Skip to content

GETTING-STARTED.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
103 lines (71 loc) · 4.2 KB

GETTING-STARTED.md

File metadata and controls

103 lines (71 loc) · 4.2 KB

Getting started — the gentle version

Never opened a terminal? Never installed a developer tool? You're in the right place. This page walks you through your very first website with website-builder, in plain language. You won't need to understand the whole toolchain — your AI assistant handles the technical parts and explains each step as it goes.

If you get stuck at any point, you can always type "what does this do?" or "I'm confused, can you explain that more simply?" to your assistant. That's allowed, and it works.

What you need first

Just three things to begin:

  1. An AI coding assistant. Pick one:
    • Claude Code (recommended) — see the setup guide.
    • OpenAI Codex or Google Antigravity also work.
  2. A GitHub account (free) — this is where your website's files will live safely. You'll make one at github.com if you don't have it; your assistant will point you there when it's time.
  3. Your computer. macOS, Linux, or Windows are all fine.

You do not need to install anything else right now. Tools like Node, git, or image helpers get installed later — only if and when your site actually needs them, and your assistant will offer to do it for you.

A Cloudflare account (also free) comes up later, when you're ready to publish your site to the internet. You don't need it on day one.

Step by step

1. Open your AI assistant

Start the assistant you installed (for example, Claude Code). You'll get a chat box where you type to it in normal language — like texting a knowledgeable friend.

2. Make a new, empty folder for your website

A "folder" is just like a folder on your desktop — a container for your website's files. Make a fresh, empty one so your new site starts clean and nothing gets mixed up. You can ask your assistant: "Help me make a new empty folder for my website and open it."

3. Paste the starter prompt

Copy this into the chat and send it:

I want to use the website-builder skill suite (https://github.com/karero/website-builder) to create a new website. Please guide me step by step in plain language. First, check which required tools this computer already has. Explain every command before you run it, and install missing tools only when they're actually needed. Then install the website-builder skills, tell me when to restart or reopen you so the skills load, and continue from there — starting a fresh site by running new website in a new, empty folder.

The assistant will take it from there: it checks what's on your computer, installs the website-builder skills, and asks your approval before doing anything that changes your system.

4. Answer its questions

Once it runs new website, the assistant interviews you about the site you want. These are decisions, not commands — things like:

  • What is this website for? Who is it for?
  • What should it be called?
  • Roughly what pages do you want?

Answer in your own words. There are no wrong answers, and you can change your mind.

5. Let it build

From your answers, the assistant creates the site, drafts the pages, adds the behind-the- scenes things that make a site fast and findable (SEO, accessibility checks, structured data), and runs its own quality tests. It'll show you what it made and help you adjust.

6. Publish when you're ready

When the site looks good, the assistant helps you put it online (this is where the free Cloudflare account comes in). Again — it walks you through it.

A few reassurances

  • Nothing happens without your say-so. The assistant asks before installing anything or making changes.
  • You can stop and ask anytime. "Slow down", "explain that", "what just happened" all work.
  • You own everything. The website's code, its repository, and its domain are yours — this isn't a rented platform you can be locked out of.

Want the technical details?

If you're comfortable with a terminal, or you're curious what the assistant is actually running under the hood, see the Manual install & technical reference section of the README — every exact command is listed there.