Step 1 · What you're making

A one-page personal site

Your first project should be small, personal, and finishable in one sitting. A one-page site about you — or your practice, your band, your side project — is perfect: you know the content cold, you'll recognize instantly whether it feels right, and publishing it proves the whole loop works.

Small enough to finish today
Personal enough that your taste can steer
Public enough to feel like a real win

Resist the urge to start with the big idea. The big idea deserves the skills you're about to build on this small one.

Step 2 · Two accounts, ten minutes

Set up Claude and GitHub

You need two free-to-start accounts, and you may already have both:

A Claude account with Code access Sign in at claude.ai, then open claude.ai/code. If your plan includes Claude Code, you'll see a place to start a session. No installation.

A GitHub account Sign up at github.com. For now, think of it as the filing cabinet where your project will live. The GitHub chapter explains the rest — later, when the words matter.

When Claude Code asks to connect to your GitHub account, approve it. That handshake is what lets Claude create and update projects on your behalf.

Step 3 · A home for the project

Start a session, get a repository

On claude.ai/code, start a new session and tell Claude you want to begin a brand-new project. You can ask it, in plain English, to create a new repository for you — say, my-first-site. A repository ("repo") is just your project's folder, with a memory. Claude handles the creation; you approve it.

Session started at claude.ai/code
New repository created and connected

Name repos in lowercase with hyphens — my-first-site, not My First Site!!. It's the one formatting convention worth adopting on day one.

Step 4 · The brief

Tell it what you want, like a person

This is the whole skill. Describe the outcome — not the technology. Here's a brief you can copy and fill in:

First-site brief

Build me a one-page personal website.

About: [your name], a [what you do] in [where].
It should include: a short intro, three things I'm proud of,
and a way to contact me ([email or links]).

Tone: [warm / minimal / bold — pick one].
Colors I like: [e.g. deep green and cream].
Make it look professional on a phone as well as a laptop.

I don't write code — explain what you're doing in plain
English as you go, and ask me before anything major.

That last paragraph is legitimate and powerful. Claude Code adapts to it — you'll get plain-English narration and more careful check-ins for the whole session.

Step 5 · While it works

What you'll see, and how to respond

Claude will think for a moment, sketch a plan, and start creating files. Expect three kinds of moments that need you:

Questions "Do you want the contact section as a form or as links?" Answer with your preference. "Whatever's simpler" is an acceptable answer.

Permission prompts Claude asks before consequential actions — creating the repo, publishing, running certain commands. Read the sentence, then approve. This is the seatbelt.

Progress narration Notes about files being created and checked. You don't have to understand them. Skim, or just let them scroll.

Expect this

A first build takes minutes, not seconds. That's normal — it's doing real, multi-step work, not autocompleting a sentence.

Step 6 · The look

React like a director, not a developer

When Claude shows you the page (a preview, a screenshot, or a link), respond to what you see and feel. These are all real, effective revision requests:

"The heading is too loud. Calm it down."
"More space between sections — let it breathe."
"Can I see the same page with a darker background?"

Two or three rounds of this is normal. You are not being difficult; you are doing your job. The How to Talk to It chapter turns this into a repeatable craft.

Step 7 · Publish

Put it on the internet

One sentence does it:

Publish request

This looks good. Publish it with GitHub Pages and give me
the public link when it's live.

GitHub Pages is free hosting built into GitHub — right for a first project. Claude sets it up, pushes the files, and hands you a URL like yourname.github.io/my-first-site. The first publish can take a few minutes to go live. Open it on your phone. Send it to one person you like.

Step 8 · What just happened

You used the scary words without noticing

Quietly, in one afternoon, you used every concept that kept you away:

Repository — your project's folder with a memory
Commits — save points Claude made as it worked
Deploy — copying your files to a public server
Hosting — the server that shows your page to the world

Next time you open the session, you can just say what you want changed — "add a photo," "new section for testimonials" — and the loop repeats. When you're ready to make it truly professional, the Website Playbook is the next chapter.

One small website, start to finish.