# Setup Claude Code and Codex

Let's get our environments ready for the workshop.

## Using Codespaces

Visit the following URL to create your Codespace:

<https://github.com/codespaces/new/simonw/nicar-2026-coding-agents>

If you have a paid **ChatGPT Plus/Pro** or **Claude Pro/Max** subscription, you're all set - just click "Create codespace" and you'll be able to authenticate when you run `claude` or `codex` for the first time.

If you **don't** have a paid subscription, we'll distribute an OpenAI API key at the workshop. You can paste it in when you run `codex` for the first time - it will prompt you for an API key.

We'll also be sharing Claude Code guest passes which will give you a week of temporary access to that tool. Hopefully we can scrape together enough of these from workshop participants for everyone to get one!

Click "Create codespace" and wait for it to finish setting up. This may take a couple of minutes the first time so kick this off as soon as possible.

## YOLO mode

YOLO mode, otherwise known as "dangerously skip permissions", is a mode where the coding agent runs without asking you for permission for every action it wants to take.

This is *much more productive* but is, as the name suggests, dangerous!

One of the reasons to use Codespaces for this workshop is so we can run YOLO mode without worrying about the agents damaging our machines if something goes wrong.

I've set up these aliases for YOLO mode in the container:

```bash
claude-yolo
codex-yolo
```
Under the hood these run:

```bash
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions
codex --yolo
```

## Local setup

If you'd prefer to work on your own machine instead of Codespaces, you'll need to install three things:

**uv** - install from [docs.astral.sh](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/). All of our examples use `uvx` to run tools, which means you don't need to set up virtual environments or install anything other than `uv` itself.

**Claude Code** - install from [code.claude.com](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup). Requires Node.js. Run `claude` to launch it and authenticate with your Anthropic account.

**Codex CLI** - install from [github.com/openai/codex](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/docs/install.md). Also requires Node.js. Run `codex` to launch it and authenticate with your OpenAI account or API key.

## Installing Datasette

We'll use [Datasette](https://datasette.io/) throughout the workshop to browse our databases. Install it with:

```bash
uv tool install 'datasette>=1.0a25'
```

This installs `datasette` as a command you can run from anywhere:

```bash
datasette demo.db
```

Installing it this way also lets you add plugins:

```bash
datasette install datasette-table-diagram
```