Build Your First Project — Cadence Learn

01 Start

Make the project

Every project gets its own folder under ~/Dev (remember Module 01). Make one for this, step in, and start Ada:

Terminal

$ cd ~/Dev
$ mkdir about-me
$ cd about-me
$ claude          # starts Ada in this folder

That's the last bit of terminal you strictly need. From here, you mostly just talk to Ada.

02 Describe it

Let Ada build the first version

Tell Ada what you want in plain English. Be specific about the pieces, not the code:

Say to Ada

Create a simple one-page website about me called index.html. Put my name as a big heading, a short bio paragraph, and a button that says "Say hello" — when I click it, show a friendly message. Keep it clean and modern.

Ada writes the file for you. You'll get something like this — you don't have to type it, but here's what a first index.html looks like so it's not a mystery:

index.html — what Ada creates

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <body>
    <h1>Alex Rivera</h1>
    <p>I'm learning to build software. This is my first page.</p>
    <button onclick="alert('Hello! 👋')">Say hello</button>
  </body>
</html>

Ask Ada to explain

Curious what a line does? Just ask: "explain what you just wrote, line by line." Every step is a lesson if you want it to be.

03 See it

See it in your browser

Open the page you just made. Ask Ada, or do it yourself:

Terminal

$ open index.html      # opens the page in your browser (Mac)

There it is — a real web page you built. Click your button. That message popping up? That's your code running.

04 Change it

Make it yours

This is where it gets fun. Ask Ada for changes and watch them happen — refresh the browser after each one:

Say to Ada

Give the page a dark background with white text, center everything, and make the heading a nice color. Then change the bio to something about what I actually like.

Refresh the page. Different, right? That loop — ask, refresh, see — is 90% of what building software feels like. Keep tweaking until it feels like you.

05 Save it

Save it — safely

Remember from Module 01: Ada handles this for you. Just ask:

Say to Ada

Put this project on GitHub and save my work.

Ada creates the repo, commits your work, and pushes it to GitHub — your page is now backed up in the cloud and part of your portfolio. You didn't have to remember a single git command.

06 Ship it

Put it online (optional)

Want the world to see it? You set up a free Cloudflare account in Module 01 — Ada can use it to publish your page to a real web address:

Say to Ada

Publish this page to the internet with Cloudflare and give me the link.

Free, and keep it that way

Hosting a small page like this is free (Module 12). If Ada ever mentions something that could cost money, it'll stop and tell you first.

What you just learned

You made a real thing, changed it, saved it, and maybe shipped it. More importantly, you felt the core loop of all software:

Describe what you want →
See it run →
Adjust until it's right →
Save it.

Everything you'll ever build is just this loop, bigger. Nice work.

Next up

Things will break as you build bigger — and that's normal. Module 04 — Reading errors & debugging →