Uncommon Waters
Academy
← 101 BuildWeek 1 · Nov 9 – Nov 13

Cursor and the IDE

working locally with AI

Student works in Cursor on their own laptop: knows the layout, has caught the AI fluent and wrong, has an AGENTS.md the agent obeys, one custom command and one skill, and a one-page product running on localhost.

Monday · 90 minutes live

  1. 5′Open: six weeks, and this week nothing leaves your laptop.
  2. 22′Install Cursor together, privacy mode on (on camera), open the course folder. Tour: files, editor, chat (Ask vs Agent), @filename mentions, accept/reject a change, undo with a checkpoint, the browser preview.
  3. 15′First conversation with AI, Ask mode, about something you know cold. Catch it fluent and wrong; one line in the shared doc.
  4. 8′What you just saw: predicts the next word, wants to finish, model vs product. The chat is a guess; the page is the truth.
  5. 20′AGENTS.md: rules the agent reads every time, because rules typed in chat fade. Write six lines (including 'ask me 3 clarifying questions before you build'). Then ask the agent for a one-page product site using @PRODUCT.md and open it on localhost. Test one rule: ask for a key; it should refuse.
  6. 15′Commands and skills: a command is a saved prompt you run by name (/done-check); a skill is a folder of know-how the agent pulls in when it is relevant. Build /done-check together; demo one skill.
  7. 5′Habits for a local week: end every session with the page open in the browser; keys never in chat; transcripts are kept. Buddy pairs posted.

Tuesday to Thursday · you build

  • PRODUCT.md: who it is for, what they do today, what would change. No tech words.
  • Three changes to the page, each in a new chat, each checked in the browser and with /done-check.
  • Two-run table in week-1/: same ask with no definition of done, then with a written one. Screenshot both.
  • One skill of your own: my-product, holding PRODUCT.md and how you want the page to sound.

Office hours · two 30-minute blocks

  1. 1Tuesday: install problems, locked-down laptops, the IDE tour again for anyone lost.
  2. 2Thursday: show me the page on localhost, your AGENTS.md, and /done-check running.

Exam whisper · five minutes of vocabulary

Create the OpenAI Academy and Anthropic Academy accounts. Exam Whisper: AI vs. ML vs. GenAI, foundation models, training vs. inference, context window.