Environment Setup

You can follow the course with whichever AI coding tools you prefer. Use this page to choose your tools and development environment.

AI coding tools

You can use one or more of:

• Chat assistants: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek.
• Coding assistants / IDEs: Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Antigravity, Gemini CLI.
• Project bootstrappers: Bolt, Lovable, and similar tools.

Use the tool you’re comfortable with because we teach transferable workflows instead of requiring one product.

Costs

You can complete most of the course with free tiers or low-cost tools. Free tiers have quota limits, and some exercises may use paid model APIs or cloud services. Check current provider pricing before you start. Set budget limits where available, and ask in Slack before paying for a service you’re unsure about.

See Before You Start for the shared guidance on cloud costs and account setup.

Development environment

You can work locally or in GitHub Codespaces. The examples use Git and GitHub, Python with uv, Node.js, and Docker. Check each module README for its setup commands and additional requirements.

Cloud and deployment

Modules 3 and 4 use a deployed application. You can choose a platform such as Render, Fly.io, Railway, or Cloud Run. Keep credentials in environment variables, check current pricing, and remove resources you no longer use.