Everything you install across the twelve workshops, in one place, with the Mac version of every step. Nothing here is urgent — come back when a workshop asks you to.
Presented by Emile du Toit
brainitconsulting.com
Pick one now. You can move up later, and most people do not need to.
Read the workshops, watch the exercises being done, install nothing. Plenty of people work this way for the first few sessions and start typing at #004.
You need: nothing at all.
The one I steer most people to. A free account at claude.ai or chatgpt.com, open in a tab beside your work. You describe, it writes, you paste. This carries you through every workshop.
You need: an email address.
Claude Code or Codex, working directly in your folder instead of handing you text to paste. Worth it once you are doing this most weeks. Not before.
You need: a paid plan, from #005 onward. Codex also runs on the free ChatGPT plan, sized for quick tasks.
Work free through #008, which is where the thinking is. The browser route does everything #001 to #008 ask for. It gets through #009 and #010 with more effort — both have routes that are all clicking — and it runs out at #011, where the labs need the assistant writing files into your folder and running them.
So pay at the point the free way starts annoying you, and not before. That is a real signal, you will know it when it arrives, and by then you will have used one on real work for a month. That is a far better way to decide than taking my word for it in week one.
Nobody should install Node.js in week one. Here is the honest order.
| What | First needed | Why, and whether you can skip it |
|---|---|---|
| A browser account | #001 | claude.ai or chatgpt.com. Free. This is the only thing #001 to #003 need. |
| VS Code | #004 | The window onto your own folder. Free, from Microsoft, about three minutes. |
| A coding agent | #005 | Optional, and about $20 a month. The free browser route does everything through #008 with more pasting, and runs out at #011. |
| Git | #007 | Your undo. Free. On a Mac it may already be there. |
| A GitHub account | #007 | Free. Where your work lives when the laptop does not. |
| A Vercel account | #009 | Free hobby plan, no card. The database in #009 comes from its marketplace; #010 is where it puts your work on the internet. |
| Node.js | #009 | Only if you let the assistant use the Vercel command-line tool. Every lab that needs it has a clicking route that does not. |
Open the one a workshop has asked for. Ignore the rest until they come up.
Pick one. You do not need both, and comparing them on day one will only slow you down.
Open Settings and find the option about whether your conversations may be used to improve the model. Both services have one, in slightly different places. Decide once now.
code command, press Cmd+Shift+P, type shell command, pick Install ‘code’ command in PATH.Everywhere these workshops say Ctrl, you press Cmd.
Only if you have decided to pay. Everything in the workshops works without this; you paste instead.
In VS Code use Terminal → New Terminal, which opens already inside the right folder. On Windows:
On a Mac:
Close that terminal, open a new one, and type claude. There is also winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode on Windows or brew install --cask claude-code on a Mac.
Start at chatgpt.com/codex and choose Sign in with ChatGPT when it first runs. Which plans include how much has changed more than once — check it yourself rather than trusting a figure written months ago.
The extension and the desktop app are the same thing in different clothes and share one sign-in. You do not need both.
git --version.You will not be typing git commands. VS Code has buttons for all of it, and #007 walks you through them.
Skip this unless a workshop has told you that you need it. Publishing to Vercel through its website needs none of it and gives the same result.
A number means you are set. Then the Vercel tool:
All of these have happened to somebody, and none of them mean you have broken anything.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| VS Code asks whether you trust the authors | Yes. It is your own folder and you are the author. |
claude or node is not recognised | The terminal was open before the install finished. Close it, open a new one. Works nearly every time. |
| No Source Control options in VS Code | Git was installed while VS Code was running. Close it fully and reopen. |
| “Claude Code requires a paid plan” | Expected — the free account does not open it. Use the browser route and carry on. |
| The Vercel tool will not install | It needs Node.js 20 or newer. Install Node, or skip it and publish through the website. |
missing_scope from the Vercel tool | Your account is in more than one team, so it will not guess. Add --scope <your team>. |
| An installer wants an administrator password | Normal for Git and Node on Windows. If it is a work laptop and you do not have one, that is the one thing these workshops cannot get around. |
This works better than searching, and it is a habit worth forming early.
Open your free browser account and paste this, with your own details filled in. Being walked through one step at a time beats being handed the whole answer.
If it goes wrong in a way this page does not cover, paste the exact error message in. Error messages look like nonsense and read perfectly well to an assistant.