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The API and Beyond

How organizations embed Claude at scale. The restaurant analogy makes it concrete for a mixed audience. The anatomy of an API call, tool use that connects Claude to real systems, and the economics behind the investment.

70 minutes
Technical leads, decision-makers
Prerequisite: Module 11

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the API through the restaurant analogy
  • Read an API call and response structure
  • See how tool use connects Claude to real databases
  • Calculate the cost of API usage at scale
  • Decide when to build with the API vs. use existing tools

Session Timing

SegmentActivityTime
Opening
Restaurant analogy, API anatomy10 min
Demo
How persistent instructions work at scale10 min
Demo
Order status lookup — Claude calls a real function15 min
Economics
Cost calculation: 1,000 tickets/day for $1.6010 min
Discussion
Group exercise: API or Cowork for your use case?15 min
Debrief
When to use the API — the decision framework10 min

Demo Data

Download before the session. Run every prompt yourself first so nothing surprises you at the projector.