Prerequisites & Tools

Knowledge Required

• Basic React (components, props, hooks)
• Basic Next.js (App Router, pages, layouts)
• Familiarity with fetch() or Axios
• Basic TypeScript (types and interfaces)
• Basic terminal / CLI usage

Install Locally

# Node.js v18 or higher — download from nodejs.org
node --version    # Should print v18+
npm --version     # Should print 9+

# Install pnpm (faster than npm)
npm install -g pnpm

Recommended VS Code Extensions

• ESLint — catches errors as you type
• Prettier — auto-formats your code
• Tailwind CSS IntelliSense — Tailwind class autocomplete
• REST Client — test API endpoints inside VS Code

Accounts to Create

1. GitHub — version control (github.com)
2. Vercel — frontend deployment (vercel.com) — connect to GitHub
3. Cloudflare — optional alternative (cloudflare.com)