Getting set up

A few steps ask you to type a command into a window. Step 1 installs that window (it's called Git Bash), and from then on everything happens in that one window. Don't worry if it looks intimidating — you'll only ever copy, paste, and press Enter.

1Install Git — this also gives you the window you'll type into

1. Go to git-scm.com/download/win
2. The download should start on its own. If it asks, choose the 64-bit standalone installer.
3. Open the downloaded file. The installer asks a lot of questions — you can safely click Next on every screen, then Install. The standard choices are exactly what we want.
4. When it finishes, untick "View Release Notes" if it's ticked, and click Finish.

60 seconds with your terminal — before you type your first command

The terminal doesn't quite behave like the rest of your computer. A few quick things will save you some "why isn't this working?!" moments:

• Your mouse can't move the cursor. Once you've typed something, you can't click in the middle of a line to edit it. Use ← and → to move along the line; ↑ and ↓ scroll through commands you typed before.
• Press Enter to actually run a command. Nothing happens until you do. If it looks stuck, you may not have pressed it.
• Commands are case-sensitive. cd and CD are different.
• Press Tab to autocomplete. Start typing a folder or filename, hit Tab, and it finishes the name for you. Saves typos.
• Copying and pasting use different shortcuts here. To copy: highlight text with your mouse, then press Ctrl+Insert (or right-click → Copy). To paste: press Shift+Insert (or right-click → Paste). Heads up: the usual Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V don't work the way you'd expect at the Git Bash prompt — Ctrl+C interrupts a running command instead.
• ~ means your home folder. When you see ~/Documents, that's your Documents folder — the same one you see in File Explorer.

That's it. Your tutor explains the rest as it comes up.

2Install Node.js — the engine the tutor runs on

1. Go to nodejs.org
2. Download the button labelled LTS (it'll show a number like 20.x.x LTS or higher — anything 20 or above is fine).
3. Open the downloaded file and click Next / Install through it, accepting the standard choices.
4. Important: close your Git Bash window and open it again (Start menu → Git Bash). This lets it notice that Node is now installed.

In Git Bash, type this and press Enter:

3Install the tutor's engine — Gemini CLI

In Git Bash, type this exactly and press Enter:

It'll print several lines and take a minute or so. Wait until the typing cursor comes back and sits there ready.

Then check it's there:

4Sign in with Google

In Git Bash, type this and press Enter:

1. The first time, it asks how you'd like to sign in. Choose Sign in with Google.
2. Your web browser will open. Pick your Google account and allow access.
3. Once it's done, come back to the Git Bash window — Gemini is now running.

5Get your tutor

In Git Bash, paste this exactly and press Enter:

It'll print a few lines as it works. When you see "All set." your tutor is on your computer and ready.

6Say hello to your tutor

One last thing before you meet the tutor: close this Git Bash window and open a fresh one (Start menu → Git Bash). That's so the new tutor command becomes available.

In the fresh window, type this and press Enter:

That one word takes you into your project folder and starts your tutor. It'll introduce itself and take it from there.

Starting and stopping — two phrases to save

Once you're set up, two simple phrases run everything. Worth saving them somewhere (a sticky note or Notepad) — your tutor also reminds you at the end of every session.

To stop for the day — type this and press Enter:

Your tutor saves where you got to and tells you it's safe to close the window. (A full stop on the end is fine — End lesson. works too.)

To come back next time — open Git Bash and type:

Then, once your tutor is running, type Continue learning and press Enter.

Quick troubleshooting — common things that trip people up

Most "uh oh" moments at the terminal aren't broken — they're a key doing something you didn't expect. Here are the common ones and how to carry on.

I pressed Ctrl+C and something stopped. That's the "cancel" key — your tutor stopped whatever it was doing. Just type your next prompt and carry on. If the window closed entirely, type gemini again and your tutor picks up where you left off.

I pressed Ctrl+V and nothing pasted. At the Git Bash prompt (before your tutor is running), Ctrl+V doesn't paste — use Shift+Insert (or right-click) instead. Once your tutor is running inside the window, Ctrl+V starts working normally for paste.

I want to wipe what I've typed and start over. Press Esc twice quickly. That clears the line. (A single Esc on its own cancels popups or menus.)

I pressed the Up arrow and my typing got overwritten. The Up arrow scrolls through your past prompts. Press the Down arrow to come back to a blank line, or Esc twice to clear.

The screen looks scrambled or empty. Press Ctrl+L to redraw it. Your conversation is still there — nothing's lost.

Looks stuck — nothing happens when I type. Click into the window first to make it active. If still nothing, press Esc to cancel anything in progress, then try again.

I can't figure out how to quit. Type /quit and press Enter. Or press Ctrl+C twice in a row.

Starting your own projects — once you're ready to go beyond the tutor

Your tutor lives at ~/Documents/my-gemini-project. Don't move it, and don't edit the GEMINI.md file inside it — that file is what makes me your tutor. If you change it, the tutor breaks.

But Gemini itself works in any folder. When you want to start something new — a game, a website, a tool, anything — the pattern is:

1. Ask Gemini to make a new project folder for whatever you want to build. Inside the tutor, just say so and your tutor will guide you. Outside, in any Gemini conversation, ask it directly — for example: "Please make a new project folder in ~/Documents called my-game and start a git repo inside it."
2. Navigate into that folder before working on the project. Either cd into it (see below) or, if you've made an alias for it, use that. (Your tutor teaches you how to make aliases for new projects at the end of the curriculum.)

Two terminal commands worth knowing:

cd ~/Documents/my-game — "change directory." Takes you into the folder you name. cd .. takes you back up one level.

ls — "list." Shows everything in your current folder. Useful for "what was that project called again?"

Using Gemini outside the tutor. Once you're in a project folder, type gemini and press Enter. That Gemini won't be your tutor — it's a generic, helpful Gemini, ready to build whatever you ask it to. Continue learning won't mean anything to it; ask it for what you actually want, plainly.

Tokens and context windows — why long sessions sometimes get weird

Every AI conversation has a memory limit. The technical name for this is the context window, and what fills it up are called tokens (roughly: words and bits of words).

What you need to know:

• Long conversations cost more (the AI re-reads everything each turn) and get slower.
• Eventually the conversation gets so long the AI starts to forget the start. It doesn't tell you when this happens — things just get a bit off.
• If a session feels slow, or your tutor seems to have lost the plot, that's the sign. Either start a fresh conversation, or ask the current one to summarise where you are first so you can carry the summary into the new one.

Your tutor saves your progress in progress.md regardless — so even a long-conversation crash won't lose your learning. But day-to-day, shorter sessions tend to be sharper.