About this course
This is the course for a student who has already built something and wants to know how professionals actually work. Ten weeks in the terminal: agentic coding, version control, branches and pull requests, code review, and shipping features on a schedule against a real repository. Students stop being solo builders and start operating the way an engineering team does — writing an issue before writing code, reviewing a teammate's pull request, and defending their own design decisions in review. It is the most demanding thing we run, and the explain-back standard is correspondingly harsher: in bootcamp, a feature is not done until someone else can maintain it.
Is this the right fit?
- Who it’s for
- Students aged 14–19 who have already shipped something and want the professional workflow — the terminal, version control, and code review.
- Prerequisites
- One completed project, of any size, that the student can walk us through. Our Vibe Coding Course or AI App Building both satisfy this; so does anything they built on their own.
- Tools students use
- GitHub + Copilot (13+), ChatGPT/Codex (13+ with consent); Claude Code and Cursor for students 18+ only
What students walk away with
- Fluency in a terminal-first workflow rather than a browser IDE
- Git in practice: branches, commits that mean something, pull requests, and resolving conflicts
- The ability to review someone else's code and give specific, useful feedback
- Shipping features on a schedule against a shared repository
- A public GitHub history that shows real, reviewed work
What a session looks like
- 0:00
Standup
Each student states what shipped, what is blocked, and what they are doing next.
- 0:10
Code review
The group reviews one student's open pull request line by line. Author defends the decisions.
- 0:35
New technique
The week's skill taught live against the real repository, not a toy example.
- 1:00
Paired build
Students work in pairs on an issue while the coach moves between them.
- 1:25
Merge and assign
Approved work merges. The next week's issues get assigned.
- 1:30
Build lab (optional)
A 45-minute open block for finishing the week's issue with a coach available.
Curriculum
Week 1 — The terminal
The shell, the filesystem, and why professionals never left the command line.
Week 2 — Git from first principles
Commits, history, and writing a commit message someone else can read.
Week 3 — Branching and pull requests
Working on a shared repository without stepping on each other.
Week 4 — Agentic coding
Directing an agent across a multi-file codebase: scoping the task, constraining it, verifying the result.
Week 5 — Reading a codebase you didn't write
Navigating unfamiliar code, which is most of what the job actually is.
Week 6 — Code review
Giving and receiving specific feedback. Every student reviews and is reviewed.
Week 7 — Tests that catch things
Writing tests that fail for the right reason, and running them automatically.
Week 8 — Debugging under pressure
A deliberately broken build. Students diagnose it against the clock.
Week 9 — Deploy and observe
Shipping to production, then watching what happens and responding to it.
Week 10 — Final review
Each student presents a shipped, reviewed, tested feature and defends it.
What’s included
- 10 live small-group classes, capped at 6 students
- 10 optional build labs with a coach on call
- A shared team repository with real issues and pull requests
- Written code review on every pull request a student opens
- A public GitHub contribution history from the course
How to join
- Book a free consultation. We learn about your child, answer your questions, and recommend a starting point — no commitment, no pressure.
- We recommend a course and an age band after the call, based on your child’s experience and goals rather than a form they filled in.
- Reserve a seat when enrollment opens. Classes are capped at six, so bands fill in the order consultations are booked.
Questions first? Email hello@redwoodacademy.ai and a coach will reply.
Frequently asked questions
Can my teen use Claude Code in this course?
Only if they are 18 or over. Claude Code and Cursor both require users to be 18+ under their terms of service, and Anthropic began enforcing this actively in 2026. Students aged 14–17 do the same agentic workflow on GitHub Copilot and Codex, which permit 13+ with parental consent. We will not put a minor on an account they cannot legally hold.
Is this too advanced for a 14-year-old?
Not if they have shipped something. The prerequisite is a completed project, not an age — a 14-year-old who has deployed an app will do better here than a 17-year-old who has only watched tutorials.
Do students need to buy tool subscriptions?
No. Tooling is provided through school-owned accounts with per-student usage caps. Students never hold raw API keys.
What does my teen have at the end?
A public GitHub history showing reviewed pull requests against a shared repository, a shipped feature they can demo, and a written review record from their coach.