Best first watch
Tutorial 1: your first beginner setup
Best first watch. Use this when you want the simplest possible explanation of how to begin with one folder and one agent.
Start Here
Your first 20 minutes with a coding agent.
This page is for the person who saw a LinkedIn post or heard a friend talk about coding agents and thought: I want in, but I do not know where to start.
Watch First
If you want the easiest possible entry, start with tutorial 1.
The video gives you the full walkthrough. This page turns it into a slower companion guide you can reuse while you work.
Step Zero
Before you ask the agent to do anything, make the folder feel safe.
The beginner mistake is asking for too much too early. The better move is to establish boundaries before the first big action.
Make the folder
- Create a fresh folder on your desktop.
- Treat it like a sandbox, not like your whole digital life.
- Name it something simple like ai-sandbox-v1.
Open one agent tool
- Use the coding agent tool you already have access to.
- If you have both Claude Code and Codex, either works for this site.
- The principle matters more than the brand.
Stay readable
- Ask for plain English.
- Prefer one journal over a huge file tree.
- Make the agent explain before it acts.
Open Only What You Need
Use these prompts as checkpoints, not as a wall of text to read all at once.
Most beginners feel overwhelmed because the agent does too much. These prompts give you three calm reset points.
1. Open your folder with this first prompt Use this to tell the agent you are a beginner and to keep the scope small.
Pasteable Prompt
First folder prompt
You are helping a complete beginner learn coding agents.
Rules for this folder:
- Stay inside this folder.
- Ask before creating more than one new file.
- Keep everything readable and plain English.
- Put today's running notes in journal.md.
- If you want to make a plan, make it short.
About me:
- I work in sales and browse LinkedIn a lot.
- I have never coded before.
- I want to learn by building tiny real things.
Start by explaining what this folder should contain today, then help me make one tiny project.Good first signal: the agent responds with a short explanation and a tiny plan instead of immediately creating a maze.
2. Use this when the agent does too much This is the rescue prompt for overwhelming output.
Pasteable Prompt
Use this when the output is too much
Stop. This is too much for me right now.
Please condense what you made into one document I can read in five minutes.
For future steps:
- do the minimum useful amount of work
- ask me before making lots of files
- prefer one clear note over a big folder tree
- if you are unsure how much I want, askThis is not a failure. It is how you teach the agent to slow down and stay usable.
3. End with a short restart note This is how tomorrow-you starts without stress.
Pasteable Prompt
End-of-session prompt
Before we stop, write two short sections in today's journal:
1. What we did
2. What I should do next time
Keep it short enough that tomorrow-me can restart without stress.If you adopt one habit in week one, make it this one.
Next Move
Once the folder feels safe, move into the five-day sprint.
That is where this turns from “interesting” into “I can actually do this.”