Idea to POC: Shipping Real Software with AI Tools and Agents

Welcome — Start Here

1. How this book is released
2. New to Python, Git, or API keys? Read the appendices first

Appendix A — Python & Virtual Environments

1. A.1 Do you already have Python? Which one?
2. A.2 Install Python (once per machine)
3. A.3 What a virtual environment is (and why every chapter makes one)
4. A.4 Installing packages with pip and requirements.txt
5. A.5 Running the tools and the tests
6. A.6 The whole loop, start to finish
7. A.7 Windows: which shell to use
8. A.8 The common ways you will get stuck, and the fixes
9. A.9 What you can safely ignore (for now)
10. Chapter Glossary

Appendix B — Git & GitHub for People Who Skipped Them

1. B.1 The one mental model
2. B.2 Install Git (once per machine)
3. B.3 Your first repo: the six commands you actually need
4. B.4 Create a GitHub account and get the book’s code
5. B.5 Push your own work to GitHub
6. B.5.1 One repo or many? (monorepo vs. repo-per-project)
7. B.6 Authentication: the part that trips everyone up
8. B.7 The five ways you will get stuck, and the fixes
9. B.8 What you can safely ignore (for now)
10. Chapter Glossary

Appendix C — API Keys & Environment Variables

1. C.1 What an API key is
2. C.2 What an environment variable is (and what export does)
3. C.3 The catch: export only lasts for one terminal session
4. C.4 The .env file pattern (recommended)
5. C.5 Getting a key from each provider
6. C.6 Keeping keys safe — the short list
7. C.7 If you leak a key (it happens — fix it fast)
8. C.8 Quick reference
9. Chapter Glossary

Introduction — Why This Book Exists

1. What you’ll actually do here
2. Who I am, and why I wrote this
3. Who this book is for
4. How to read this

Your Environment Is the First POC

1. 1. The idea (and why it’s stalled)
2. 2. The tools for this job (and why they fit)
3. 3. Build-along
4. 4. Ship it / make it real
5. 5. The last-mile lesson
6. Chapter Glossary

Chapter 2

The Cited-Answer Research Agent

1. 1. The idea (and why it’s stalled)
2. 2. The tool for this job (and why it fits)
3. 3. Build-along
4. 4. Ship it / make it real
5. 5. The last-mile lesson
6. Chapter Glossary

Chapter 3

The Task-Doing Assistant

1. 1. The idea (and why it’s stalled)
2. 2. The tool for this job (and why it fits)
3. 3. Build-along
4. 4. Ship it / make it real
5. 5. The last-mile lesson

Chapter 4

The Multi-Step Agent

1. 1. The idea (and why it’s stalled)
2. 2. The tool for this job (and why it fits)
3. 3. Build-along
4. 4. Ship it / make it real
5. 5. The last-mile lesson

Chapter 5

The Open-Source Deployment

1. 1. The idea (and why it’s stalled)
2. 2. The tool for this job (and why it fits)
3. 3. Build-along
4. 4. Ship it / make it real
5. 5. The last-mile lesson

Chapter 6

The Multimodal Build

1. 1. The idea (and why it’s stalled)
2. 2. The tool for this job (and why it fits)
3. 3. Build-along
4. 4. Ship it / make it real
5. 5. The last-mile lesson

What’s Next

About the Author

Appendix D — Glossary

Appendix E — Chapter 1 Figure Index

1. Figure 1 — Activated virtual environment
2. Figure 2 — The Cursor window, labeled
3. Figure 3 — The expanded Composer mode menu
4. Figure 4 — Creating a new file
5. Figure 5 — The readiness report
6. Figure 6 — The “out of usage” message
7. Figure 7 — Installing the GitHub CLI
8. Figure 8 — Authenticating and pushing to GitHub
9. Figure 9 — CI passing (green)