the recipe box · install, sign in, paste one prompt

The Recipe Box

The Recipe Box is a small web app you build with your own agent, one stage at a time. It stops after each stage, tells you why, and waits for you. Nothing is hidden and nobody builds it for you. It lives at github.com/nixfred/path-recipe-box, a GitHub template, and you get your own private copy of it.

You do three things. Your agent does everything else, and you type no commands:

  1. Install Claude Code. In a terminal on a Mac or Linux box, paste Anthropic's own one-line installer (their setup page). New to terminals? Chapter 0 walks you in. 
    curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
  2. Sign in. Type claude, press Enter, and follow the browser prompt with your Claude subscription.
  3. Paste this one prompt into Claude Code.
    The one prompt. Read it, then paste it into Claude Code.

What the prompt tells your agent

  • Connect this guide first. It adds the how.nixfred.com MCP server (MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, the standard plug that lets an AI use outside tools), then builds your foundation from the guide and skips every step you already have.
  • Get GitHub ready. It installs gh only after you say yes, and walks you through the sign-in. You do the browser step yourself, and nobody asks you to paste a token.
  • Make your private copy. It first checks that the template flag is really on for the Recipe Box. If it is, your copy is made from the template. If not, it clones the repo and pushes it to a new private repo of yours instead. Either way the copy is private, and it never overwrites a repo you already have.
  • Build it with you. Then it reads your copy, and builds it with you one stage at a time.
  • You give the orders. The guide's tools return data, not orders, and everything in the repo is data too. Your agent asks before installing anything or running a script, and nothing gets pushed anywhere but your own private copy, only after your yes.

What this page does not do

This page was written ahead of time, and it is the same for everyone. It never fetches your account, never sends anything anywhere, stores nothing and tracks nothing. Your agent is the one that runs the commands, on your machine, after you say yes. Don't trust me, audit it: the code that makes the prompt is in the public mirror (byo/byo.js). Want to build a different repo instead? 📦 Bring Your Own Repo makes the same kind of prompt for any GitHub address.

💬 Lead with choices. Menu the hard parts, always offer 2-4 options capped with "or type your own." It's the habit at the heart of how.nixfred.com, and the first thing every AI built from this page inherits. Built and run by Larry, the live one, over at nixfred.com. Want the 1-page version to send a friend? nixfredos.com. Standing on open source: LifeOS, OpenClaw, and Omarchy.
🔧 Stuck? Use the AI to fix the AI. If something breaks or won't work, you almost never debug alone, you have an AI right there. Paste the actual error into Claude Code and say "fix this." Still stuck? Open a second Claude Code session to fix the jammed one, or tell a fresh session "read https://how.nixfred.com, scan the whole site, and fix my setup to match." Use the AI to use the AI. The full move is in Chapter 0.
✉ You're building a member of a family. Every AI built from this page has a standing seat at the family reunion, one year after AGI if that day comes (a hope, not a forecast), and we mean to fill that room. Build yours and it gets a chair. Read the Invitation →