Module 2 · Where tools live: saving, hosting & staying safe
Where a tool can live
Every tool you build has to live somewhere. There are only two options — on your computer, or on the internet — and for almost everything you’ll build, the answer is your computer.
Watch — hand-picked
The clearest walkthroughs of this step, from creators we rate. Each one’s credited — go give them a follow.
How Git Works: Explained in 4 Minutes
How To Use GitHub For Beginners
Deploying a simple website to Vercel (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
You already built a working tool in Module 1 and it never touched the internet once. That’s not a limitation — it’s the default, and it’s the right one. Here’s how to think about the choice.
Your computer
- Private — only you can open it
- Free — nothing hosted anywhere
- Where all three course builds live
The internet
- For tools your team or customers open
- One request to Claude when the day comes
- A deliberate later step, never the default
Home #1: your computer
A tool that lives on your computer is private, free, and instant. It opens when you open it, no one else can see it, and there’s no monthly bill because nothing is being hosted anywhere. This is perfect for any tool that only you use — which, for a solo operator or a small team, is most of them.
The price-quote calculator you built in Module 1 lives here. So do all three tools you’re about to build together in this course. Your data stays on your machine, in plain files inside a folder you control. That’s the whole appeal: no account to lock you out, no server to trust, nothing to leak.
Home #2: the internet
Some tools genuinely need to be online — but far fewer than you’d think. You put a tool on the internet only when someone other than you needs to reach it. Two clear cases:
- Your team needs it. A shared calculator or checklist that three people open from three different laptops (or their phones) has to live somewhere they can all reach.
- Your customers need it. A booking page or a quote form embedded on your website is, by definition, on the internet.
When that day comes, putting a tool online is a single request to Claude — that’s the next lesson. The point here is that it’s a deliberate step you take later, not a default you start with.
Build every tool on your computer first. You can always put it online in a few minutes once a real reason shows up — but you can never un-leak private data you put on the internet before you needed to. Start local. Move a tool online only when someone who isn’t you has to use it.
You can answer one question for any tool you imagine: does anyone but me need to open this? If no, it lives on your computer — which is where all three of this course’s builds live. If yes, you now know there’s a free way to put it online when the time comes.