Museum Exhibit Studio starters

Choose the directory for your workshop language and work directly inside it. After you change into it, open that same folder in your editor (code . from inside it, or any other editor's open-folder command) and keep your terminal there. These starters contain pinned dependencies, an entrypoint laid out as named regions, a pre-built curator helper module, and a pre-built file holding the system messages. The helpers hold the plumbing you never have to write: the approved fact sets, their bounds, and the menu that lets an educator choose or type them, the pre-built approved_fact_lookup local tool that hands those facts to the curator, the pre-built approved_wikipedia_fact_lookup local tool that returns captured research and citations when usable research exists, a streaming printer, deterministic exhibit validation, the scoped Wikipedia MCP server and its deny-by-default permission handler, the single-file exhibit.html write permission, the fixed prompt text (exhibit structure, research request, and page requirements), the COPILOT_MODEL lookup, and the failure message. The system messages file holds the three long messages the sessions run under: the curator's, the curator's once research is available, and the research assistant's. You never edit the helpers.

The starters do not include the exhibit prompt's instructions, session configuration, tool registration, or the session runner. You write those during the lessons: one session, then streaming, then the curator voice (installing the pre-built system message), the fact tool registration and its prompt with a bounded session runner, the validation report, scoped Wikipedia research, and an interactive exhibit.html page. Start at workshop/museum-00-preflight.md.

How the entrypoint is laid out

The starter entrypoint ships the fixed shape of the program (entry function, error handler, cleanup) and a set of empty named regions. A region is two marker comments, and its BEGIN line lists every step that touches it:

>>> BEGIN generation-config | Step 4: INSERT | Step 6: REPLACE
<<< END generation-config

Each lesson code block names its region and one of two actions. INSERT means the region is empty: paste the block between the marker lines. REPLACE means the region holds code from an earlier step: delete everything between the marker lines, then paste the block. A block is always the complete contents of its region. Never edit a marker line or the code outside the regions.

Region	Holds	Steps
imports	Imports	1, then whenever a step needs new names
banner	Program banner	1
choose-facts	Fact selection call	4
research	Optional Wikipedia research pass	6
generate	The exhibit generation call	1 to 6
validate	Validation report	5
sources	Consulted sources	6
exhibit-page	Optional exhibit.html session	7
exhibit-prompt	Exhibit prompt builder	4, 6
html-prompt	Page prompt builder	7
generation-config	Generation session configuration	4, 6
research-config	Research session configuration	6
html-config	Page session configuration	7
session-runner	Session runner	4

Step 6 conditionally registers the Wikipedia lookup alongside the approved-fact lookup and asks the curator to call both before writing the narrative and visitor questions. Research remains supplemental, not educator-verified; approved facts take precedence. Declining research or receiving no usable cited summary leaves generation with only approved_fact_lookup.

Language	Helper module	System messages	Change directory, build, and run
.NET	Helpers/Curator*.cs	Helpers/CuratorSystemMessages.cs	cd start-museum/dotnet && dotnet build && dotnet run
Node.js	src/curator.ts	src/system-messages.ts	cd start-museum/nodejs && npm ci && npm run build && npm start
Python	curator.py	system_messages.py	cd start-museum/python && python -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements.txt && .venv/bin/python main.py
Go	curator.go	system_messages.go	cd start-museum/go && go build -mod=readonly ./... && go run .
Rust	src/lib.rs	src/system_messages.rs	cd start-museum/rust && cargo check --locked && cargo run --locked
Java	src/main/java/workshop/Curator*.java	CuratorSystemMessages.java	cd start-museum/java && ./mvnw compile && ./mvnw exec:java

Running the starter prints its identity and does not start Copilot or require authentication. Because you edit these files in place, your work shows up in git status. That is expected. Run git checkout -- . from the repository root to restore a clean starter.

Every starter already pins the dependencies the finished application needs, so you never edit a project manifest during the workshop. The Rust starter builds the museum_exhibit_studio library crate from src/lib.rs; import the helpers from it in src/main.rs.