Quirq'y Workshop: Building & Running AI Agents

# Quirq’y Workshop: Building & Running AI Agents

Join Coffee&Code Philadelphia and Quirq for a hands-on online workshop designed to help you build, run, and understand an AI agent working with real data.
This is a practical build session—not just a presentation. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have launched an agent inside a managed workspace, connected it to your own data, assigned it a real task, and observed what it did while running.
The workshop will be led by Suraj Sharma, Founder of Quirq.

## What you’ll learn

• How to launch a cloud-managed AI agent using app.xo.builders
• How to connect a repository, folder of documents, spreadsheet, or other work data
• How to assign your agent a real task
• How to inspect its environment, activity, file changes, sessions, and costs
• How to switch between agent runtimes while keeping the same workspace
• How to run the same open-source workspace locally
• How to contribute to xo-space through GitHub Discussions and pull requests
• How to participate in the Quirq challenges at the Coffee&Code Philadelphia AI Agent Hackathon

Supported quickstarts include Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, N8N, and bring-your-own runtime options.

## Who should attend?

This workshop is for developers who are registered—or considering registering—for the Coffee&Code Philadelphia AI Agent Hackathon on September 20.
No previous agent-building experience is required. Whether you already work with coding agents or are launching one for the first time, you’ll leave with a working environment and a clear path toward a hackathon project.

## Before the workshop

Please come prepared with:

• An account at app.xo.builders
• A model API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, or another supported provider
• Some data you are comfortable giving your agent access to, such as a code repository, document folder, or spreadsheet
• Access to the Coffee&Code Philadelphia Discord

Model API credits are not provided, so participants should bring their own API key.
Prefer to work locally? You can install xo-space without creating an account:
`curl -fsSL quirq.ai/install | sh`

## Workshop schedule

6:00–6:15 PM — Welcome and introduction
Meet Quirq, learn about the hackathon track, and explore why agents benefit from persistent, observable workspaces.
6:15–7:00 PM — Live agent build
Follow along as we launch a workspace, import real data, assign an agent a task, inspect its activity, and switch between supported runtimes.
7:00–7:25 PM — Contributing to xo-space
Explore the open-source repository and its GitHub Discussions. Learn how to select a contribution idea, claim a thread, submit a pull request, and build a strong hackathon contribution.
7:25–7:40 PM — Quirq hackathon challenges
Review the Build It challenge, Red Team bounty, judging criteria, eligible projects, and submission requirements.
7:40–8:00 PM — Q&A and setup support
Get help launching your environment and resolving any remaining setup issues.

## Continue at the AI Agent Hackathon

Participants can use what they build during this workshop as the starting point for a project at the Coffee&Code Philadelphia AI Agent Hackathon on Sunday, September 20, at Pennovation Works.
The Quirq track includes:

• Build It: $500 cash plus equivalent Quirq credits for the strongest agentic system built and demonstrated using Quirq
• Red Team Bounty: A points-based bounty pool of up to $500 for validated security findings against a participant’s own cloud-managed workspace

Quirq engineers will also provide support through the dedicated `#quirq-track` channel in the Coffee&Code Philadelphia Discord before and throughout the hackathon.
Come with an API key and some real data. Leave with an agent already running—and an idea you can take directly into the hackathon.