Challenge 1 - Prepare the Environment

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🎯 Objective

Sign in with your assigned lab credentials, verify the pre-provisioned Azure resources, and start the GitHub Codespaces development environment used throughout the Claims Intelligence MicroHack.

🧭 Context and Background

The remaining challenges use a pre-provisioned Azure environment and a repository hosted on GitHub. You will work from a GitHub Codespace configured with the tools and dependencies required to build the claims intelligence solution.

Complete this setup with the credentials provided in your Hackbox. Use the assigned lab account for the Azure portal and the event console so that you have access to the correct Azure subscription and resource group. For the GitHub Codespace, use your own GitHub account.

🔑 Get your event access

Before you start the tasks, sign in to the event console at emea.microhack.cloud and find your Azure lab credentials. Your event lead provides a username and password for the console. Use them only during the event window your event lead set.

1. Open emea.microhack.cloud.
2. Sign in with your username and password.
3. On the home screen, open Credentials. You see only your own Azure lab credentials. Keep them ready for the tasks below.

The sign-in screen from step 2:

The Credentials dashboard from step 4 lists your own Azure lab details. The Entra ID TAP is hidden in this example:

Important

The console sign-in is different from your Azure credentials. Use each one only where a step asks for it. Do not share them, paste them into chat or issues, or capture them in a screenshot.

✅ Tasks

1. Sign in to Azure

Open the Azure portal and sign in with the credentials provided in your Hackbox.

When prompted to choose an account, select Use another account and input the credentials provided. Do not use your personal or work account.

In the Azure portal, select Resource groups from the navigation menu.

Open the resource group assigned to you and confirm that its resources have been deployed successfully.

Verify that you can access the resources used in the later challenges, including the Microsoft Foundry project, the gpt-5.4 and mistral-document-ai-2512 model deployments, the Azure AI Search service, and the Storage account.

2. Get the repository

The workshop code is in the GitHub repository pankajagrawal16/claims-processing. Choose one option:

• Option A: GitHub Codespace (recommended). Create a Codespace from your own GitHub account. The repository's Claims Hack dev container sets up the tools for you. Follow step 3.
• Option B: Clone to your computer. Use your own editor and terminal. Follow 2B, then continue with step 3 from your terminal.

2B. Clone the repository

Use this option if you prefer a local environment. First install Git, the Azure CLI, Python 3.11, and uv. Then run these commands in a terminal, in the folder where you want the project:

git clone https://github.com/pankajagrawal16/claims-processing.git
cd claims-processing

These commands are the same in PowerShell. If GitHub asks you to sign in, use the lab account. Continue with step 3 from the cloned claims-processing folder.

3. Create the development environment

Option A (Codespace): open pankajagrawal16/claims-processing while signed in to your own GitHub account, select Code, then open the Codespaces tab. Select the ... menu and choose New with options.

For Dev container configuration, select Claims Hack, then select Create codespace.

GitHub opens the Codespace in a new browser tab. Wait for the container setup to finish, then confirm that the repository files are visible in the Explorer and that the integrated terminal opens without errors.

Open a terminal in the Codespace (Terminal > New Terminal) and run the following command to verify that the required tools are installed:

az --version

Run the remaining commands from the root of the cloned repository (the folder containing pyproject.toml and azure.yaml). If needed, open that folder in your editor or terminal. Install the pinned project dependencies and activate the environment:

Bash/zshPowerShell

uv sync --refresh --python 3.11 --default-index https://pypi.org/simple
source .venv/bin/activate

uv sync --refresh --python 3.11 --default-index https://pypi.org/simple
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Sign in to Azure from the Codespace terminal with the assigned lab account:

az login --use-device-code

From the same workshop folder, run the setup script with the resource group name provided in your Hackbox. Use the script for your shell:

Bash/zshPowerShell

bash labautomation/get-keys.sh --resource-group "<your-resource-group-name>"

This script needs Bash 4 or newer. macOS's built-in Bash 3.2 is too old; use the Codespace or a newer Bash.

.\labautomation\get-keys.ps1 -ResourceGroup "<your-resource-group-name>"

This runs on Windows PowerShell or PowerShell 7 with no WSL or Git Bash needed. Azure CLI must be installed.

The script locates the latest successful Claims MicroHack deployment and creates a local .env file in the repository root. It retrieves the Foundry project endpoint, Mistral Document AI key and endpoint, Azure AI Search key and endpoint, and Storage connection string required by Challenges 2 through 6. The file is excluded from Git, written with permissions 600, and its secret values are not displayed.

4. Verify the Blob Storage assets

Before continuing, confirm that the lab deployment uploaded the claim and policy files. Find the Storage account name in the output from get-keys.sh, then run these commands from the repository root:

Bash/zshPowerShell

STORAGE_ACCOUNT="<storage-account-name>"
STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING="$(sed -n 's/^AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING=//p' .env)"

az storage blob list \
  --connection-string "$STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING" \
  --container-name claims-data \
  --query "length(@)" \
  --output tsv

az storage blob list \
  --connection-string "$STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING" \
  --container-name policies \
  --query "length(@)" \
  --output tsv

$STORAGE_ACCOUNT = "<storage-account-name>"
$STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING = ((Get-Content .env) |
  Where-Object { $_ -match '^AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING=' }) -replace '^[^=]*=', ''

az storage blob list --connection-string $STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING --container-name claims-data --query "length(@)" --output tsv
az storage blob list --connection-string $STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING --container-name policies --query "length(@)" --output tsv

The expected results are 17 claim files and 5 policy documents. You can also open the Storage account in the Azure portal, select Data storage > Containers, and inspect the claims-data and policies containers directly.

If either count is lower than expected, upload and verify only the missing lab assets without redeploying the infrastructure:

Bash/zshPowerShell

bash labautomation/upload-assets.sh \
  --subscription "<your-subscription-id>" \
  --resource-group "<your-resource-group-name>" \
  --storage-account "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT"

The PowerShell script uses the Az.Accounts, Az.Resources, and Az.Storage modules. Sign in with Connect-AzAccount and use the subscription and resource group assigned to your lab.

./labautomation/upload-assets.ps1 `
  -SubscriptionId "<your-subscription-id>" `
  -ResourceGroupName "<your-resource-group-name>" `
  -StorageAccountName $STORAGE_ACCOUNT

The command finishes with Asset upload complete and verified: 17 claims, 5 policies. It does not deploy or modify the lab infrastructure.

Confirm that the participant CLI is available:

python docs/claims-intake-agent.py --help

Important

Do not run labautomation/deploy-lab.ps1. The MicroHack platform invokes that script before the lab begins. Participants run only labautomation/get-keys.sh after the platform deployment succeeds.

🚀 Go Further

Review the solution architecture and identify where each deployed Azure resource is used in the five build challenges.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

• The Azure resource group is missing: Confirm that you signed in with the assigned lab account and selected the assigned subscription in the Azure portal.
• The setup script reports an authorization error: Confirm that the Codespace is signed in with the assigned lab account. That account must be able to read deployment outputs and list keys for the Foundry, Azure AI Search, and Storage resources.
• The Blob Storage verification reports an authorization error: Run the get-keys script again (get-keys.sh in Bash/zsh or get-keys.ps1 in PowerShell) and confirm that .env contains a non-empty AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING value. Do not print or share the value.
• A Blob Storage container is empty or incomplete: Run labautomation/upload-assets.sh with your subscription, resource group, and Storage account values, then repeat the verification commands.
• The repository is not visible: Confirm that you opened https://github.com/pankajagrawal16/claims-processing (Option A) or cloned that URL (Option B). For Option A, make sure you are signed in to your own GitHub account.
• The dev container configuration is unavailable: Confirm that you opened pankajagrawal16/claims-processing before creating the Codespace.
• The Codespace does not finish starting: Review the creation log for the failing step, then rebuild the container or recreate the Codespace.

🧠 Conclusion

You have verified the Azure resources and opened the configured development environment. Show your completed result to your coach before you start Challenge 2. Then continue to Challenge 2 to build the Claims Intake Agent.