Sessions need a Windows laptop or desktop.
If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer.
Cursor · Foundations
Build a one-page website with Cursor’s AI, publish it at your own address, and type every fact yourself — on the free plan.
What you’ll end up with
One finished one-page website, published at your own github.io address. For an invented plumbing firm: a heading and a line under it, four services, opening hours with the owner’s correction applied, a phone number that dials, an email link, a contact form that opens the visitor’s email app, described pictures and a footer — every change the AI made read before it was kept, every fact typed by you from the copy deck, and a house-rules file in the project that tells the AI never to write a fact.
10½
hours in all — about 7 guided, 3½ on your own
6
sessions. Each designed to be completed in one sitting
Free
No payment and no card required.
Finishing gives you a completion record showing the work you built, and all three levels earn the Alongrail Certificate in Cursor. See what you’ll build →
You don’t need prior experience with Cursor. There’s no payment and no card required.
From an owner's plan and copy deck to a published website
In this course, Alongrail checks some steps on your screen. Others it can’t read reliably, so you confirm those yourself.
Alongrail is not affiliated with Cursor, SpaceX or GitHub. The software is named plainly, without its logo
01100 min
Install Cursor, sign in, and write the house rules
Cursor installed from its own page and signed in on the free plan with an account of your own, the editor window open on the site folder, the owner's plan and copy deck read, and a house-rules file written by hand that tells the AI never to write a fact about the business.
3 checked on your screen · 6 you confirm
02115 min
One prompt, read before you keep
Agent asked once to build the page from the plan with a placeholder for every word, its changes read and kept or rejected on purpose, the page open in your browser from your own disk, and the firm's name, its line and the page's title typed in from the deck.
3 checked on your screen · 4 you confirm
03105 min
Ask before you change
Agent asked, in a mode that cannot change a file, to explain the stylesheet, and its answer checked against the file; the brand colour, the four services and the opening hours typed in from the deck with Replace, and Saturday's hours taken from the owner's correction rather than the superseded row.
3 checked on your screen · 3 you confirm
04105 min
A contact section that works on a free host
The contact section finished: its heading, a phone number people can read and a phone can dial, an email link, a contact form drafted by an inline edit and finished by hand so that it hands the visitor's message to their own email app, and a line on the page saying so.
4 checked on your screen · 2 you confirm
0595 min
Pictures, words nobody sees, and the editor's suggestions
Every picture on the page described for people who cannot see it, the area line and the footer typed by hand with the editor's faded suggestions refused unless they were the owner's words, and a search across the folder proving that the plan is the only file still holding a placeholder.
3 checked on your screen · 1 you confirm
06115 min
Publish it, and prove the address opens
The page published at your own github.io address from a public GitHub repository holding only the files the page needs, uploaded through the browser, with Pages publishing from the main branch, and the published page opened and read against the deck.
4 checked on your screen · 1 you confirm
What you need before you start
A Windows laptop or desktop
Sessions need a Windows laptop or desktop. If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer. Windows 10 or Windows 11.
Chrome or Edge
Alongrail runs in the browser, beside Cursor.
The course files
Everything you work with is in the download.
What’s free
The whole course: every session, both parts, the files, and your record. Alongrail charges nothing for it. No payment, and no card at any point.
The software
None. Cursor's Hobby plan is free and asks for no card, a GitHub account and GitHub Pages are free for a public repository, and nothing in this course is bought.
The data you’ll work with
Every file is invented — the companies, the people and everything in them are made up for the course.
Before you start
The course covers Cursor, on your own computer.
- A Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer on which you may install an application for yourself, and a current browser
- An email address you can open, for the free Cursor account you make in session one. Cursor's own install page lists the account as what you need first, and its pricing page says the free plan asks for no card
- A free GitHub account by session six, made at github.com. Git and GitHub Foundations covers making one; this course uses no Git
- The course bundle millbrook.zip, downloaded from the course page and unzipped somewhere you can find again. It holds one folder, millbrook, with the site folder millbrook-site and the copy deck millbrook-copy-deck.pdf inside it. Leave the deck where it is, outside the site folder: that is what keeps the business's facts out of the AI's reach
- The on-your-own bundle larchmere.zip, from the course page, unzipped the same way into a folder of its own
- For a fresh start on any session after the first, that session's start file from the course page — millbrook-s2-start.zip to millbrook-s6-start.zip, and larchmere-s2-start.zip to larchmere-s6-start.zip — each holding the site folder as the sessions before leave it
- The fallbacks from the course page, for a session where Agent cannot run: millbrook-fallback-scaffold.zip and millbrook-fallback-form.html, and larchmere-fallback-scaffold.zip and larchmere-fallback-form.html
- Cursor's free plan limits how much Agent you can use, and Cursor does not publish the number. This course asks Agent for work three times on the guided run and twice on your own, plus the faded suggestions that appear as you type; each time, a fallback means the session carries on if Agent will not
- Who sees what: what you ask Agent, and the files it reads, are sent to Cursor to be answered; and the site you publish in session six is public on the internet, from a public repository. Both firms are invented and nothing in the course is about you
- Share your whole screen with Alongrail rather than one window: the course reads Cursor and your browser, and from session two you keep both on screen at once, each taking part of it. If you would rather Alongrail did not see a password being typed, stop sharing while you sign in to Cursor or GitHub and share again after
- Each session has a guided run on Millbrook and an on-your-own run on Larchmere. Do the on-your-own run after its guided run — straight after, or once all six guided sessions are done
- Alongrail is not affiliated with Cursor, SpaceX or GitHub. The software is named plainly, without its logo
- One page, HTML and CSS only. A script, a second page, a database or a sign-in belong to the level after this one.
- No Git. Files reach GitHub through the browser; Git inside Cursor is Practitioner's.
- Agent never runs a command here, and the course does not teach the settings for commands Agent runs; both are Practitioner's.
- The form opens the visitor's own email app; a form that stores or sends messages needs a server or a form service, which a free static host does not give.
- Windows only, and nobody has watched a learner do it. Cursor itself could not be run during this build; every label a step names is sourced or marked untested.
Alongrail teaches the software and gives you a record of what you built, with a link to the work itself. What happens with it afterwards is yours. We don’t place people and we take no part in anyone’s recruitment process.
Enrol free and start now.
Sign in, confirm the one thing the course needs, and session 1 opens. No payment, and no card at any point.
If something goes wrong on the way, press “Something’s wrong” in the panel, or write to hello@alongrail.com — we reply within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
What you build
Start with an owner's page plan and copy deck and a computer with no AI editor on it, and finish with a one-page website for a small firm published at an address anyone can open, built in Cursor on its free plan: the AI drafted the structure, you read every change before keeping it, and you typed every fact of the business yourself.
A published one-page website for an invented plumbing firm at your own github.io address: a heading and a line under it, four services, opening hours with the owner's correction applied, a phone number that dials, an email link, a contact form that opens the visitor's email app, described pictures and a footer, with a house-rules file in the project that tells the AI never to write a fact. Then a second site, for an invented locksmith, from a brief.
How a session works
- Open Cursor
- Share your screen
- One instruction
- You do it
- It confirms it
- Next
You open Cursor and share your screen. Alongrail reads what’s there and gives you one instruction. You do it. It confirms the step landed, then gives you the next one. If something doesn’t match what you see, one button gets you back on track.
Guided
In the Fields list, tick Region. The chart fills in.
One field on the axis, one measure as the value.
then
On your owna different company’s data
Same job, a different company's files. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask.
Guided, then on your own.
The second part of every session uses a different company’s data, with the same kind of mess in different places. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask. It’s the work your record points to.
About 10½ hours in all·about 7 guided·about 3½ on your own
What you earn — the record, the certificate and a sample
Completion record
- Name
- Your name
- Course
- Cursor Foundations — build a small business's website with an AI editor, and type every fact yourself
- Completed with guidance
- The date you finish
- Project
- The website you built on your own →
- Skills demonstrated
- Installing an AI code editor, signing in on its free plan and opening a project folder · Writing house rules an AI agent reads before it writes · Prompting an AI agent once, with the right files attached, and reading its changes before keeping them · Asking an AI a question in a mode that cannot change anything · Asking for a narrow, local change with an inline edit · Refusing an AI suggestion that is not the owner's words · Typing every fact of a page from a source, and using the source's corrections · Writing a phone link, an email link and a contact form that work on a free static host · Describing pictures for people who cannot see them · Proving with a search across the project that no placeholder remains · Publishing a static page with GitHub Pages and checking the published address
What was built
A published one-page website for an invented plumbing firm at your own github.io address: a heading and a line under it, four services, opening hours with the owner's correction applied, a phone number that dials, an email link, a contact form that opens the visitor's email app, described pictures and a footer, with a house-rules file in the project that tells the AI never to write a fact. Then a second site, for an invented locksmith, from a brief.
The 6 sessions, and when each was completed on their own
Each session was completed twice: once with step-by-step guidance on one company’s data, then on a second company’s data from a brief, with guidance only when asked. Every check passed on both. Alongrail checked some steps on screen. The learner confirmed the others. Alongrail records the sessions, the checks and the dates; the dashboard itself is the learner’s own, hosted where they chose.
A completion record for Cursor Foundations, now. It names the course, the date you finished, the skills you demonstrated, and links the website you built on your own. It’s private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time.
The record is a description of work you did, not a claim about you. Anyone who opens it can see the work for themselves.
The Alongrail Certificate in Cursor when all three levels are complete. Foundations is the first of three. Practitioner and Professional are in development, with no dates. See the track →
Your screen stays yours
It looks when you ask. Never otherwise. Images of your screen are not stored. What Alongrail sees →
Nothing you build is public until you publish it. Your record is private until you say so, and you can unpublish it at any time.
What’s Cursor?
Cursor is the software this course is built in. It runs on your own computer.
You won’t learn it by watching hours of tutorials. You’ll learn it by building something real with it.
Who you’re building it for
Millbrook Plumbing is a two-van firm in a small town, and its owner has never had a website. Customers find the firm by word of mouth and then ring a mobile number that has changed twice.
The owner has written down everything the page should say — the services, the hours, the phone number and the email address — in a copy deck, and has a rough plan of the page's sections.
A friend suggested an AI editor that can build a website from a sentence, and the owner tried one. It produced a handsome page with an invented phone number, opening hours nobody had agreed, and three glowing reviews from customers who do not exist.
The owner wants the speed without the inventions: an AI that lays out the page, a person who types every fact and checks every change, and a page at a real address that customers can open on a phone.
This course is that person's job, done on a free plan with nothing paid for and nothing about the business guessed.
Your job is to build the website that answers it.
Do I need to know Cursor already?
No. The course assumes you’ve never opened it.
What if I get stuck?
Press the button in the panel and say what you see. Alongrail works out where you actually are and picks the instruction back up.
Why 10½ hours, when other courses are 40?
Because the time is spent doing the work rather than watching it. About 7 hours is guided; the rest is you building the same thing again on your own.
What does Alongrail see on my screen?
Only the window you choose to share, and only when you ask it to look. Images of your screen are not stored by Alongrail. What Alongrail sees →
Can I use a Mac?
Not yet. Cursor is Windows-only, so this course is too.
What if I miss a week?
Nothing closes. The dates are there to help you keep moving, not to catch you out.
What’s the “on your own” part?
The second half of every session: the same work on a different company’s data, with Alongrail quiet unless you ask. Both parts are needed for your completion record.
Is it really free?
Yes. No payment, and no card at any point.
Who can see what I build?
Nobody, until you say so. Your record is private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time. What you build stays in your own files or account; where a step publishes something to the software’s own site, the step says so and says who can see it.
Where this course sits
Cursor Foundations is Foundations in Cursor. The track has three levels; each one you complete earns its own record, and all of them together earn the Alongrail Certificate in Cursor. All the courses →