Welcome

Module 0 prepares your environment so the rest of the course flows: welcome, hardware check, cost-path triage (BEFORE account creation per Phase 1 D-16), account creation, and a first-run walkthrough of GitHub Codespaces.

What this module builds

By the end of this module, you can open a working development environment in your browser, signed in with exactly the accounts your chosen cost path needs, and reach Module 1 ready to learn.

Each lesson builds on the last:

• Lesson 1 — Welcome: you know what the course is, who it's for, what you'll have built, and what it'll cost → sets up Lesson 2 by handing you the first setup decision: where your work will live.
• Lesson 2 — Hardware check: you've picked Codespaces or a local install based on a short triage, not by installing things and finding the cost later → sets up Lesson 3 by running the same triage on the thing that actually costs money: your AI tool.
• Lesson 3 — Cost-path triage: you've picked one of the three honest cost paths and know which AI-agent account it needs → sets up Lesson 4 by telling you exactly which accounts to create and which to skip.
• Lesson 4 — Account creation: you've created only the accounts your path requires (GitHub plus one AI-agent account) → sets up Lesson 5 by giving you the GitHub sign-in that opens your environment.
• Lesson 5 — Codespaces walkthrough: you've opened your environment, run a command in it, and reached Module 1's index → sets up Module 1, where you build the mental models the rest of the course rests on.

The thread that ties it together: ask "what does this cost me?" before "how do I install it?" — the same triage habit you'll carry into every AI prompt in Module 3.