startup-stack

Infographics — the tools

Ten pictures explaining the words you will hear and be expected to nod along to. Most of them are not things a founder building a knowledge base has to learn — they are things a founder has to stop being intimidated by.

If you only look at one, look at the first. It shows which layer each of the others lives on, which is the part nobody explains.

Click an image to open it at full size. The written version of most of this is what things are.

How all of this fits together

Five layers, from your own computer up to the AI, and which tool sits on which. Also the honest note about how few of them you actually need on day one.

Five layers — your computer, ways to talk to it, runtimes you install, services on the internet, and the AI — with arrows showing what talks to what.
Five layers — your computer, ways to talk to it, runtimes you install, services on the internet, and the AI — with arrows showing what talks to what.

What the terminal is

The oldest way to tell a computer what to do, why AI tools still use it, and the only skill a founder actually needs here: being able to read a command before approving it.

A terminal window with three example commands and their plain-English translations, and the note that it has no undo — which is why Git matters.
A terminal window with three example commands and their plain-English translations, and the note that it has no undo — which is why Git matters.

Editors, IDEs, and what agentic means

The difference between a chat window you paste into and a tool that can see your folder, edit it, and run commands. Also what comes with that access.

A chat window against an agentic editor, with the four capabilities that separate them, and a row of named examples from least to most technical.
A chat window against an agentic editor, with the four capabilities that separate them, and a row of named examples from least to most technical.

What Git is

The undo button for a folder. The highest-value five minutes on this entire site, and the only safety measure that makes a bad outcome recoverable rather than merely less likely.

Git as a series of save points over a folder, the three commands worth knowing — commit, diff, checkout — and the habit of committing before letting an AI touch anything.
Git as a series of save points over a folder, the three commands worth knowing — commit, diff, checkout — and the habit of committing before letting an AI touch anything.

Git and GitHub are not the same thing

One runs on your machine with no internet. The other is a website. People conflate them constantly, and it makes every explanation of both harder to follow.

Git on your computer against GitHub on the internet, with push and pull between them, and the three things people most often confuse.
Git on your computer against GitHub on the internet, with push and pull between them, and the three things people most often confuse.

What Node is

Why a tool tells you to install something before anything will run, and what npm, package.json and node_modules are. Plumbing, explained once so it stops being mysterious.

A JavaScript file, the Node runtime that executes it, and the result — plus the vocabulary that comes with it: npm, package.json, node_modules, and version numbers.
A JavaScript file, the Node runtime that executes it, and the result — plus the vocabulary that comes with it: npm, package.json, node_modules, and version numbers.

What a database is, and whether you need one

The line between a website and a product. Most things a founder builds first do not need a database, and knowing which side of the line you are on saves a great deal of money.

What a database does, when you do not need one, and the moment you do — the first time a stranger types something you have to keep.
What a database does, when you do not need one, and the moment you do — the first time a stranger types something you have to keep.

How a website actually goes live

Seven stages from a folder on your laptop to a name people can type. Useful mostly because it shows that you never upload a website — you upload the source, and a machine builds it.

Seven stages from a local project through GitHub, a build environment, hosting and CDN, to a custom domain, with labelled arrows between each.
Seven stages from a local project through GitHub, a build environment, hosting and CDN, to a custom domain, with labelled arrows between each.

What a connector is

How an AI reaches your mail and your drive, why there is now a standard for it, and the three habits that keep it from becoming a liability.

Custom integrations against a single standard adapter, with the read-only, scope-it-narrow and save-it-as-a-file habits.
Custom integrations against a single standard adapter, with the read-only, scope-it-narrow and save-it-as-a-file habits.

What markdown is

The format this entire method is built on. Plain text that reads well as text and renders as a document, and outlives whatever tool made it.

The same passage as raw markdown and as rendered output, with five marks labelled between them.
The same passage as raw markdown and as rendered output, with five marks labelled between them.

Next: the method — this repository, drawn.

Generated from docs/infographics-tools.md in the repository. Edit the markdown, not this page.