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Hands-on AI Playbook

Git & GitHub setup, rebuilt as three prerequisites you can check off

Setting up Git and GitHub used to be two pages that hid three separate jobs. It’s now three guides, in the order you do them, each ending with a Done when block you can verify in under a minute:

  1. GitHub Account — browser only; sign up with a personal email and turn on 2FA
  2. Git — install it and tell it who you are
  3. GitHub CLI — install gh and log in once, with the exact prompts and expected output shown

What changed and why:

  • Success is defined. The same three “Done when” tests appear on each guide, the Builder Tools Setup index, and the Tools Setup Checklist, which grows from 8 to 10 steps.
  • Mac users get the installer, not the binary. cli.github.com’s Mac download is a bare program file; the guide sends you to the signed .pkg on the releases page and says why. Windows users get the MSI from cli.github.com.
  • Beginner stalls removed. The macOS “install developer tools?” popup is explained, the Windows installer no longer asks you to pick an editor that isn’t offered, and both install pages tell you what a company laptop may need from IT.
  • Personal access tokens are optional. They’re only for when an AI agent or automation — not you — needs GitHub access, so they’ve moved to the end of the account guide.

If you set these up under the old guides, nothing changes on your machine — run the three Done-when tests and you’re current.