You’re going to build websites and apps like a developer. That means having the right tools installed - the cookware for coding. Without these tools, you can’t ask Chef Claude to cook anything.

DEV INSIGHT Developers use package managers to install tools. Think App Store but for command line tools. Mac uses Homebrew - it handles versions, permissions, updates.

Normally you’d go to Homebrew’s website and download it, but we can install it directly from the command line. After Homebrew, we’ll get three essential tools. Takes about 10 minutes total.

INSTALLING HOMEBREW

Copy this entire line, paste it into iTerm2, hit Enter:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

It’ll ask for your password → type it (nothing will show up, not even dots) → hit Enter

Wait about 5-10 minutes while it downloads and sets everything up. You’ll see: lots of text scrolling → “Press RETURN to continue” (press it) → password prompt → more scrolling text → “Installation successful” When it finishes, you’ll see instructions about “Next steps”. Follow them - it’s usually two commands to add Homebrew to your PATH. Copy and run each one.

INSTALLING ESSENTIAL TOOLS

  • Git - Version control (like Time Machine for your code)
  • Node - JavaScript runtime (runs web projects on your computer)
  • GitHub CLI - Push your code to GitHub (different from Git - Git tracks changes locally, GitHub CLI uploads them to the internet)

Run these commands one by one:

brew install git
brew install node
brew install gh

Each takes about a minute. You’ll see progress bars → ”🍺 Successfully installed” when done.

VERIFY EVERYTHING WORKS

Check that everything installed correctly (run each line separately):

git --version
node --version
npm --version

You should see version numbers for each. The exact numbers don’t matter - if you see numbers, you’re good.

Next: Meet Chef Claude →