Podcast Summary: How I AI

Episode: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Coding with AI: From PRD to Generating Your Very First Lines of Code

Host: Claire Vo
Date: November 5, 2025

Episode Overview

Claire Vo dedicates this “safe space” episode to true beginners: listeners who have never written code before and want to start coding using AI tools. In a lively, unedited, live-coding session, Claire walks through every step of building a basic personal project hub app from scratch. She covers how to define your project, leverage AI tools like ChatGPT, V0 by Vercel, and (primarily) Cursor, and how to piece everything together—complete with hiccups, course corrections, and tips to make the journey approachable and fun.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Safe Space for Beginners

• Claire defines a “safe space question” as the kind many beginners hesitate to ask, e.g., “How do I actually start coding with AI if I’ve literally never written a line of code?” (00:50)
• The episode is “for non-technical folks, but also useful for engineers wanting to onboard PMs, designers, or friends.” (02:44)

Quote:
“There’s this concept I have in teams that I run where we don’t call questions dumb questions, we call them safe space questions.” — Claire (01:12)

2. Project Selection & Planning: Starting with a PRD

• Claire stresses the importance of starting with a simple Product Requirements Document (PRD).
• She proposes building a minimal “Personal Hub” web app for AI-generated docs (PRDs, ideas) and small code prototypes, focusing on two navigation items: Docs and Prototypes. (07:01–08:00)

Quote:
“I like to start with PRDs…you just get better results out of the next step, which will be a kind of vibe coding prototyping step.” — Claire (08:35)

3. Trying Out Vibe Coding with V0 by Vercel (and What Happens When It Fails)

• Claire attempts a quick build in V0, highlighting how modern AI tools often over-deliver in features—sometimes to the user’s detriment. (12:41)
• She confronts “scope creep” and shows that backing out and pivoting is both normal and necessary.

Quote:
“It may have been a mistake to generate this because the app…went like ham on the requirements and built me something very fancy, which is nice, but is maybe beyond what I wanted to start with.” — Claire (15:03)

• After 10 minutes, she moves on: “We’re going to back out. We’re going to give up on our vibe coding platform because it’s going to take too much back and forth to get to the simple thing I want.” (16:12)

4. Starting from Scratch with Cursor: A True Beginner Workflow

• Claire demonstrates how to open an empty folder in Cursor, introduces “agents” and the new fast Composer 1 model, and issues the first instruction for a super-basic Next.js app for the hub. (18:20–21:10)
• She shows how the agent generates all necessary files, and, crucially, how to ask the agent “How do I run this?” to get clear step-by-step running instructions. (22:41)

Quote:
“You can just really just go into the agent and say, cool, but how do I run this? And it will actually give you the instructions on how to run this.” — Claire (22:53)

• Success! After ~10 minutes: localhost displays the personal hub with Docs and Prototypes—exactly as planned.

5. Why Simplicity & Direct Coding Sometimes Win

• Cursor strikes the right balance for beginners—no unnecessary extra features (unlike some vibe coding platforms).
• Claire reminds listeners: “All that matters is that I got to the thing that I wanted to get to.” (25:29)

6. Managing Projects with GitHub (Visually!)

• Claire covers basic version control using GitHub Desktop (“visual is easier for beginners!”) (27:28)
• She demonstrates committing changes, tracking differences, and discarding edits with easy UI.

Quote:
“Just use the GitHub desktop app. It’ll make Git…so much easier to learn if you visually use the downloaded GitHub desktop app versus trying to understand this through the command line.” — Claire (28:36)

7. Introducing Agents for Workflow Consistency

• Claire creates an “Agents” folder, writes agent instructions in PRD.md to standardize PRD creation, and has Cursor generate a template.
• She iterates on the agent file—tuning it for function over business requirements and referencing this workflow every time a new PRD is needed. (32:50–36:12)

Quote:
“I just want to show you how you can define a workflow in agents, reference that workflow, and then use that to create different assets in this code base that we’ve created 0 to 1.” — Claire (36:44)

8. Using the Hub for Docs & Prototypes (Live Example: A Task Scheduler for Claire’s Kid)

• Live demo: Claire uses her agent to create a PRD for a child’s neighborhood task scheduler app. (38:00)

• Immediately, the PRD appears and can be reflected in the local web app.

• Prototyping: She asks Cursor to “use this PRD to create a prototype clickable, but does not have to be totally functional…” (41:35)

• She reviews/testing, requests tweaks via Cursor chat (“fields have grey text, please fix”), and successfully iterates on the prototype (44:17–45:30)

9. Making the App Prettier and Documenting for the Future

• Claire demonstrates using AI to improve the app’s aesthetics: “Please up level the design to be prettier and cuter. Rename it to…Civo Personal Hub and make it less basic.” (48:01)
• She shows how to quickly update the README file, ensuring that others (or future-you) will understand project structure and instructions.

Quote:
“Who cares? Make it fun, make it creative, play with stuff, add dark mode, all those things. I love it. You know I love a gradient, you know I love a pink.” — Claire (49:43)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We don’t call questions dumb questions, we call them safe space questions.” (01:12)
• “You get better results out of the next step, which will be a kind of vibe coding prototyping step.” (08:35)
• “It may have been a mistake to generate this because the app…went like ham on the requirements…” (15:03)
• “All that matters is that I got to the thing that I wanted to get to.” (25:29)
• “Just use the GitHub desktop app. It’ll make…so much easier to learn if you visually use the downloaded GitHub desktop app versus trying to understand this through the command line.” (28:36)
• “I just want to show you how you can define a workflow in agents, reference that workflow, and then use that to create different assets in this code base that we’ve created 0 to 1.” (36:44)
• “Who cares? Make it fun, make it creative, play with stuff, add dark mode, all those things. I love it.” (49:43)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:12 Safe Space Questions introduction
• 07:01 Project selection & PRD writing
• 12:41 Attempting (and failing) to use V0 for vibe coding
• 15:03 Observations about over-engineering in AI coding tools
• 16:12 Deciding to restart with Cursor
• 18:20–22:53 Cursor: Opening, instructing, generating, and running
• 27:28–28:36 GitHub Desktop for visual version control
• 32:50–36:44 Defining and using agent workflows for PRDs
• 38:00 Creating live PRD for an example scheduling app
• 41:35–45:30 Prototyping with AI, quick iteration, and live fixes
• 48:01–49:43 App beautification and adding README documentation

Flow Summary (Step-by-Step, As Demonstrated)

1. Write a simple PRD for your idea using AI (ChatGPT, ChatPRD).
2. Try a prototyping tool (V0 by Vercel)—if too complex, switch!
3. Open Cursor with an empty folder.
4. Use Cursor’s agents to generate a boilerplate Next.js app (Composer 1 recommended for speed/simplicity).
5. Ask the agent for running instructions.
6. Set up version control using GitHub Desktop for easy, visual commits and tracking.
7. Create an agents folder and provide templates/instructions for repeatable tasks (e.g., PRDs).
8. Generate, display, and edit PRDs and prototypes directly in the app and codebase.
9. Iterate using chat-based feedback and fixes within Cursor.
10. Make it your own: update README, style the app, and play!

Final Thoughts

• Claire’s Approach: Honest, encouraging, and real. She shows what it’s like to struggle, backtrack, and succeed—offering both technical and motivational support for true beginners.
• Takeaway: The “hard” part is just getting started and being willing to play (and fail) with modern AI tools. With the right workflow, even non-coders can suddenly work with code and AI in minutes.

“If you have never written a lick of code in your life, I hope this gives you a place to get started playing with your own personal space.” — Claire (52:44)

For more workflows, templates, and demonstrations, listen to other episodes, visit howiaipod.com, or subscribe wherever you get podcasts.