Catalyst

Submit here!

Office hours Tuesday-Thursday 4-5pm @ Tsai City this week!

Current Homework

• Learn git branching
• Submit basic site
• Add final site to site via PR

Workshop 2 recap

In Workshop 2 we turned our paper sketches into real sites with Astro and put them live on GitHub Pages. Here’s what we covered:

• Why Astro: it’s HTML first, so you can reuse pieces like your nav across every page, and it builds to static files that GitHub Pages can host for free
• Setup: installing Node.js, running npm create astro@latest, and starting the dev server with npm run dev
• Components and layouts: one .astro file for each box in your sketch, plus a BaseLayout that every page shares
• Projects as data: keeping your projects in a list and rendering a ProjectCard for each one with props
• Styling: scoped styles, global colors and fonts, and a media query for phones
• Deploying: setting site in astro.config.mjs, adding the GitHub Actions workflow, and pushing to go live

Missed it, or want to go over a step again? The Workshop 2 slides walk through each part.

Build week: Oct 5–11

There are no workshops this week. Use the time to finish your site and ship it. Before Sunday, Oct 11:

• Get your site live at username.github.io (follow Astro’s GitHub Pages guide)
• Link your repo on the members page with a pull request for 1 point
• Update your site with your own About, Projects and Contact sections for 1 point
• Meet up with your group and send a photo for 1 point per day

The four most creative and well-designed portfolios each win $100 in Cursor credit. For extra polish, try giving each project its own page, adding a guestbook, or using a custom domain.

Stuck? Ask in the group chat and paste the error, or bring it to office hours (times and place are posted online). Project 2, an AI agent led by Jeet, starts the week of Oct 12.

Thanks for coming to Workshop 1. Here’s everything you need before Workshop 2.

Slides from Workshop 1: view the deck

1. Learn Git (about 45 min)

• Watch Git Explained in 100 Seconds (Fireship, under 2 min) for a quick overview
• Play Learn Git Branching:
  • Main tab: Introduction Sequence, (commits, branches, merging)
  • Remote tab: Push & Pull – Git Remotes!, (clone, fetch, pull, push, and what to do when your push gets rejected)

2. Watch the HTML basics videos (about 35 min)

• HTML & CSS Crash Course #2: HTML Basics (Net Ninja, 20 min)
• HTML & CSS Crash Course #6: HTML5 Semantics (Net Ninja, 14 min)

As you watch, look for these, since we’ll use them in Workshop 2:

• Tags and attributes
• Headings, paragraphs, links and images
• Lists
• <header>, <nav>, <section> and <footer>

If you already know HTML, you can skip the videos.

Questions? Ask in the group chat.

- the Catalyst team (Eli, Jeet, Yassin)

9/29 @ 6pm, LC 317, see you there!

Before session one on Tuesday, Sep 29, add yourself to the members page by opening a pull request. It takes about 20 minutes. The contributing guide walks you through each step.

• Set up a GitHub account, Git and Cursor
• Fork the repo, clone your fork and make a branch
• Add members/<netid>.json and your photo, members/<netid>.jpg
• Commit, push and open the pull request
• Wait for the green check, then star the repo once a lead merges it

Your profile is public, so only add what you’re happy to share. Stuck? Ask in the group chat and paste the error.

Thank you all for coming!!

- the Catalyst team (Eli, Jeet, Yassin)