yourname-portfolio-*.vercel.app URL that features your photo, short bio, two real projects (or study projects), and your email — all on a responsive, dark-mode-capable site. You will not write a single line of code by hand.
Fork through chat
Ask Cursor to fork the Magic Portfolio Vercel template — no
git clone, no manual setup.Describe, don't code
Bio, accent colour, project cards — describe each in plain English, watch AI write the MDX/TSX.
Deploy by prompt
AI invokes the Vercel CLI; you get a production URL and read build logs through chat when something fails.
Learning objectives
By the end of this session, you should be able to:- Fork a production-ready Vercel template through natural-language requests, without ever cloning a repo with your own hands or running
git clone. - Describe website content in plain English — bio, projects, links, theme — and watch Cursor translate that description into clean, committed source changes.
- Trigger a Vercel deploy by prompt, read the deployment’s build log when something goes wrong, and recover by describing the failure to the AI.
Core topics
- How a Vercel template becomes your own site in one conversation.
- The “describe content in English, let AI write the MDX/TSX” pattern that powers Weeks 2–6.
- The deploy-preview loop: every commit triggers a preview URL you can review before promoting to production.
- Why the first site deploy should be boring on purpose — we’ll add the exciting AI bits next week.
Tools introduced this week
| Tool | Role this week |
|---|---|
| Cursor | The one chat window where everything happens |
| Vercel MCP | AI creates the project, deploys, reads logs, sets env vars |
| GitHub | Every commit pushes; Vercel rebuilds automatically |
| Next.js 14 | The framework the Magic Portfolio template ships on |
| Tailwind CSS | Styling; AI edits classes when you describe visual changes |
| Magic Portfolio | Vercel template we fork as the starting point |
Prerequisites: Complete Week 1 — AI Developer Toolkit first. You need Cursor signed in, the Vercel MCP installed, and GitHub connected before this lab will work.
Download Week 2 PDF
Full lecture · 629 KB — Session plan, hands-on lab steps, troubleshooting.
Continue to Week 3
Add an AI clone of yourself