🚀 AI Engineer Development Setup Guide

Part 1: GitHub Setup & Configuration

🍎 macOS Apple Silicon Setup

Goal: Install essential development tools on Apple Silicon Macs.

1.1 Open Terminal

Press ⌘+Space, type Terminal, and press Enter.

1.2 Install Homebrew

Run the following command and follow the prompts:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

1.3 Update Homebrew

This may take a few minutes:

git -C /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core fetch --unshallow
git -C /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-cask fetch

1.4 Install Essential Tools

Download utility:

brew install wget

Command-line developer tools:

xcode-select --install

1.5 Install Git - version control and Python

Tool	Purpose	Command / Link
Git	Version Control	brew install git
Python	Version Control	brew install python

🔐 GitHub SSH Setup

What is SSH? Secure Shell Protocol provides a secure communication channel over an unsecured network.

1.6 Generate SSH Key Pair

Run this command (replace with your GitHub email):

ssh-keygen -o -t rsa -C "[email protected]"

• Save the file pair in the default location (~/.ssh/id_rsa)
• At the prompt, type in a secure passphrase (optional)

1.7 Copy Your Public Key

Choose your operating system:

🍎 macOS:

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

🪟 Windows (WSL):

clip.exe < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

🐧 Linux:

xclip -sel c < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

1.8 Add Key to GitHub

1. Go to your GitHub account
2. Open Settings
3. Under Access, click SSH and GPG keys in the left sidebar
4. Click New SSH Key
5. Give it a name, paste your public key, and click Add SSH Key

1.9 Test Your Setup

✅ Done! You can now use SSH with GitHub:

git clone [email protected]:username/repo.git

📋 Next GitHub Steps

• Create repository
• Discuss branch management
• Review Git workflow documentation

Part 2: Git Branch Management with GitFlow

🌳 ASCII Branch Diagram

 main    ───●───────────────●───────────────●────────────▶
             ▲               ▲
             │               │
         hotfix/…        release/1.2.0
                             │
 develop ──●─────●─────●─────●──────────────●───────────▶

📋 Complete GitFlow Workflow Guide

This demonstrates a real-life GitFlow workflow with clear steps, explanations, and commands. Can be applied using Claude code.

🏗️ Setup main and develop

Clone your repository:

# Clone your repository and navigate into it
git clone [email protected]:yourname/yourrepo.git   # Clones the repository using SSH
cd yourrepo                                      # Changes directory to your new repo

Create the develop branch:

git checkout -b develop
git push -u origin develop

📦 Prepare a Release

Create a release branch from develop:

git checkout develop
git pull origin develop
git checkout -b release/1.2.0
git push -u origin release/1.2.0

Only bug fixes and version updates:

git add .
git commit -m "Fix login validation bug"
git push

🚢 Release to Production

Merge the release branch into main:

git checkout main
git pull origin main
git merge --no-ff release/1.2.0
git push origin main

Tag the release:

git tag -a v1.2.0 -m "Release version 1.2.0"
git push origin v1.2.0

🔄 Merge Release Back into develop

Keep bug fixes in sync:

git checkout develop
git pull origin develop
git merge --no-ff release/1.2.0
git push origin develop

Clean up:

git branch -d release/1.2.0
git push origin --delete release/1.2.0

Part 3: Cursor IDE Setup & Configuration

🔗 Additional Setup Resources

Visit the comprehensive setup instructions: Interactive Dev Environment Repo

3.1 Install Cursor & VS Code

Tool	Purpose	Command / Link
📝 VS Code	Development Environment	Download
📝 Cursor	Development Environment	Download

✅ Your environment is ready to start developing!

⚙️ Configure Cursor (or VS Code) Environment

Goal: Set up your development environment with essential extensions and configurations.

3.2 Install Python and Jupyter Extensions

For Python development:

1. Click the Extensions tab
2. Type "Python" in the search bar
3. Click Install on the Python extension
4. Type "Jupyter" in the search bar
5. Click Install on the Microsoft Jupyter Notebook extension

✅ Your development environment is configured and ready to code!

📋 Next Steps for Cursor Setup

• Configure GitHub integration in settings
• add cursor.md rule!
• Clone repository from GitHub via Cursor
• Set up project-specific configurations

Part 4: Building Your First FastAPI Application WITH GitFlow

🐍 Python Virtual Environments

Goal: Create an isolated Python environment for your project.

4.1 Create a Virtual Environment

python3 -m venv myenv

4.2 Activate the Environment

🍎 macOS/Linux:

source myenv/bin/activate

🪟 Windows:

myenv\Scripts\activate

4.3 Deactivate When Done

deactivate

How FastAPI Handles a GET Request

When you start FastAPI with:

uvicorn main:app --reload

…and visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/, here's what happens:

1. Browser sends GET request → GET /
2. FastAPI looks for a matching path operation (@app.get("/"))
3. It finds your function:

   def read_root():
       return {"message": "Hello, FastAPI is running locally!"}

4. FastAPI calls read_root() (just like any Python function).
5. The function returns a Python dictionary.
6. FastAPI automatically converts the dictionary into JSON.
7. The JSON is sent back as the response to the browser.

---

Summary

👉 FastAPI runs your function read_root() and uses its return value as the response.