Enterprise AI dev platforms do the heavy lifting of creating an enterprise level AI app. My focus (for now) is 100% on Palantir Foundry because

  • PAL is a market leader.
  • PAL offers a generous free demo account for hands-on experience with Foundry.
  • The built-in AI help (AIP/FDE) made it possible to complete the demos (quickly). Without AI this would have taken at least 5x longer to do.

I give you what you need to get started ASAP with PAL. This section shows you

  • Step by step hands-on how to get started using Palantir (PAL) Foundry. No links to “resources”, no “make sure you do this first”, rather just a straight shot through the process that I went through.
  • Very organized, up-to-date (WIP) and detailed (docx files that still need some work, but I can easily update my website and docx’s; I can not easily update videos). .
  • In particular I focus on
    • Navigating the many many dialogs.
    • How to use PAL help (especially FDE) to get directions or solved problems. FDE was critical for my success with PAL.

The gist of Palantir: A crystal ball (called a “palantir” (“seeing stone”) in Lord of the Rings) that can find a haystack needle (HN)
drones


TOC

First: Sign up and concepts

  • 3c.0a Sign up to PAL (REQUIRED). If you cant get a trial version of PAL running, then there’s no reason to read further. You will not understand PAL by just reading about it.
    • I dont remember the URL. Just Google it.
    • Unfortunately, I did not record how I signed up, and its not a process I can repeat. But I can tell you this
      • You must be a country that PAL supports (thats only a few countries).
      • You can NOT use a VPN.
      • You must have a passport or some picture ID of good enough quality for facial recognition verification. My passport is almost 10 years old, but it still worked. My drivers licence pic was of such low quality that I doubt it would have worked.
      • You need a camera on your PC to take a pic of yourself. PAL will compare your ID and the pic.
      • I think you need a mobile phone number (and email).
    • It was a fairly long process, but very professionally done (I was impressed).

  • 3c.0 Concepts (OPTIONAL). My own take.
    • What problems PAL solves.
    • This section is a long term WIP (I started using PAL in July 2026, and I need more experience before I can sum up the concepts).

  • 3c.1 PAL AI usage strategy (RECOMMENDED).
    • PAL Foundry has 2 helps systems: (1) AIP and (2) FDE.
    • I used both during the first 8 “Initial PAL demos” (3c.2).
    • During demo 8 (of 3c.2) I asked AIP/FDE to show me how to do something that was not in the demo. The advantages of each tool slowly became apparent.
    • During the AIP/FDE demos (3c.3) I uses only AIP/FDE. It became apparent that
      • AIP is better for getting initial workflows.
      • FDE is the lifesaver that can solve problems and especially recognize screen shots (just past in the window). In one example, FDE led me step by step in setting up a Workshop demo that I just could not get right (for good reasons).
    • I look forward to when AIP/FDE are combined into a single tool that can “see” dialogs and guide a user through various tasks.
      • NOTE: After almost a month of using PAL, I noticed PAL has a beta product called “Pilot”. That appears to be what I was talking about.
    • In general, a big focus (at least initially) is on prompt techniques and workflows to maximize effectiveness of using AI.

Then, finally, what its all about: The demos!

  • 3c.2 Initial PAL demos (RECOMMENDED). It does matter what demos you do at first as long as you are doing hands-on and learning the UI (without getting stuck in a rabbit hole).
    • Your initial focus will be on 2 things
      • What button to press or where to click next. The PAL dialogs are well done, but they require a lot of time to get used to.
      • “I’m stuck…. how do I find a solution”. PAL has AIP and FDE to help.
    • Current demos consist of just D1-D8, the first PAL demos I did (step by step tutorials).
    • When I started, I was overwhelmed by the many dialogs. I just wanted to be shown what do. I did not care about options. So D1-D8 are a bit messy and not perfect, but
      • They are MS.Word docx files that I can update easily. You can download that file and use it as your working notebook. You need to keep lab notes.
      • I documented all details with screenshots.
      • The MS.Word docs use numbered headings. This makes it much easier to follow the demos and avoid mistakes. In the future I might number every step (using MS.Word seq function).

  • 3c.3 AIP/FDE demos.
    • Use AI (AIP/FDE) to do demos from scratch (not following PAL demos or PAL docs; I might get inspiration from those demos, but I just use AIP/FDE to execute; in the future PAL Pilot would do this).
    • D9 (demo set 9) = “haystack needle” demos. I believe this was Palantir’s original focus when founded:
      • Finding some small indication in a sea of data
      • Without/with AI.
    • Future: Other AIP/FDE/Pilot demos.

  • 3c.4 Certification. Demos that match the certification.
    • Foundry Application Developer Certification.
    • Use the PDF as a guide for what to study.


Notes


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