Basic Vibe Coding

What This Track Covers

12 lessons from zero to deployed project. Each lesson builds on the last, culminating in a real working project you own.

Phase 1 — Foundations

Lesson 1

Your First Project Directory

What is a project? Files vs folders vs workspaces. Where to put things. How to keep your code from turning into a pile of loose files. We set up a project from scratch together.

Lesson 2

The Terminal Is Not Scary

The 5 commands you actually need. Navigating, creating files, running things. We'll do it together and you'll see it's just typing.

Lesson 3

Git, But Just Enough

init, add, commit, push, pull. No branching, no rebasing, no theory. Just enough version control to save your work and not lose it. We commit your first project.

Lesson 4

How to Ask AI to Write Code

The specific prompt patterns that produce working code vs plausible-looking garbage. Giving it your file structure. Asking it to explain what it wrote. The one question that prevents most bugs.

Phase 2 — Building

Lesson 5

APIs: Your Project Talking to the World

What an API is, how to call one, how to get an API key, and how not to accidentally publish it on GitHub. We'll build a script that calls a real API and prints the result.

Lesson 6

File I/O: Reading and Writing Data

Reading a CSV. Writing a JSON file. Processing a batch of inputs. The backbone of every automation pipeline.

Lesson 7

Pipeline Patterns: Chain, Filter, Batch

The three pipeline shapes that cover 90% of automation tasks. Building a real pipeline that takes input, processes it with an LLM, and writes output.

Lesson 8

Error Handling: Why Things Break and How to Fix Them

The most common errors (file not found, API timeout, rate limit, JSON parse fail) and how to handle each. Try/catch, logging, and the retry pattern.

Phase 3 — Shipping

Lesson 9

Environment Variables and Secrets

Why you never hardcode API keys. Using .env files. How to keep secrets out of git and out of your clipboard history.

Lesson 10

Deploying: GitHub Pages, Vercel, and a Simple Server

The three easiest ways to put something on the internet. Static sites, serverless functions, and the cheapest VPS. We deploy your project.

Lesson 11

Building a Real App End-to-End

A complete walkthrough: idea → prototype → deploy. You'll build something that takes input, calls an LLM, processes the result, and serves it as a web page.

Lesson 12

Next Steps: Projects, Communities, and Staying Unstuck

What to build next. Where to ask for help without getting roasted. How to debug when AI gives you broken code. The meta-skill of learning to learn with AI.