to teach. Model the honest path.

Consent & logistics checklist

  • Parental/guardian consent form covering GitHub, Vercel, Supabase, and AI-tool use (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 plan or API key — Claude Code is not on the free Claude plan. Pro is $20/month and is enough to start. If many students share heavily and hit limits, Max ($100/$200) raises the ceiling. A pay-as-you-go Anthropic API key works too (see Cost summary).
  • 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

  • Claude Code: the AI account needs a paid plan (the free Claude plan excludes Claude Code). You have three compliant options for the instructor's account:
    • Claude Pro — $20/mo. Required minimum; enough to start.
    • 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.
  • 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, see Module 4).
  • Resend: Free $0 (100 emails/day, 3,000/month — plenty for a class).
  • GitHub: Free $0.

For the instructor

Do a full dry run of the whole project on the exact machines/network the students will use. School networks love to block ports, terminals, and OAuth pop-ups. Find that out alone, not in front of 20 teenagers.

Installing Claude Code

How you install Claude Code determines whether you need Node at all:

  • Native installer (now recommended) — no Node required. Use curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash, or Homebrew / WinGet. These need no Node at all.
  • npm method — needs Node. Only npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code requires Node 18+. If you go this route, install the current Node LTS.

Source: Claude Code setup docs.

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