Dunder Mifflin Workshop — Working copy

This is the hands-on repo for the Agentic AI Masterclass workshop. You will build a series of AI agents around a fictional Dunder Mifflin package-manager scenario across eight parts.

Quick start

python -m venv .venv
# Windows
.venv\Scripts\activate
# macOS / Linux
source .venv/bin/activate

pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env   # fill in your Azure credentials

Working directory

Always work from this root folder (dm-ws/) — not from a sub-folder. Every file you create during the labs (agent.py, mcp_server.py, connected_agent.py, etc.) goes here at the root. The data/ folder, .env, and requirements.txt are all at the root too, so the path resolution in the lab scripts works without any changes.

Catching up with a baseline

Each part has a completed file in baseline/ you can copy from if you fall behind. Each part that needs a starting template has a file in starter/ to begin from.

Part	Baseline file(s)	Starter file
1 — Framing & first agent	baseline/01-1-first-agent.py	—
2 — Context engineering	baseline/02-1-context-map.md	—
3 — Memory	baseline/03-1-order-memory.py, baseline/03-2-agent-memory.py	—
4 — Specs & personas	baseline/04-1-spec.md	—
5 — MCP fundamentals	baseline/05-1-mcp-design.md	—
6 — Build the MCP server	baseline/06-1-mcp-server.py	starter/06-1-mcp-server.py
7 — Agent Framework & first MCP agent	baseline/07-1-connected-agent.py	starter/07-1-connected-agent.py
8 — Native tools & A2A handoff	baseline/08-1-a2a-agent.py	starter/08-1-a2a-agent.py
9 — Human-in-the-loop	baseline/09-1-hitl-agent.py	starter/09-1-hitl-agent.py

Copy the baseline file to the workshop/ root (or run it directly from baseline/) and continue from there. Starter files include TODO comments marking exactly what to implement.

Troubleshooting

ARM64 Windows — cryptography wheel build failure

mcp[cli] depends on cryptography, which on ARM64 Windows may fail to install via pip because no pre-built wheel is available for your platform:

error: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required ...
  — or —
error: can't find Rust compiler

Quickest fix — use uv for the whole install:

pip install uv
uv pip install -r requirements.txt

uv resolves a compatible pre-built wheel automatically.

Alternative — force a binary-only install for cryptography first:

pip install --only-binary :all: cryptography
pip install -r requirements.txt

Also relevant for mcp dev: always pass --with "mcp[cli]" so the isolated uv environment includes typer (also part of mcp[cli]):

# correct
mcp dev --with "mcp[cli]" mcp_server.py

# incorrect — produces "Error: typer is required" and a JSON parse error in the inspector
mcp dev mcp_server.py