Lesson 38 of 1570
Your First Capstone — Ship a Small Project
Bring it all together. Pick one of three starter projects, plan it, build it with AI, and deploy it. You are now a builder who ships.
Lesson map
What this lesson covers
Learning path
The main moves in order
- 1You Have the Tools. Now Use Them.
- 2capstone
- 3project scoping
- 4deployment
Concept cluster
Terms to connect while reading
Section 1
You Have the Tools. Now Use Them.
This is the builders capstone. You will scope a small project, build it with AI help, commit to git, and deploy it to a real URL. The rubric is not cleverness. It is shipping something that works and that you can explain.
Pick one of these three
- Flashcard app: a static site that loads cards from a JSON file and quizzes you
- Personal homepage: about you, projects, contact, styled deliberately
- Weather dashboard: enter a city, see today's forecast using a free API
The capstone contract
- 1Write a one-paragraph README of what the project does and why you chose it
- 2Break the work into at least four git commits with descriptive messages
- 3Use AI for at least half the code, but read and understand every line
- 4Deploy to a public URL (GitHub Pages, Vercel, or Netlify — all free)
- 5Record a 60-second video of you using your project
A scoping worksheet that actually works
Fill this in BEFORE you start typing. Half the projects that fail, fail because nobody wrote this down.
Project name: ______________________
One-line description: ______________________
Minimum viable version (what works on day 1):
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
Stretch goals (only if above is done):
- ______________________
- ______________________
Files I expect to create:
- index.html / app.py / etc.
- ______________________
- ______________________
My first prompt to the AI will be:
"______________________"A typical day of the build
- 1Open your worksheet, pick one task list
- 2Write a prompt that names inputs and expected outputs
- 3Review the AI draft, run it, commit when it works
- 4Move to the next task list — resist sidequests
Deployment options at a glance
Compare the options
| Host | Best for | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Pages | Static HTML/CSS/JS | Push to repo, enable Pages |
| Vercel | Next.js and full-stack | Connect repo, click Deploy |
| Netlify | Drag-and-drop static sites | Drop your folder on their dashboard |
| Replit | Python, Node, everything | Write in browser, click Run |
Your 60-second video
Record your screen while you use your project. Narrate what the project does, show it working, and mention one thing you learned. Upload to YouTube as unlisted. Put the link in your README. This is now a portfolio piece.
“Ship it. Then ship it again. Then ship it once more.”
Key terms in this lesson
The big idea: building something small and shipping it is a bigger lesson than reading a hundred tutorials. You now have a URL you can point to and say, I made that.
End-of-lesson quiz
Check what stuck
15 questions · Score saves to your progress.
Tutor
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