Google AI Studio

A free workspace from Google where you build apps by describing them to an AI. Its Build mode writes the code, shows you a live preview as you go, and syncs your finished project straight to GitHub. This course uses it as your main workshop — it is where your first app gets built.

Think of it as a pottery wheel with an expert potter's hands guiding yours: you say what you want, and you watch it take shape in front of you.

ChatGPT

OpenAI's AI chat assistant. In this course you use it for the thinking work: brainstorming app ideas, writing build prompts, and running the planning conversations that produce your user stories and architecture brief.

A tireless colleague you can think out loud with — one who never gets bored of your questions.

Claude

Anthropic's AI chat assistant — a direct alternative to ChatGPT. Every planning conversation in this course works equally well in any of the three; use whichever you prefer.

Gemini

Google's AI chat assistant, at gemini.google.com — the third alternative for the planning conversations in this course. Do not confuse it with Google AI Studio: both are Google's and both run on Gemini models, but AI Studio is the workshop where your app is built, while Gemini is an ordinary chat window for thinking an idea through first.

GitHub

A website that stores your app's code in a repository — which is just a project folder that lives online. It keeps every version of every file, forever. This course uses it as the permanent home for your app's code and as the bridge to Vercel: when new code lands on GitHub, your live site updates.

If Google AI Studio is your workshop, GitHub is the storage unit where the master blueprints are kept — like Google Drive, but built for code.

Git

The free program that GitHub is built on. It tracks every change made to your files and moves code between your computer and GitHub. You meet it in Part 3 when you "clone" (download a copy of) your project. You never need to learn it deeply — VS Code presses its buttons for you.

Track-changes in a Word document, but for your entire project at once.

Vercel

A hosting service — it takes your code from GitHub and runs it on the internet at a public URL, so anyone can use your app. Every time you push a change to GitHub, Vercel rebuilds and republishes your site automatically. This course uses it because that automation makes publishing a non-event.

The printing press and delivery network for your app: GitHub holds the manuscript, Vercel prints it and gets it into readers' hands.

VS Code

A free code editor from Microsoft — a program for viewing and editing all your project's files in one window, with a built-in terminal (the place where you type commands). This course uses it in Part 3 as the home base for AI coding tools.

The difference between a proper writing app and typing into a text box on a website: both work, but one is built for the job.

Node.js

A free program that lets JavaScript-based tools run on your own computer. You install it once in Part 3 and then never think about it again — it exists so that tools like Codex CLI and Claude Code can run.

The electricity supply in your workshop. You do not use it directly; the tools you plug in do.

Codex CLI

OpenAI's AI coding tool. It runs in the terminal inside VS Code: you type an instruction in plain English, and it reads your project and edits the files for you. One of the two AI coding tools set up in Part 3.

A contractor who works inside your house instead of mailing you instructions: you describe the change, they make it, you inspect the work.

Claude Code

Anthropic's AI coding tool — same idea as Codex CLI, powered by Claude. It reads your whole project and makes multi-file changes from plain-English instructions. You only need one of the two tools; the course shows you both so you can pick.

Resend

An email-sending service. Apps cannot send email by themselves — they hand the message to a service like Resend, which delivers it. It appears in Part 5 as the example service for practising API keys, and it is what this course itself uses to email your certificate.

A post office counter for your app: it hands over the letter, Resend handles the delivery.

Supabase

A backend-in-a-box. The backend is the behind-the-scenes part of an app — where data is stored and where logins are checked — and Supabase gives you one ready-made: it stores your app's data and handles user accounts so you do not have to build any of that from scratch. When your app grows past "remembers nothing" (Part 4's data store questions), this is one of the friendliest places to land.

The filing cabinet and front-desk security guard for your app, already built and ready to plug in.

Render

Another hosting service, like Vercel. The difference: Vercel is optimised for websites, while Render also runs programs that need to stay on around the clock — like a database or a background task that works while nobody is visiting. You might meet it when an app outgrows what a website alone can do.

If Vercel is a kiosk that springs to life whenever a visitor walks up, Render can also keep machines humming in a back room all night.

Prisma

A tool that lets app code talk to a database in plain, readable commands instead of raw database language. (The technical name for this kind of tool is an ORM — a translator that sits between your code and the database.) You will likely never choose Prisma yourself — but when an AI coding tool builds you an app with a database, there is a good chance Prisma is inside, so it helps to recognise the name.

A friendly librarian: you ask for "all the quiz scores from last week" in ordinary words, and they deal with the archive's filing system for you.