1.3 — Understanding What Came Back

After AI generates code, you need enough literacy to navigate it. Not write it — read it.

This is a real and learnable skill. You’re not decoding an alien language — you’re developing the same kind of reading comprehension you already have, applied to a new format.

File Structure Literacy

When AI generates a project, it creates multiple files. Each one has a job. Understanding the structure tells you where to look when something needs to change.

Questions to ask about any file:

What does this file do (what’s its job in the project)?
What does it need from other files to work?
What does it provide to other files?

Reading Code Like a Document

Code has structure, just like writing does. Once you know the vocabulary, you can skim it the same way you’d skim an article.

Variable names are vocabulary — they tell you what a piece of data represents
Functions are paragraphs — they group related actions together with a label
Comments (lines starting with // or #) are margin notes — the author talking to future readers
Indentation shows hierarchy — code indented under something belongs to it

You don’t need to understand every line. You need to understand the shape — where things start, what the major sections are, and how they connect.

Every Project Has a Skeleton

No matter what the project does, it has the same bones:

Entry point — the file where everything starts. The front door.
Config — settings that control how it behaves
Source files — the actual logic, the “doing” parts
Assets — images, styles, anything that gets displayed

Project Structure: The Standard Layout

my-project/
├── index.html        ← entry point (the front door)
├── style.css         ← how it looks
├── script.js         ← how it behaves
├── package.json      ← project settings and dependencies
├── README.md         ← what this project is (for humans)
└── .gitignore        ← files Git should NOT track

This structure isn’t random — each file has a reason to exist. When AI creates a project, it will follow a structure like this. Understanding what each slot is for means you can navigate to the right file when something needs to change.

Two Files Every Project Has

README — a file that explains what the project is, how to run it, and how to contribute. Every project has one. It’s the first thing people read when they encounter a new codebase. When AI generates a project, ask it to include a README that explains everything in plain language.

.gitignore — a list of files Git should skip. This matters for two reasons: (1) keeping secrets out of version history — your .env file with API keys should never be tracked, and (2) keeping bulk out — installed packages can be hundreds of megabytes, and they don’t need to be version-controlled because they can always be re-downloaded.

The dot at the start of .gitignore means it’s a hidden file — your computer hides it by default. It’s still there.

Introduced in Phase 0

The concept of the terminal and repository were introduced in 0.2 — The Environment. File extensions like .html, .css, .js, .json, and .md were also covered there — this section puts them in context within a real project structure.

Next: 1.4 — Saving Your Work | Phase overview: Phase 1