AI Setup

Tools you’ll use during the cohort. Start with the free tiers; upgrade as you grow.

AI-based IDE — Cursor or Claude Code

We recommend Cursor to start (e.g. $20 plan). It’s similar to VS Code (it’s a fork) and lets you see code changes clearly. Claude Code is also strong but is terminal-based.

Use your AI-based IDE for the first milestone: setting up a Quarto blog and pushing to GitHub.

ChatGPT

You can start with the free tier. As your skills grow, a minimum ~$20/month subscription is useful to use better “thinking” models.

Open Router

Open Router gives you a single API to many models. Check whether signup gives you free credits and use it for experimentation.