1. Create a free GitHub account. GitHub is where most people store their code. If you create a GitHub account, you’ll be able to deploy your projects more easily in the future.

2. Download Cursor. Cursor is currently free to use up to 50 searches. Upgrading to Pro with the free 2-week trial will extend your search limit to 150 searches:

   • If you are a student with a .edu email, you can get Cursor Pro for free for one year. Sign up here.
   • If you hit 150 premium searches today (that would be impressive!), you will need to pay for Cursor Pro ($20) to get up to 500 searches, slow premium searches, and usage-based pricing.

3. If you already have Cursor on your computer, make sure to update to the latest version. You can do this by clicking on “Cursor” in the menu bar and selecting “Check for Updates…”.

4. Open Cursor. After the onboarding screens, log in with GitHub and make sure you see these three buttons. If you do not see all three buttons, you may need to download the latest version of Cursor onto your computer.

   

Set up command line tools

If you are a Windows user, the course documentation currently does not support Windows dev tool set up. You should be able to set up with Windows Command Prompt in the same way. If you run into any problems, please ask in Discord to get help!

a. Some experience with the command line.

If you have used Terminal or coded before, run the following commands:

1. brew --version: If “command not found”, jump to section (b) to install Homebrew.
2. git --version: If “command not found”, run brew install git. You will need Homebrew for this.
3. node --version: If “command not found”, run brew install node. You will need Homebrew for this.

b. New to command line and coding.

If you’ve never used Terminal before, this part might seem a little scary 😳. The commands you paste into the terminal are basically ways for you to communicate with the computer.

1. Open Terminal. Use spotlight (Cmd-Space) and search for “Terminal.” Then, press Return to open it.

   

2. Install Homebrew, a package manager that makes it easy to install developer tools. A package manager helps your computer install software it needs to run other software. Press Copy and paste the following command into your terminal.

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

3. Press Return to run the command.

   

4. You will be asked to enter your computer’s password. When you’re typing, you won’t see any characters appear and this is normal! Press Return after you finish typing your password and the installs will begin.

5. Next, Homebrew will begin by installing Xcode Command Line Tools (if you do not have them installed already). If a popup window does not appear, click the blue download icon in your Dock to open it. Then, click Install to start the installation process.

   

6. Once this download finishes, Homebrew will complete its own installation. You'll see a lot of text scrolling in your terminal. This is normal!

7. At the end of all the text, you will see some instructions saying “Next steps.” Run the commands that you see in Terminal. It will be something like this:

   echo >> /Users/[REPLACE WITH YOUR USERNAME]/.zprofile
   echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> /Users/[REPLACE WITH YOUR USERNAME]/.zprofile
   eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
   

   Please do not copy exactly what you see here because you’ll need to replace the [REPLACE WITH YOUR USERNAME] with your own.