Your working folder for 6.8500

This is the starter for your working folder, 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research. You download it once, in Homework 1 (install and sign in), and keep it on your computer for the whole semester. From then on, every lab puts its files in its own folder in labs/, so nothing ends up scattered over your disk.

What is inside

6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research/
├── README.md          this file
├── CLAUDE.md          rules the AI reads at the start of every session in this folder
├── .gitignore         what git never backs up: your API keys, downloaded PDFs, your paper
├── .github/           the screenshots in this README
├── .claude/
│   ├── settings.json  course settings for the AI (no memory between sessions)
│   └── skills/        your skills, one folder each; the AI uses them on its own
├── homework/          one folder per homework that makes files
├── labs/              one folder per lab (map in labs/README.md)
└── psets/             the pset starters go here

Names that start with a dot (.gitignore, .claude) are hidden. To see them:

• On a Mac: in Finder, press Cmd+Shift+. (period).
• On Windows: in File Explorer, choose View → Show → Hidden items.

Set it up (Homework 1)

1. Download it. Open github.com/HCIELab/student-folder-template, click the green Code button, and choose Download ZIP. You do not need a GitHub account.

2. Unzip, rename and place it. Unzip student-folder-template-main.zip (on a Mac, double-click it; on Windows, right-click it and choose Extract All). Rename the folder student-folder-template-main to 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research and move it wherever you want to keep your course work, for example your Documents folder. Right inside 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research you should see README.md, CLAUDE.md, homework, labs and psets, not another folder.

3. Open the Code tab in the Claude app. Check that you are in the class account: the lower left shows your name and the class organization. Then click the </> icon at the top left to switch from chat to code.

   

   

4. Save your folder as an environment, once. Under the message box, click the environment menu (This computer) and choose New environment.

   

   On the Local tab, name it 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research. Under Folders, click Add and pick your 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research folder. Leave Worktree unchecked, so the AI works in this folder and not in a hidden copy of it. Click Create environment. From now on, choose the 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research environment for every session of this class.

   

5. Check that the AI works in your folder. Start a session in the 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research environment and ask:

   Hello, what is in the folder?
   

   The answer looks something like this (yours will differ):

   This is your 6.8500 working folder. At the top: README.md (how to set it up), CLAUDE.md (rules for me), .gitignore, and .claude/ with the course settings and an empty skills/ folder. Then homework/, labs/ (one folder per lab, lab01-research-areas to lab15-project-pages) and psets/. The folders are still empty apart from a .gitkeep file each.

   Then check that it works in the folder itself and knows the course rules. Ask:

   Without opening any file: what is the full path of the folder you work in,
   and which rules do you follow here?
   

   The answer looks something like this:

   /Users/yourname/Documents/6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research (on Windows: C:\Users\yourname\Documents\6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research). I save files only in the lab folder your prompt names, never print or commit an API key, check facts about papers against a source, and leave git to you.

   You are done when the first answer lists the template's files and folders (README.md, CLAUDE.md, homework/, labs/ and psets/), and the second gives a path that ends in 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research and at least one rule, such as never printing keys.

Rules

• One folder per lab. Each lab names its folder in labs/. Ask the AI to save its files there.
• Keys stay private. Never paste an API key into a chat or into a file you hand in. .gitignore already covers semantic-scholar-key.txt in case you ever put this folder under git.
• Back it up your way. Nothing backs this folder up for you. Use git, your computer's own backup, or both; the AI edits files here, so a way to go back to an earlier version helps. .gitignore already keeps your keys, downloaded PDFs and your paper out of git.
• Your paper is separate. labs/lab04-uist-paper (from Homework 2a) is its own git repository, linked to Overleaf. Overleaf keeps it.
• CLAUDE.md is yours. Add your own rules for the AI at the end of it.

If you get stuck	Fix
You cannot see .gitignore or .claude	They are hidden; see above.
6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research has only one folder in it, student-folder-template-main	The zip was unzipped into a folder of the same name. Move the inner folder out, delete the empty outer one, and rename the inner one to 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research.
The app asks you to upgrade, or the lower left shows a different organization	You are in your personal account. Click your name in the lower left and choose the class organization.
There is no </> icon at the top left	Update the Claude app and restart it.
The AI cannot find semantic-scholar-key.txt	The file got a different name: semantic-scholar-key.txt.txt (Windows hides the second ending) or semantic-scholar-key.rtf (Mac TextEdit without Make Plain Text). Save it again as plain text with the exact name.
The AI says it has no access to a folder or to files	You are in the Chat or Cowork tab. Open the Code tab and start a Local session in the 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research environment.
The AI lists files that are not from the starter, or the path ends in another folder name	The session is on a different folder. Start a new session and select 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research itself, not a folder inside it.
The path ends in .claude/worktrees/..., or the AI's edits do not show up in your folder	The session was started with the worktree option on, so the AI works in a hidden copy. Start a new session in the 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research environment with it off.
The AI cannot name any rule without opening a file	CLAUDE.md is missing from the top of 6.8500-Interactive-Tech-Research. Copy it again from the starter.