The engine behind tools like Claude and ChatGPT. Trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate human language. You don't need to understand how it works, just what it can do.

AI assistant made by Anthropic. Web app, desktop app, and API. It writes, analyzes, codes, and thinks through problems with you.

What you type to tell AI what you want. The better the brief (clear, specific, with context), the better the output. Garbage in, garbage out, just like delegating to a human.

Building software by describing what you want in plain English. You describe the vibe, AI writes the code. No engineering degree needed.

How much info AI can "hold in its head" at once. Bigger context window = it can work with longer documents and more complex tasks without forgetting things.

A chunk of text (roughly 3/4 of a word). When people say "200K tokens" they mean ~150K words. This is how AI measures how much it can process.

A way to connect Claude to your other tools (Slack, Google Drive, Notion, Gmail). Like giving Claude hands to reach into your apps instead of copy-pasting.

A bundle of capabilities you add to Claude. Like apps on your phone: data analysis, marketing, legal, sales. Install one and Claude gets new capabilities.

A saved playbook that tells Claude how to do a specific task well. "Here's how to make a great deck" or "here's how to write a cover letter." Reusable expertise.

A shortcut you type (like /commit) to trigger a specific action. Think keyboard shortcuts but for AI tasks. Fast and satisfying.

AI that can make decisions and take multiple steps on its own to finish a task, figuring out what to do next without you telling it every move. Different from a simple chatbot (you ask, it answers) or a workflow (a fixed sequence that runs the same way every time). An agent decides its own path based on what it encounters.

Setting up AI to handle repetitive multi-step tasks. "Every Monday, pull my calendar, draft a summary of the week ahead, and send it to me." That kind of thing.

How software talks to other software. You don't need to build APIs. Just know that "it has an API" means it can connect to other tools programmatically.

When AI makes something up confidently. It's not lying, it's pattern-matching poorly. Always verify important facts.

A password-like code that lets one tool talk to another. When you connect Claude to Notion or Slack, you'll need one. Usually found in Settings → Integrations or Developer in whatever tool you're connecting. Ask your IT person if you're not sure.

Claude desktop app feature where Claude can work with your files, browse the web, create documents, use your connected tools. It's pair-working with AI.

Code editors and AI-powered coding environments. VS Code is the industry-standard free editor from Microsoft. Cursor is VS Code but with AI built deep into it. Replit is more beginner-friendly and runs in the browser. These are where vibecoding happens.

"Retrieval-Augmented Generation." Fancy way of saying AI looks up your documents before answering. When Claude reads your Google Drive, that's RAG. You don't build it, tools do it.

Platforms for deploying web apps. If you vibecode something and want to put it on the internet, these are where it goes. Think of them as the "hosting" layer.

The text-based interface on your computer where you type commands instead of clicking buttons. On Mac it's called Terminal (or iTerm). Looks intimidating but you'll use it for things like deploying sites and connecting tools. Claude can tell you exactly what to type.

Any tool you use by typing commands in the Terminal instead of clicking a UI. "Install the CLI" means download a tool you run by typing commands. Claude Code is a CLI — you use Claude by typing in the terminal instead of the web app.

GitHub is where code lives on the internet. A "repo" (repository) is a project folder on GitHub. You don't need to be an engineer to use it — it's how you'll store and deploy things you vibecode. Think of it like Google Drive but for code.