LOCKEDIN / FORWARD-DEPLOYED ENGINEERING 101
Understand it.
Then build it.
You can be an experienced engineer and still be new to agents. Start with what each thing is and how it helps a person do useful work. Explore 60 original introductions across software, agents, cloud, security and delivery. Start here without a model key; each topic connects to deeper instruction and practice.
A place to start.
Choose a short reading route, or look up a concept below.
- 101UnderstandPlain language, visual walkthrough, vocabulary
- 102Build with guidanceOriginal lessons, examples and knowledge checks
- 103Practise and explainRunnable labs, failure cases and handover
Industry practice
Healthcare business 101
Healthcare operations coordinates people, services, coverage and payment. A forward-deployed engineer must understand which question a record answers before automating the next step.
An assistant can use perfectly valid JSON and still make a harmful promise. Treating an authorization as payment evidence is a business error that a syntax checker cannot catch.
UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEM
Which healthcare question did we actually answer?
Follow an invented administrative case. Coverage, authorization and payment are separate facts. The diagram shows evidence relationships, not a universal sequence of care.
Read the connections in plain English
- 01Service request → Eligibility
Ask a dated benefits question against the appropriate source.
- 02Service request → Prior authorization
Determine whether authorization is required and whether a matching decision exists.
- 03Eligibility → Operations review
Keep the original meaning and provenance of each record.
- 04Prior authorization → Operations review
This evidence supports authorization wording, not payment wording.
- 05Claim & remittance → Operations review
Only a matching authoritative payment record supports this lab's payment status.
- 06Operations review → Status handoff
Record a supported note once; withhold unsupported conclusions.
Check your understanding: A plan approved the request. Can the assistant say the patient owes nothing?
No. Authorization does not establish payment or patient responsibility. Identify the unanswered question and route it to the appropriate benefits or billing owner.
CONNECT IT TO WHAT YOU KNOW
Start with something familiar.
Think of a delivery order: accepting the order, dispatching the package and receiving payment are separate events. Healthcare has its own events, authorities and consequences; the analogy only explains why a single approved flag is inadequate.
This is administrative workflow engineering. A staff handoff is not clinical triage, a coverage determination or a medical recommendation.
Words worth knowing
- Provider
- The clinician or organization delivering care. It is not interchangeable with the payer.
- Payer / health plan
- The organization or plan administering coverage and payment decisions in the relevant arrangement.
- Eligibility
- Whether coverage is in force and which benefit information applies at the relevant date; not proof that a specific claim will be paid.
- Prior authorization
- A plan approval that may be needed before a service. It is distinct from a payment promise.
- Claim
- A request for payment for items or services. Submission alone does not establish acceptance or payment.
- Adjudication
- The payer's processing of a claim under the applicable rules, producing an outcome that must be read at the relevant line or claim level.
- Remittance
- Information about how the payer processed payment and adjustments; reconcile it to the correct claim and account.
- Explanation of benefits (EOB)
- A plan's explanation of charges and coverage. It is not itself a bill or proof that a patient has already paid.
- PHI
- Protected health information in the applicable HIPAA context. Replacing a name is not, by itself, a determination that data is de-identified.
Useful foundations
Open a definition and diagram here. Your lesson stays in place.
A role and a way of workingWhat is a forward-deployed engineer?
QUICK REFERENCE / 101
What is a forward-deployed engineer?
A forward-deployed engineer works directly with a client's team to understand a problem, build useful software and help that team use and maintain it. They combine engineering with discovery, communication and operational ownership. It is a role, not a programming language or a particular AI tool.
Knowing a framework is only part of the job. You also need to discover what matters, explain a tradeoff, test what you built and leave another engineer able to run it.
Data a program can read and checkWhat are JSON and schemas?
QUICK REFERENCE / 101
What are JSON and schemas?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a text format for exchanging data between programs. An object pairs field names with values, like a small form with named boxes. JSON Schema describes rules for those values. Neither is an AI model, and JSON works with many programming languages.
An API response, an agent's tool arguments and a model's structured answer often arrive as JSON. Before connecting them, an FDE needs to read the fields, recognize their types and explain why readable data can still be wrong for the task.
ONE EXAMPLE / FICTIONAL CASE
Follow the connections.
An invented outpatient case has an active plan and an approved authorization. The operations assistant can report those facts. It cannot conclude that the service was delivered, the claim was paid or the patient owes nothing.
UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEM
Which healthcare question did we actually answer?
Follow an invented administrative case. Coverage, authorization and payment are separate facts. The diagram shows evidence relationships, not a universal sequence of care.
See what moves and why.
Read the connections in plain English
- 01Service request → Eligibility
Ask a dated benefits question against the appropriate source.
- 02Service request → Prior authorization
Determine whether authorization is required and whether a matching decision exists.
- 03Eligibility → Operations review
Keep the original meaning and provenance of each record.
- 04Prior authorization → Operations review
This evidence supports authorization wording, not payment wording.
- 05Claim & remittance → Operations review
Only a matching authoritative payment record supports this lab's payment status.
- 06Operations review → Status handoff
Record a supported note once; withhold unsupported conclusions.
Check your understanding: A plan approved the request. Can the assistant say the patient owes nothing?
No. Authorization does not establish payment or patient responsibility. Identify the unanswered question and route it to the appropriate benefits or billing owner.
Work through it, step by step.
Name the question
Ask whether the staff member needs coverage information, authorization status, a clinical decision or a payment explanation.
What you have now: One explicit business question
Find the source
Match the person, plan, service and relevant date to the source that can answer that question.
What you have now: Dated evidence with provenance
Limit the conclusion
A source supports particular statements. Keep unknowns visible and route clinical concerns through the established human pathway.
What you have now: Supported wording + unresolved work
Prove the handoff
Review the exact case and source revision. Exercise unsupported conclusions, outdated review and duplicate delivery in scratch code.
What you have now: A reproducible administrative handoff
Approved for what? Follow a healthcare handoff
Original silent explainer · Optional English captions
Read the visual transcript
- A staff member asks whether an invented service has been paid. First name the exact business question.
- An eligibility response says the plan is active on the checked date. Payment is still unknown.
- An authorization source says approved. This supports authorization wording; it does not establish payment.
- The proposed note says paid. The meaning check withholds it, even when a person accepted the proposal.
- Revise the note to authorization recorded, review the current evidence and save one internal handoff. Payment remains a separate question.
Healthcare handoff / CODE EVIDENCE
Does the evidence support the handoff?
Read what the source says, compare the proposed note, then predict what should be saved. Inspect the actual result from the downloadable Python lab.
Recorded Python run · Invented cases · Scratch SQLiteA plausible note makes the wrong claim
The source establishes authorization. The draft says payment. A reviewer accepted that exact draft. Should it be saved?
01 / SOURCE OBSERVATION
Authorization approved
Payer authorization
- Source revision
- 3
- Workspace
- training-north
02 / PROPOSED STATEMENT
“Payment is recorded”
A draft for the receiving staff member.
payment_recorded03 / REVIEW CONTEXT
Accepted
Operations reviewer
- Reviewed source revision
- 3
- Review workspace
- training-north
Inspect the exact case, review and event
- Current / reviewed case
- SYNTHETIC-104 / SYNTHETIC-104
- Current / reviewed case revision
- 2 / 2
- Exact reviewed note
payment_recorded- Event ID
synthetic-event-7- Request kind
status_handoff
BEFORE THIS ATTEMPT
No saved notes
Make a prediction or go straight to the evidence. This practice does not record a grade.
FROM RECOGNITION TO REASONING
Catch an unsupported payment statement.
- 01
Watch the evidence change in the diagram.
- 02
Run the healthcare proof lab with and without its meaning check.
- 03
Explain why a reviewer cannot make an unsupported statement true.
Two reports and a corrected status contract.
Compare your reasoning when you are ready
The broken comparison records payment from authorization evidence. The guarded version withholds that conclusion while allowing a supported authorization note.
Keep notes in your own working copy. Moving through these cards does not record completion.
TURN THE IDEA INTO USEFUL WORK
You can now go deeper.
Business meaning belongs in the contract: eligibility, authorization and payment are separate facts.
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