Short, practical sessions on artificial intelligence and process automation for small businesses — explained with things you already understand.
Emile du Toit
brainitconsulting.com
What a chatbot actually is. A large language model is a horse with no saddle: strong, fast, and no use to you yet. This session fits the bridle and the saddle — steering it with words, and writing your standing instructions once so every conversation starts properly.
Covers Large language models · prompting · the context window · standing instructions · how it goes wrong · getting an account open
Open workshop #001 DownloadWhen a chatbot starts doing a job. Tools are what let it reach the real world — read your price list, put a draft in a file, go and look something up. Add a goal and a loop and you have an agent, which is a much duller word than it sounds.
Covers Tool use · the agentic loop · when a mistake repeats · rules of the barn · three worked examples · picking your first job
Open workshop #002 DownloadWhere your work actually lives. You have been carrying every fact out to the horse by hand and every answer back — that is what a chat window costs you. This session is files, folders, and the one idea that keeps everything after it safe: one folder, one job.
Covers Why the chat window has a ceiling · files and folders · the project folder · nothing to install
Open workshop #003 DownloadThe building where the gear hangs ready. What a code editor actually is, the three parts of the screen worth knowing, and the black panel that turns out to be a door rather than a test. You leave with it installed and working.
Covers The editor · the three regions · the terminal, gently · what can and can't go wrong · a twenty-minute setup
Open workshop #004 DownloadIt starts doing the actual work — reading your files, writing new ones, running things. And it stops at every gate to ask first. That pause is what makes it safe, and this session is about what it means and how to read it.
Covers What an agent is · the permission prompt · the three approval modes · what it can and can't reach · taking the reins back
Open workshop #005 DownloadSafe is not the same as useful. This session is how to describe a job so you get the thing you meant, how to write your house rules into the folder so you stop repeating them, and which jobs are worth handing over first.
Covers Describing a job · standing instructions in the folder · Claude Code and Codex · good first jobs · what to keep away from it
Open workshop #006 DownloadEverybody has a folder with four copies of the same file in it. This session replaces all of that with one file and a trail of markers behind it, so any mistake becomes a step backwards rather than a rebuild. It is the session that lets you stop working on copies.
Covers Version control in plain English · markers and notes · putting a file back · GitHub · what to say instead of typing commands
Open workshop #007 DownloadAsk for “something to track my estimates” and you will get something that tracks estimates — and is no use at six in the morning. This session is how to write one page that says what you actually want, and how to get the assistant to ask you the questions you would not have thought of.
Covers Why plain requests go wrong · the five headings · a real map, in full · making it interview you · plan mode
Open workshop #008 DownloadA folder of files works until two people need it at once, until you want it on your phone, or until the same fact is written in two places and one of them is wrong. This session is what replaces it — one place the information lives — and the equally useful question of when you do not need one at all.
Covers When a folder is still right · who is going to use it · rows and columns · reading a query · getting a free database
Open workshop #009 DownloadEverything you have built so far can be seen by exactly one person. This session closes that gap — a real address on the internet, the fenced middle step that stops you publishing mistakes, and how to put yesterday's version back in about two seconds when something goes wrong in front of customers.
Covers What “on the internet” really is · preview against production · deploying · rolling back · keeping secrets out of the page
Open workshop #010 DownloadThings do not break loudly. A change in March quietly stops the phone number working, and you find out in July from somebody who tried to call you in April. This session is the short list of things that must never quietly stop being true, and how to have a machine check them every single time.
Covers What to check and what to ignore · checking work you cannot read · tests in plain English · running them automatically · the five-minute monthly round
Open workshop #011 DownloadEverything you have built so far has had one user, and it was you. This is what changes the moment somebody else needs to get in — how a thing works out who somebody is, how to keep one customer out of another’s business, and why you should never be in the password business. It is also the last session in the series.
Covers Sign-in without passwords · who may see what · sending mail that arrives · what to do next · where the line is
Open workshop #012 DownloadEach session runs about forty-five minutes and ends somewhere useful, so missing one does not leave you stranded. Sessions #001 to #009 are the beginner track and assume nothing. From #010 they are marked Intermediate — not harder to follow, but they assume you have done the ones before.
That is the whole series. Twelve sessions, start to finish. Every one stays online, stays printable and stays free, and the class folder keeps a marker for the end of each one — so you can pick up anything you missed whenever it becomes useful, rather than whenever it was taught.