Phase 0 · Tools · Developer tools
The terminal
Navigate folders and run programs by typing commands.
Why it matters
Almost every AI tool starts in the terminal. Installing a library, running a script, starting a local model, cloning a project from GitHub, even running coding assistants like Claude Code: the instructions are terminal commands. Once typing cd and ls feels normal, a README full of commands stops looking like a wall and starts looking like a checklist.
What you'll be able to do
- Find out where you are and move between folders with pwd, ls and cd
- Create, read, copy, move and delete files from the command line
- Run a Python script from the terminal
- Read the setup instructions in an AI project's README without guessing
Before this lesson
Next in this phase: Version control with git