Module 0 · ~20 min · start here

🧰 Set up your workshop

Never shipped anything before? Perfect — start here. You'll leave with an editor, an AI that codes, your own server, and a domain, all wired together. You do this once.

What you're setting up (the mental model)

Four pieces. That's the whole workshop:

• VS Code — your editor. Where you work. Free.
• Claude Code — the AI that writes the code, living inside VS Code. You talk, it builds. Needs a Claude plan.
• A Hostinger VPS — your own little server on the internet, on 24/7. Where your apps live. About $5–8/month, and it hosts your whole fleet.
• The Hostinger MCP — a bridge that lets Claude control your Hostinger account (domains, DNS, the server) just by you asking. Free. This is the part that feels like magic.

Connect these four once. Then you never think about them again — you just build.

Go to code.visualstudio.com, download the version for your computer (Windows / Mac), and install it. Open it. That's it — it's a text editor with superpowers, and it's where everything else lives.

Claude Code is how you talk to the AI. Easiest path, right inside VS Code:

1. Click the Extensions icon in VS Code's left bar (the stack of squares).
2. Search "Claude Code" and click Install.
3. A Claude panel appears. Click Sign in and log in with your Claude account.

Prefer the terminal? You can install the command-line version instead:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude        # run it from any project folder

Either way, you need a Claude plan — a Claude Pro or Max subscription (or API credits) powers it. Set that up at claude.ai if you haven't.

Left alone, an AI builds you a mansion when you asked for a shed. Keeping it lazy is the whole method (that's Module 2) — set the default now:

• Give Claude Code a lazy / senior-dev instruction so it defaults to the smallest thing that works and flags its own over-building. You can add this as a project instruction (a CLAUDE.md in your folder), a saved skill, or a plugin (the "ponytail" lazy plugin does exactly this).
• The zero-install version: start big requests with — "Build the smallest version that works, then tell me what you skipped and when I'd add it back."

We go deep on this in Module 2. For now, just know the knob exists and it's on.

This is the box your apps live on — one box for your whole fleet.

1. Go to hostinger.com → VPS hosting. Pick a KVM plan (KVM 1 or 2 is plenty to start).
2. When it asks for an operating system, choose a plain Ubuntu template (or "Ubuntu with Docker" if offered — saves you a step in Module 4).
3. Set a root password (and/or add an SSH key — Claude can generate one for you). Then note your VPS's IP address; you'll need it constantly.

That's a real computer on the internet, yours, running 24/7.

An MCP is a plug-in bridge that gives Claude new powers. The Hostinger MCP lets Claude manage your Hostinger account directly — add a DNS record, check your VPS, register a domain — by you asking in plain English. No hunting through a control panel.

1. Get a Hostinger API token. In Hostinger's hPanel, open your account settings and find API → generate a token. Copy it.
2. Add the MCP to Claude Code. One command in your terminal:

claude mcp add hostinger --env APITOKEN=YOUR_HOSTINGER_TOKEN -- npx -y hostinger-api-mcp

Or add it to your Claude Code MCP config by hand — the shape looks like this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hostinger": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "hostinger-api-mcp"],
      "env": { "APITOKEN": "YOUR_HOSTINGER_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

Restart / reconnect Claude Code, then test it — ask: "List my Hostinger VPSs" or "What DNS records does mydomain.com have?" If Claude answers with your real account data, you're wired.

EXAMPLE — YOU TEST THE CONNECTION BY JUST ASKING:

Your apps need a name people can type.

• Register one at Hostinger → Domains (cheap), or point one you already own.
• If the domain lives at Hostinger, the MCP manages its DNS directly (step 5). If it's registered elsewhere, either move its nameservers to Hostinger or just add DNS records at your current registrar.
• Subdomains are free and infinite. One domain gives you app1.yourdomain.com, app2.yourdomain.com, forever. That's how a single domain hosts a whole fleet.

You're ready ✅

• VS Code installed and open.
• Claude Code installed, signed in, lazy-mode on.
• A Hostinger VPS you can SSH into (you have its IP).
• The Hostinger MCP connected — Claude can see your account.
• A domain you control.

That's the whole workshop, and you never set it up again. Now the fun part — the loop.