Start here: your first AI-edited script

LESSONLesson 0 · ~20 min

🎯Goal. Start an Aider session in your terminal and turn one sentence into a working Python script — auto-committed to Git.

▶ Try this prompt

Read data.csv and print the mean ± SD for every numeric column.

In a terminal, run aider --model sonnet analysis.py to start a session, then type the sentence above at the prompt. Write it in any language you like.

1Open a terminal and run aider --model sonnet analysis.py. Aider needs an LLM API key (here, Claude Sonnet) — it is free and open-source itself, so you only pay the model's token cost.
2At the chat prompt, type your request in plain English. Aider writes analysis.py, then auto-commits the change to Git with a sensible commit message — so the change is already saved and reversible.
3Look at the diff Aider prints. Because every edit becomes a clean Git commit, you always have an audit trail of exactly what the AI changed.

Animated terminal recording of an Aider session: running `aider demo.py`, typing a request, and Aider editing the code and committing it to Git — **A real Aider session** in the terminal: you run `aider demo.py`, describe what you want, and Aider edits the file and commits the change to Git. Source: https://aider.chat

✓You'll see. A working Python script written for you in the terminal, with Aider's edit captured as a Git commit you can inspect or roll back.

💳Cost. Aider is free and open-source (Apache 2.0) — there is no subscription. You pay only the third-party LLM's token cost for each request (you bring your own key).

💡Takeaway. Aider turns plain English in your terminal into real, owned code — and saves every change as a reversible Git commit from the very first edit.