L-05: Hand Codex the Keys | EAS AI Classes

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This block's on the house.

Block one of the Codex & Claude class — free to read. Running it live needs the $20 Codex or Claude seat this class is built on; the rest of the course needs your EAS seat. The October calendar has the dates — call 209.672.0033 to hold yours.

Goal

What exists when this block ends.

Your domain serves your site. Codex can push changes for you because it holds credentials you created. And you know why the metered agent didn’t write your HTML — that’s the cost lesson this whole class runs on.

Hour one

Use them properly.

Metered time

Codex runs on your paid plan — every task burns usage. That’s exactly why class one wrote the HTML5 in free GPT: the free tool does the designing, the metered agent does the jobs only it can do. Spending Codex hours on free-tier work is how people burn a month in a weekend.

Right tool, right job

GPT prototypes and writes copy for free. Codex pushes files and edits your live site. Claude? You can hand it a whole build right now and it will grind for hours — then come back asking is this what you want? It doesn’t design well, and if your brief is sloppy you’ve paid for the wrong site twice. Precise brief in, or don’t send it.

The ship decision is yours

Agents execute; you gate. Nothing goes live because the agent felt like it — it goes live because you said so.

Hour two

Make the keys.

A web server takes files over FTP (or its encrypted twin, FTPS/SFTP). You need three things: the server address, a username, and a password. Your host’s control panel creates them — we walk it together in class.

Create an FTP account on your hosting — scoped to your site’s folder, not the whole server.

Test it yourself first with an FTP program — FileZilla is the one we use, but any client you’re comfortable with works. If you can drag a file up, the credentials are real.

Hand them to Codex. This is the point of the exercise: Codex holds the keys so it pushes files — you stop being the file-uploader and start being the reviewer.

Know the rule: the password goes to Codex and your password manager — never into a worksheet, a chat log, or an email. You can rotate it any time; it’s a key, not a tattoo.

Hour three

First push.

Point Codex at your shell — the one-file site from class one, or the site you brought — and have it push index.html to the server. Then the moment that makes it real: open your domain in a browser. That’s your site. On the internet. Yours.

index.html lands in the docroot — the folder the server hands out first.

Refresh and verify. If the old page shows, that’s cache — learn the hard refresh now.

Click every link again — live is a different environment than your laptop. A nav item that worked at home can 404 in production.

Hour four

Edit it live.

Ask for a real change. New headline, new deal on the front page, swap a photo — Codex edits and pushes. You review the diff and the live page, not the code.

Break something small on purpose. Then have Codex fix it. You need to feel the recover loop before you need it.

Go home and do it again. That’s the class promise — fire the laptop back up tonight and keep working on what we built.

Lab bench

Work the bench.

Check them off as you do them — it saves on this device. The clock is a suggestion, not a ruler. Stuck? Raise a hand and the desk sees it.

Create the FTP account — scoped to your site’s folder, not the whole server. Test it yourself in FileZilla (or your client) — drag a file up. Hand the credentials to Codex — password manager or Codex, nowhere else. First push — index.html lands in the docroot. Hard refresh. Your domain serves it. Click every link on the LIVE url — live is not your laptop. One real live edit, then break something small and have Codex fix it.

45:00

Overtime bench

Extra reps.

Finished the first bench with fuel left? Run these — deeper cuts on the same material.

Make a second FTP account scoped wrong on purpose — then fix the scope. Feel the wall. Push a deliberate typo, watch Codex find and fix it — the review loop on purpose. Ask Codex for one more page live — a sitemap, an about page, your call. Rotate the FTP password and re-hand the new one — know the motion before you need it. Write the deploy steps in your project file — server, folder, who holds the keys.

30:00

Did it work?

✓

You can explain why Codex didn’t write your HTML — metered time, right tool per job.

✓

An FTP account exists, you tested it in a client, and Codex holds the credentials.

✓

Your domain serves your site — not a host parking page, yours.

✓

You made one live edit through Codex and reviewed it on the live URL.

Turn it in

Worksheet W-05.

Fill it on the page — it saves on your device as you type. Print it or email it in when the block asks.

Open worksheet W-05