Part 2 · Practise

The Lab

Four hands-on stages in this browser. Make a real model call, extend a rule-based till until it breaks, write your own prompt, then score it against twenty real cases and watch the number move.

40 minutes · your own API key · about 1¢

First, connect a model

Three of the four steps below send your words to a real AI model and show you what comes back. For that the Lab needs a key of your own. It takes about two minutes, once.

  1. Open an account with DeepSeekSign up, then add a small amount of credit. One dollar is far more than this course will ever use.Get a key from DeepSeek
  2. Create a key and copy itIt is a long line of text beginning with sk-. Copy all of it — the site shows it to you only once.
  3. Paste it in the box belowIt stays in this browser tab and is erased the moment you close it.

🔒 Held in this browser tab only and erased when you close it. Sent to the model provider and nowhere else — your key never reaches this site's own analytics, which counts page views and nothing else.

Your first call

Before anything clever: prove the wire works. Ask the model anything, and watch what it costs — almost every tutorial hides that number.

The model's answer will appear here.