Prepare the Project Folder and Workspace

1. Continuing from part 2

In part 2, you opened the terminal and tried basic commands such as pwd, ls, cd, and mkdir. Now, before writing any design document, we will create a workspace for this app on your computer.

A workspace simply means "the place where all files related to this app live." It will contain design documents, AI instructions, and later the code files.

The goal of this post is simple.

• Create a project folder on your computer.
• Create places for docs/ and agent.md inside it.
• Decide where future design documents will go.
• Give AI a clear folder that it should treat as the project base.

We are not completing the planning document yet, and we are not filling agent.md with long instructions yet. Think of this step as setting up the desk before starting the work.

2. New terms in this post

1. Project folder: the main folder that contains all files for one app
2. Folder structure: the shape of folders and files inside the project
3. Workspace: the whole project folder you actually work in
4. Root folder: the outermost folder of the project

Think of the root folder like the root of a tree. If the project folder is named myproject01, then docs/, agent.md, and code files later all sit under that root.

3. Where should the project folder go?

In this series, use one fixed location depending on your computer. Do not move it around later.

On macOS, start inside Documents.

Documents/
└─ project/
   └─ myproject01/

The actual path is like this.

/Users/your-name/Documents/project/myproject01/

On a personal Windows computer, start directly under the C drive.

C:\project\myproject01\

Follow this table.

Use myproject01 as the folder name. Do not use Korean characters or spaces in the folder name. This reduces path problems later when terminal commands and development tools read the folder.

4. The first folder structure

This series starts with the structure below. Make your first project folder exactly like this.

myproject01/
├─ agent.md
└─ docs/
   ├─ 01-plan.md
   ├─ 02-structure.md
   └─ 03-data.md

Each file has a role. Right now, you are creating empty places for future content.

The important rule is this: docs/ is where detailed design documents live, while agent.md is a guide that points AI to those documents. In part 3, we only prepare the places. Starting in part 4, we will fill them one by one.

5. The workspace as a picture

The file layout looks like this.

The key point is that myproject01 is the base folder. When you ask AI to work, run terminal commands, or open an editor, think from this folder.

6. Create the folders and files

If you use File Explorer or Finder, create them in this order.

1. Create a project folder under Documents or C:\.
2. Create a myproject01 folder inside it.
3. Create a docs folder inside myproject01.
4. Create an empty agent.md file inside myproject01.
5. Create empty 01-plan.md, 02-structure.md, and 03-data.md files inside docs.
6. Fill those files one by one from the next post.
7. Later, after choosing the stack, add docs/04-stack.md.

On Windows, type these commands.

On macOS, type these commands.

To check the result, run this.

If you see agent.md and docs/, and if the three files appear inside docs/, you succeeded.

You do not need to memorize the commands. You can create the same structure with File Explorer or Finder. The final shape is what matters.

Assume Python is already installed for now. If it is not, you can install it later or ask AI how to install Python when the coding step begins.

7. Be careful when creating .md files

An .md file is a Markdown document file. At first, think of it as a plain text document you can open with Notepad, TextEdit, or VS Code.

Check these points.

1. The file name must be exactly agent.md.
2. docs must contain 01-plan.md, 02-structure.md, and 03-data.md.
3. On Windows, hidden file extensions may accidentally create agent.md.txt. Watch out for that.
4. The files may be empty. The goal now is to create the places, not complete the content.

On Windows, it helps to turn on file name extensions in File Explorer. Then you can tell whether the file is really agent.md or accidentally agent.md.txt.

If you use VS Code, open the whole myproject01 folder. If myproject01 is the outermost visible folder in the editor, you opened it correctly.

8. Prompt for checking the workspace with AI

This prompt is not for asking AI to write code. It is for checking whether your project folder matches the starting structure used in this series.

AI tools and online tutorials may suggest a large folder structure at the beginning. This series does not follow that. For now, we start with only myproject01, agent.md, and docs/. When more folders become necessary, we will add them later.

In simple terms, this check asks:

• Is myproject01 the project root folder?
• Is agent.md directly inside myproject01?
• Does docs/ contain 01-plan.md, 02-structure.md, and 03-data.md?
• Have we prepared document places before creating code folders?

After creating the workspace, you can ask AI like this.

I am not trying to create code yet.
I am first organizing the workspace before building a small app.

The project folder name is myproject01.

I want to start with this structure:

myproject01/
├─ agent.md
└─ docs/
   ├─ 01-plan.md
   ├─ 02-structure.md
   └─ 03-data.md

I am following this series and want to start with this exact structure.

Please check only these four things:

1. agent.md is directly under myproject01.
2. docs contains 01-plan.md, 02-structure.md, and 03-data.md.
3. I have not created code folders yet.
4. The next step should be filling docs/01-plan.md.

Do not create code yet.
Please briefly confirm whether these four points are correct.

The expected result is not code. It should be a short confirmation about folder and document layout, such as: "Yes, this structure is a good starting point" and "Next, fill docs/01-plan.md."

In other words, the meaning of this prompt is not "make the app." It is closer to "check whether I prepared the starting structure used in this series." Once this is confirmed, you will not need to wonder where the planning document should go in the next post.

Later, after docs/01-plan.md, docs/02-structure.md, docs/03-data.md, and agent.md are filled with real content, you will ask a different question: "Read these documents and create the first code." The current question is only an empty workspace check.

9. What we do not create yet

If you ask AI to "make an app folder," it may suggest many English-named folders. Even if it does, do not add them yet.

Right now, create only myproject01, agent.md, docs/, and the three document files inside docs/. Other folders will be added later only when we actually need them for code.

The starting workspace is fixed like this.

myproject01/
├─ agent.md
└─ docs/
   ├─ 01-plan.md
   ├─ 02-structure.md
   └─ 03-data.md

10. If you use another AI coding tool

This series explains the workflow using opencode. If you use another AI coding tool, only the command changes.

The flow is the same.

1. Run the tool in the project folder.
2. Ask it to read agent.md and the documents inside docs/.
3. Make a natural-language request.
4. Check the result and ask again.

11. What we will do next

You are done for today if...

After this post, your computer should have a myproject01 folder. Inside it, you should have a docs/ folder and empty document files. It is okay if the files are empty. Today's goal is to create the places, not to complete the documents.

In this post, we decided the project folder and document locations before building the app.

In the next post, we will fill docs/01-plan.md inside this workspace. We will write the purpose and features of the small Python app: app name, purpose, user, feature list, input, output, logic, and data shape.

The order is this.

1. Create the project folder.
2. Create the docs/ folder.
3. Open docs/01-plan.md.
4. Write the app purpose and features.
5. Then move on to the planning document and AI work rules.

If you follow this order, you can build design documents inside the actual app folder without asking, "Where should this document go?"