// The Missing Manual
The basics nobody
ever taught you.
If a lack of basic computer skills is getting in the way of you doing incredible things with AI, The Missing Manual is for you. It's a bridging course that gets you up to speed with how to actually use a computer and the absolute basics of understanding AI-assisted software development.
No coding background required. You start from wherever you are.
// Who this is for
You can see what AI
can do. You just can't
quite reach it yet.
Most AI tools quietly assume you already know your way around a computer. They assume you're comfortable in a terminal, that you know what an app is made of, that "just set an API key" means something to you. If it doesn't, you hit a wall before you've even started, and the interesting work stays out of reach.
The Missing Manual closes that gap. It's for anyone who's been put off, talked over, or left behind by the technical layer, and who's ready to stop tiptoeing and start building.
// What you'll learn
Across the three sessions
This is the ground the series covers. We don't rush it, and we don't ration it across fixed lessons. We work through it together at the pace of the room.
The terminal, without the fear
Open and use the command line on macOS and Windows. Navigate folders, list and move files, run a command, read its output, and recognise when something has gone wrong, all without reaching for the mouse.
What an app is actually made of
Front end, back end, database, API. What each one is and how they talk to each other. What "the cloud" really means, and where AI agents fit into the picture. The vocabulary to make a technical decision when a tool asks you for one.
Building your tech stack
The handful of tools you actually need: editor, runtime, package manager, version control, a place to deploy. Which ones matter today, which you can ignore until later, and a working setup running on your own laptop by the end.
Installing and running things
Homebrew, pip and npm: what each package manager is for and which to reach for when. Install, update and remove packages with confidence, and diagnose the common failures (PATH issues, version conflicts, permissions) yourself instead of panicking.
Environment variables and API keys
How AI tools know who you are, and how to prove it safely. What an API key is, how to store one in an environment variable, what a .env file does. Plus the everyday mistakes that leak keys to the whole internet, so you never make them.
// How it works
Three sessions,
taken in sequence.
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The Missing Manual is a structured series of three sessions. Each one builds on the last, so you take all three, in order. This isn't a menu you pick from.
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Every group is different and every group moves at its own speed. There's no rigid script. Your instructor adapts the pace to the room, so nobody gets left behind and nobody is held back.
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It runs on an ad-hoc basis. We schedule a new series when there's a group ready for one. Register your interest and we'll let you know when the next one opens.
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Bring a laptop you can install software on, charged, with admin access. That's the only prerequisite, and no coding experience is needed.
// Get started
Ready to close
the gap?
Once you've got the basics, everything else on Meridian opens up. Browse the full catalogue of sessions, or get in touch to register your interest in the next Missing Manual series.