// before you arrive
Prepare for your session
No coding experience needed — but a few accounts and tools need to be in place before you arrive so we can start building right away. Work through the steps below. Stuck on any of it? Don't sweat it — bring what you've got and Greg helps you finish at the start of the session.
On a Mac? Install Homebrew first — the brew commands below need it. Paste this into Terminal:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)" On Windows, winget is already built in — nothing to install.
A laptop
This is the one thing you truly need. Everything we build runs on your own laptop — the app, the database, the tools, all of it. Any recent machine works; here's the floor:
- Operating system
- Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), macOS 12 Monterey or newer, or a modern 64-bit Linux
- Memory (RAM)
- 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
- Processor
- Any 64-bit chip from ~2019 on — Apple Silicon (M1+), Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 5 or better
- Free storage
- At least 15 GB free for the tools
- Admin rights — you need to be able to install software on it.
- A charger — sessions run about five hours.
Want to run AI models locally too (image generation, local LLMs)? That's heavier — aim for 16 GB+ RAM and Apple Silicon or a discrete GPU. It's optional; everything else runs fine without it.
A cloud account — optional
You never have to buy anything. Everything we build runs right on your laptop — the app, the database, the tools. A cloud account is only for putting your project on the public internet, and every provider's free tier covers that. No purchase required, ever.
Want your project reachable from anywhere, not just your machine? Pick one of the three major clouds and create an account. All have generous free tiers, so you won't spend anything on session day. A credit or debit card is required to sign up (standard for all of them); you won't be charged without explicitly upgrading.
Not sure which? AWS is the most common — a safe default. Or skip this entirely and keep everything local.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Go to aws.amazon.com and choose Create an AWS Account.
- Enter an email, a password, and an account name.
- Add your contact info and a payment method. The Free Tier covers session work.
- Verify your identity by phone, then choose the Basic (free) support plan.
- Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the root user.
- So you can deploy from the command line, create an admin login: open IAM → Users → Create user, attach the AdministratorAccess policy, then create an access key (choose the "Command Line Interface" use case) and save the Access key ID and Secret access key.
Microsoft Azure
- Go to azure.microsoft.com/free and choose Start free.
- Sign in with a Microsoft account (or create one).
- Verify by phone and add a card. You get $200 in credit for 30 days plus always-free services.
- Finishing signup creates your first Subscription — the container your resources live in.
- Sign in to the Azure Portal at portal.azure.com to confirm it's active.
Google Cloud (GCP)
- Go to cloud.google.com and choose Get started for free.
- Sign in with a Google account.
- Add a payment method. You get $300 in credit for 90 days; nothing auto-charges without opting in.
- In the Cloud Console, create a new Project (top bar → project menu → New Project).
- Make sure billing is linked to that project — that's what lets you create resources in it.
Connect the command line
We deploy from the terminal, so install your chosen cloud's CLI and sign in. Only do the one that matches the account you created above.
AWS CLI
Windows / macOS
winget install Amazon.AWSCLI # Windows
brew install awscli # macOS Then sign in with the access key you created above:
aws configure It asks for your Access key ID, Secret access key, a default region (e.g. ca-central-1), and output format (json).
Azure CLI
Windows / macOS
winget install Microsoft.AzureCLI # Windows
brew install azure-cli # macOS Then sign in (opens your browser):
az login Google Cloud CLI (gcloud)
Windows / macOS
winget install Google.CloudSDK # Windows
brew install --cask google-cloud-sdk # macOS Then sign in and pick your project:
gcloud init An AI coding assistant
Have at least one set up — ideally two, so you can compare how they work. Any capable assistant is fine — these are popular, capable options. Free tiers are enough to start.
Claude (Anthropic)
Sign up at claude.ai. For Claude Code — Greg's main tool — a Pro or Max plan is recommended.
Codex / ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Sign up at chatgpt.com. The Codex CLI works with a ChatGPT Plus (or higher) plan.
Gemini (Google)
Sign in at gemini.google.com with your Google account. Google AI Studio is also free to start.
GitHub Copilot
Sign in at github.com, then enable Copilot at github.com/features/copilot. There's a free tier.
GitHub
GitHub stores your code and is how we deploy. You'll need an account, the tools to talk to it from the terminal, and a token so those tools can sign in as you.
Create an account
Sign up (free) at github.com/signup. Verify your email.
Install Git and the GitHub CLI
Git is version control; gh is GitHub's command-line tool.
Windows
winget install Git.Git
winget install GitHub.cli macOS
brew install git gh Create a Personal Access Token (PAT)
A PAT is a password-like key that lets the command line act as your account (pushing
code, running gh commands).
- Go to github.com/settings/tokens → Fine-grained tokens → Generate new token.
- Give it a name and an expiry, and grant access to your repositories.
- Under Permissions, enable at least Contents (read/write) and Workflows (read/write).
- Click generate and copy the token now — GitHub only shows it once. Keep it somewhere safe.
Sign in from the terminal
Run this, choose GitHub.com → HTTPS, and when asked, paste your token:
gh auth login That same token also works as your password if Git ever prompts you when pushing code.
Developer tools
Install these four before you arrive. Commands below are the quickest path per platform; each also has a normal installer you can download if you prefer clicking through. Windows commands use winget (built into Windows 10/11) in PowerShell; macOS commands use Homebrew.
A code editor
Where you'll actually read and write code. VS Code is the standard; Cursor is a popular AI-first fork of it. Either is great.
Windows
winget install Microsoft.VisualStudioCode macOS
brew install --cask visual-studio-code Or download from code.visualstudio.com (or cursor.com).
Node.js & npm
npm comes bundled with Node. Install the LTS release (version 22 or newer).
Windows
winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS macOS
brew install node Or download the LTS installer from nodejs.org.
Python
Install Python 3.11 or newer. pip (Python's package installer) comes with it.
Windows
winget install Python.Python.3.12 If you use the installer from python.org instead, check "Add python.exe to PATH" on the first screen.
macOS
brew install python PostgreSQL (the database)
A real database for your projects. Remember any password you set for the postgres user.
Windows
winget install PostgreSQL.PostgreSQL.16 Or the installer from postgresql.org (it also installs pgAdmin, a visual tool).
macOS
brew install postgresql@16
brew services start postgresql@16 Or the one-click Postgres.app.
Check that it all worked
Open a fresh terminal (PowerShell on Windows, Terminal on macOS) and run each line. You should see a version number, not an error:
node --version
npm --version
python --version
psql --version
git --version
gh --version On macOS you may need python3 --version. If any command isn't found, close and reopen the terminal first — new installs often need a fresh window.