What You Need Before You Start
A terminal, an editor, a GitHub account, and the ten minutes of git that actually matter. No prior setup assumed.
This chapter assumes you have never opened a terminal. By the end of it you will have four things installed, and you will understand what each one is actually for — which matters more than having them, because every later chapter assumes you know why they are there.
The four things you need
Every setup in this course, on every operating system, comes down to the same four pieces. Nothing else is required to start.
- 1
A terminal
A window where you type commands instead of clicking. It ships with your computer — you do not install it.
macOS: Terminal. Windows: PowerShell or Windows Terminal. Linux: you already know.
- 2
An editor
Where you read and write code. VS Code is the safe default because almost every AI tool plugs into it.
Download from code.visualstudio.com. Accept every default in the installer.
- 3
Node.js
The runtime that lets your computer execute JavaScript outside a browser. Most modern web tooling needs it.
Download the LTS version from nodejs.org. LTS means long-term support, i.e. the boring stable one.
- 4
Git and a GitHub account
Git records versions of your work so any change can be undone. GitHub stores those versions online.
This is the safety net that makes AI-generated changes safe to accept.
The terminal, in five commands
The terminal feels intimidating because it gives no hints. In practice you will use about five commands over and over. Open your terminal and try each one.
$ pwd$ ls$ cd Documents$ mkdir my-first-app$ cd my-first-appIn order: pwd prints where you currently are. ls lists what is here. cd moves you into a folder (cd .. moves back out). mkdir makes a new folder. That is most of it.
Checking it actually worked
Every install should be verified rather than assumed. Each of these prints a version number if the tool is present.
$ node --version$ npm --version$ git --versionYou want three version numbers. If any command reports command not found, that tool did not install — reopen your terminal first, then reinstall it if the message persists.
Git, in ten minutes
You do not need to understand Git deeply to benefit from it. You need to understand one idea: Git takes a snapshot of your project whenever you ask, and you can return to any snapshot later. That is what makes it safe to let an AI change twenty files at once.
Tell Git who you are, once per computer:
$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"$ git config --global user.email "[email protected]"Then, inside a project folder, the loop you will repeat forever:
$ git init$ git add .$ git commit -m "Describe what changed"init starts tracking this folder. add stages your current changes. commit saves the snapshot with a message.
If you already have some of this
Most readers are not starting from zero. If you already have two of the four, the honest move is to verify what you have rather than reinstall it out of caution.
Good — skip straight to Node. There is nothing else to change about your editor.
Fine, as long as the AI tool you pick in the next chapter plugs into it. Check before switching editors just for this course.
Run the two git config commands above once. You do not need to reinstall anything.
You may not have permission to install software. Ask before you spend an hour fighting a permissions dialog that was never going to let you in.
Before you continue
You are ready for the next chapter when
- ✓
node --versionandgit --versionboth print a number - ✓You can open a terminal and move into a folder with cd
- ✓You have a GitHub account you can sign in to
- ✓You have made at least one commit in a folder of your own
Key takeaways
- You need four things: a terminal, an editor, Node, and Git. Everything else is optional.
- Reopen your terminal after any install — a stale PATH is the most common false failure.
- Verify installs with --version instead of assuming they worked.
- Commit before you let an AI make changes. That single habit is what makes the rest safe.
- If you already have some of this, verify it rather than reinstalling it out of caution.
Quick check
Answer these to unlock the next chapter — 3 of 4 to pass. You can retake it anytime.
Answer every question to check.
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