Get your laptop ready before the workshop.

Install Ghostty

Ghostty is a fast, native terminal app. It handles long output smoothly (which matters when an AI is generating code) and stays out of your way.

Go to ghostty.org/download, grab the macOS “Universal Binary” .dmg, open it, and drag Ghostty to Applications. Open it (⌘ Space, type “Ghostty”, Enter). You should see a window with a blinking cursor. (If you already have Homebrew from an earlier project, brew install --cask ghostty does the same.)

Open Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is Microsoft's modern terminal. On Windows 11 it's pre-installed; on Windows 10 grab it free from the Microsoft Store.

Open it with Win + X → Terminal, or search “Terminal” in the Start menu. Make sure you're in a PowerShell tab (the default), not Command Prompt.

Install Homebrew (the package manager)

Homebrew is an app store for developer tools that runs in the terminal. Paste this into Ghostty:

$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

It asks for your Mac password. Nothing appears as you type — that's normal. Press Enter. Follow any “Next steps” it prints at the end (usually two lines to paste).

Install Git for Windows

Git is how your code gets to GitHub, and Claude Code uses the bundled Git Bash to run commands (without it, it falls back to PowerShell, which is less reliable). Download from git-scm.com/downloads/win and install with the default settings — or run winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget in PowerShell.

Close and reopen Windows Terminal so it picks up the new PATH. Then verify:

PS> git --version
# Should print something like: git version 2.5x.x.windows.1

Where am I: pwd

“Print working directory.” Shows which folder you're in.

$ pwd
# /Users/yourname

What's here: ls

“List.” Shows what's in the current folder.

$ ls
# Desktop  Documents  Downloads  Projects ...

Move around: cd

“Change directory.” cd .. goes up one level; cd ~ goes home from anywhere.

# Go into Documents
$ cd Documents
# Back up one level
$ cd ..
# Home, from anywhere
$ cd ~

Create folders: mkdir

“Make directory.” -p creates parent folders if needed.

$ mkdir -p ~/Projects/workshop

The pattern you'll use every time

# 1. Go to your project folder
$ cd ~/Projects/my-project
# 2. Start the agent
$ claude
# 3. Talk to it in plain English
"Create a web page with a hero section and a contact form"
# 4. Exit when done
/exit

# 1. Go to your project folder
$ cd ~/Projects/my-project
# 2. Start the agent
$ codex
# 3. Talk to it in plain English
"Create a web page with a hero section and a contact form"
# 4. Exit when done (Ctrl+C also works)
/quit

Create a GitHub account

If you don't have one: github.com/signup. Free is all you need. Two minutes.

Install the GitHub CLI

$ brew install gh

PS> winget install --id GitHub.cli --source winget

Close and reopen Windows Terminal after installing.

Then log in:

$ gh auth login

When asked, choose: GitHub.com (not Enterprise) → HTTPS → Login with a web browser. It opens your browser to authorize. Verify:

$ gh auth status
# Logged in to github.com as yourname

Dry run: publish a page to GitHub Pages

Optional, but it proves the whole pipeline works before the workshop. GitHub Pages hosts static sites for free.

$ mkdir -p ~/Projects/my-page
$ cd ~/Projects/my-page
$ claude$ codex --approve-for-me

PS> mkdir -p ~\Projects\my-page
PS> cd ~\Projects\my-page
PS> claudePS> codex --approve-for-me

Then tell it:

Build a simple landing page with a hero section, an about
section, and a contact link. Clean, modern design, everything
in a single index.html file.

Then create a GitHub repository called "my-page", push this
project to it, and set up GitHub Pages so it's live on the web.
Give me the URL when it's done.

It will build the page, init Git, create the repo, push, enable Pages, and hand you a URL like https://yourusername.github.io/my-page/. Live within a minute or two.

To change it later: cd back into the folder, start the agent, and say “Update the headline, then push to GitHub.”

Create a Railway account

Go to railway.com and click Login → Login with GitHub. Using your GitHub account means Railway can deploy straight from your repos later.

New accounts start on a free trial with a small credit. To deploy for real you'll need the Hobby plan ($5/month), which includes $5 of usage — a small workshop app costs cents. You can add a card later; the trial is enough for the workshop.

Install the Railway CLI

$ brew install railway

PS> npm i -g @railway/cli

Then log in — it opens your browser:

$ railway login
$ railway whoami
# Logged in as you@example.com

That's all the agent needs: once you're logged in, it can run railway commands on your behalf.

Optional: create an API token

A token lets tools deploy without the browser login — useful for GitHub Actions or if the agent runs somewhere that can't open a browser. Not needed for the workshop itself, but here's how:

1. Open railway.com/account/tokens.
2. Give it a name (e.g. workshop), leave the workspace as is, click Create.
3. Copy it immediately — it's shown only once.

Use it by setting an environment variable before running commands:

$ export RAILWAY_API_TOKEN=paste-your-token-here
$ railway whoami

PS> $env:RAILWAY_API_TOKEN = "paste-your-token-here"
PS> railway whoami

Deploy something

Inside your project folder, start the agent and tell it:

Deploy this app to Railway: create a new Railway project,
make sure the server listens on the PORT environment variable,
deploy it, generate a public domain and give me the URL.

Under the hood that's railway init → railway up → railway domain. A minute later you have a live URL like my-app-production.up.railway.app. Redeploy any time with “push the latest changes to Railway.”