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JUST TALK TO IT
THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL✕ YOU DON'T NEED
✕Perfect prompts or programmer vocabulary.
✕To know the answer before you ask.
✕To pretend you understand. Confusion is a valid prompt.
✓ TALK LIKE THIS
✓“I've never done this before. Walk me through it step by step.”
✓“I don't understand what you just said. Can you explain it more simply?”
✓“What does that command do before I run it?”
✓“Wait — I'm lost. Explain what we're doing and why.”
“I don't know,” “I'm confused,” and “what should I do next?” are good prompts. You can always ask Claude to slow down, explain a term, or suggest a simpler approach.
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BEFORE YOU ARRIVE
SETUP CHECKLIST01LEARN WHAT GITHUB ISDo GitHub's Hello World tutorial ↗. Repos, branches, commits, pull requests — no code, no command line, no install. Don't master it. Just make it un-scary.
02INSTALL CLAUDE CODEFollow the official Quickstart ↗. It covers installing, signing in, and opening your first project.
03TAKE IT FOR A SPINOpen any project and ask: “What does this project do?” Then ask it to make one small change. If that works, you're ready.
Want more reps? Browse Common Workflows ↗ and try whatever looks useful. You don't need to read the whole thing.
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DURING THE HACKATHON
STARTER PROMPTSGETTING STARTED
- →“Here's what I want to build: [your idea]. Help me figure out the simplest way to build it.”
- →“Before we start coding, make a plan with me.”
- →“Explain this project to me like I'm a beginner.”
- →“Build this one step at a time and explain what you're doing.”
WHEN YOU'RE STUCK
- →“I don't know what this error means. Help me figure it out.”
- →“Run the project and help me fix any errors.”
- →“Is there a simpler way to do this?”
- →“Test what we just built and look for problems.”
- →“We only have two hours left. What should we prioritize?”
You don't need to know how to build it before you start. Figuring that out is part of what Claude is for.
▚ THAT'S THE WHOLE LIST
IDEA + CURIOSITY + WORKING SETUP
Come with those three. We'll take it from there.