46Starting a project

A good start saves days. Here's what to do immediately.

Say what you're building. Not "make a site" but a proper couple of paragraphs: what the project is, who it's for, what it should do, roughly how it should look. That description becomes your reference point, and its too.

Start the history right away. Before any code exists. Then any moment can be rolled back to.

Create the rules file. The one from the node above. Right at the start: what the project is called, what it's about, what the rules are. It will read it every time.

Settle secrets immediately. Passwords, keys, tokens - never straight in the code. Tell it that at the outset and it will set everything up properly itself. This is the case where five minutes at the start saves you from a catastrophe later.

And only then - "right, let's build".