The workshop

VS Code is the room. Agents are guests.

VS Code is a free app from Microsoft where your project files live. You can install many AI guests. You do not owe any of them the house.

Setup

Five things. Then you can launch an agent.

1

Download VS Code

Go to code.visualstudio.com. It is free. Install it like any other app. This is not Visual Studio — that is a different, heavier Microsoft product.

2

Make a project folder, then open it

Create a folder on your computer. Put PROJECT.md in it (the top of the folder — the root — not buried in a subfolder). In VS Code: File → Open Folder. The title bar should show that folder name. That folder is your working directory.

When you launch an agent it will often ask permission to read this folder. That is expected. You are giving it the room, not the keys to production. Do not approve deploy, file deletes, or secret printing unless you meant to.

3

Open a terminal

Terminal → New Terminal. Full picture walkthrough: Terminal.

4

Launch one guest

Grok Build (grok) and Codex (codex) are the two this lab teaches in parallel. Claude Code is another guest with its own extension. Copilot may already be whispering in the terminal — that is still a different guest.

5

Five things you actually need in VS Code

  • Explorer (left) — the file list
  • The editor (middle) — the file you are looking at
  • Terminal (bottom) — where agents launch
  • Ctrl+S / Cmd+S — save
  • The browser — where you test what was built

You do not need to “learn VS Code.” You need those five.