Going Live

Instructor: the room controls for this activity, and the room display for the projector.

Friday, September 11. In pairs today, one partner for the whole hour, both of you building.

Why Today

Your site lives on your laptop. Close the lid and it’s gone; nobody can see it but you. Today it gets an address. That’s the whole first task, and it comes before everything else, because everything you make this semester is going to hang off this site, and none of it counts as made until someone else can open it.

Then, with whatever time is left: making it yours. Your agent can produce a hundred competent designs, and it will, if you let it. What it can’t do is decide what’s you. A site that looks like every other generated site says nothing about the person, and the person is the point.

Before You Pair

You should see a change to your site within seconds without putting it online first: a local preview, what a developer calls a local development setup. If every change means redeploying, ask your agent before you pair:

Can you set things up so I see changes to my site on my own laptop right away, without deploying?

It knows how, and it takes a minute.

Pair Up

Open the pair page. It shows you a code. Give it to your partner, or type theirs. Nobody is observing today: you both build, side by side, each with your own agent, for the whole period. Three is fine; so is pairing with me. If you come in late, pair with whoever’s waiting.

Getting Online

Ask your agent to get your site onto the internet. It already knows what today is for (every word of what it knows is below): a host that’s free or nearly free, that serves plain pages now and a server later if you build one, and that redeploys in about a minute so you can keep changing things. Let it choose, and ask it why it chose that.

Get a domain of your own. Ten to twenty dollars a year; talk to me if that’s a problem. It’s worth it because you’ll hang everything else you make this semester off it, one subdomain per project, whatever host each one lands on. If the domain isn’t ready today, the host’s own address is fine for now.

When the site loads at a public address, your agent tells the course, by fetching a link only it has, and the course checks the address from outside. If that goes wrong, your site’s page takes the address by hand and tells you why it didn’t load. Then the real test: your partner opens it on their phone, off the wifi.

Your Partner

Your partner is doing the same thing beside you, and your pair page shows you their conversation with their agent, a few seconds behind, the way it did in pair prompting. Look over now and then. Their address shows up on your page the moment the course has checked it; yours shows up on theirs.

And your agent will nudge you. Not every turn, and not often: a few times in the hour at most, and only when something happened. It hears when your partner’s site goes online, when their agent has just finished a big piece of work, and when they’ve gone quiet. When it does, it ends a reply with a line marked Course TA:, something like Your partner Priya just did something interesting. Go find out, and tell me about it. That line is from the course, not from your agent, and the right answer is to turn to your partner. Then tell your agent what you found out, in your own words. The course may check what you say against what your partner’s agent actually did, and your agent may pass back what the course made of it. All of this stops when the session closes.

Making It Yours

Once your site is up, your agent’s job changes: it will start by asking about you. What you care about, what you’d want a stranger to notice first, who the site is for. Answer honestly; it’s not a form. Then ask it what impression the site makes on it right now, and ask your partner what they noticed first. One change, a look, then the next. A redesign in one message usually gets you a different generic site.

What Your Agent Knows Today

Everything the course adds to your agent’s context today is here, word for word, with the parts that differ per person in brackets. The first note goes in at the end of every request your agent makes while the session is open; the “Right now” lines are added to one request each, rarely. Your agent never sees any of it as coming from you. This is disclosure, and it’s also the best example we have so far of setting context for an agent: notice that it says what’s true, not what to do.

Until your address validates

Course note (context for you; the student’s request comes first): Today’s class is Going Live. This student is in a course about making software by talking to AI; they have never written code and won’t. Their personal website runs only on this laptop so far. The first task of the day is the site reachable at a public address: a host that is free or nearly so, serves plain pages now and a server later if a project needs one, and redeploys in about a minute so they can keep changing things; plus a local preview that shows a change within seconds, if there isn’t one yet. The course strongly suggests a domain of their own (ten to twenty dollars a year; the instructor covers it for anyone who asks), because subdomains of it will hold everything else they make this semester, whatever host each thing ends up on; a host’s own address is fine for today if the domain isn’t ready. When the site loads at a public address, the course would like to know it: fetching (a link only your agent has)?url=https://… from the shell checks it from outside and keeps it, and the reply says whether it loaded and can be passed on to the student. (your partner’s name) is doing the same thing beside them on their own laptop with their own agent; the course will say when something of theirs changes.

Once it has

Course note (context for you; the student’s request comes first): Today’s class is Going Live, and this student’s site is online at (your address) (the course checked; it loads). The second task, for whatever time is left, is making it unmistakably theirs. The room was told at the start: an agent can produce a hundred competent designs, and what it can’t do is decide what’s yours; a site that looks like every generated site says nothing about the person. The student has been told their agent will start by asking about them: what they care about, what they’d want a stranger to notice first, who the site is for; and that it will say plainly what impression the site makes on it now. (your partner’s name) is beside them and is a stranger’s eyes; what (your partner’s name) notices first is the useful question. One change, a look, then the next tends to go better than a redesign in one message.

When your partner’s site goes online

Right now: (your partner’s name)’s site went online (how long ago) at (their address), and the student hasn’t seen it yet. The course TA has a line for the student: “Your partner (your partner’s name)’s site just went online at (their address). Ask them for a tour, and open it here.” A reply that ends with that line, marked Course TA:, keeps the two voices apart.

When both are online

Right now: both sites are online, (your partner’s name)’s as of (how long ago) at (their address). The course TA has a line for the student: “Both your sites are online now: yours at (your address), and (your partner’s name)’s at (their address). Trade addresses and look at each other’s.” A reply that ends with that line, marked Course TA:, keeps the two voices apart.

When their agent has just finished a big run

Right now: (your partner’s name) just did something worth hearing about ((how long ago): their agent finished a run of 12 steps on one request). The course TA has a line for the student: “Your partner (your partner’s name) just did something interesting. Go find out, and tell me about it.” A reply that ends with that line, marked Course TA:, keeps the two voices apart. Whatever the student says back goes to the course as their account.

When they’re back after a quiet spell

Right now: (your partner’s name) just did something worth hearing about ((how long ago): they’re back after 6 quiet minutes). The course TA has a line for the student: “Your partner (your partner’s name) just did something interesting. Go find out, and tell me about it.” A reply that ends with that line, marked Course TA:, keeps the two voices apart. Whatever the student says back goes to the course as their account.

When they’ve gone quiet

Right now: (your partner’s name)’s agent hasn’t heard from them in 6 minutes. The course TA has a line for the student: “(your partner’s name)’s agent hasn’t heard from them in 6 minutes. Worth a look over the shoulder: stuck, or done?” A reply that ends with that line, marked Course TA:, keeps the two voices apart.

When it’s been a while

Right now: it’s been a while since these two compared notes. The course TA has a line for the student: “What’s (your partner’s name) working on right now?” A reply that ends with that line, marked Course TA:, keeps the two voices apart.

After class, until Wednesday, if your address hasn’t validated

Course note (context for you; the student’s request comes first): This student is in a course about making software by talking to AI; they have never written code and won’t. Their task this week, from Friday’s class (Going Live), is their personal website reachable at a public address, if it isn’t yet: a host that is free or nearly so, serves plain pages now and a server later if a project needs one, and redeploys in about a minute so they can keep changing things; plus a local preview that shows a change within seconds, if there isn’t one yet. The course strongly suggests a domain of their own (ten to twenty dollars a year; the instructor covers it for anyone who asks), because subdomains of it will hold everything else they make this semester, whatever host each thing ends up on; a host’s own address is fine for today if the domain isn’t ready. When the site loads at a public address, the course would like to know it: fetching (a link only your agent has)?url=https://… from the shell checks it from outside and keeps it, and the reply says whether it loaded and can be passed on to the student.

The Last Few Minutes

I close the session. Then, as after every session: tell the course how it went, a short conversation rather than a form. It isn’t anonymous, and the page says so before you start.

If you’d rather see it than read it, there’s a walkthrough: the whole activity recorded end to end, both students’ screens and mine side by side.

Your partner can see your conversation with the agent from when you pair until the session ends; the pair page says so, and either of you can leave. Nothing is handed in.