Objectives & prerequisites

What Hello Pico teaches and what you need before starting.

Learning objectives

NoteLearning objectives
  • Write a single Rule in YAML.
  • Run the Parser and read the internal representation it produces.
  • Use the Composer to turn the parsed Rule into a working hello-world-pico artifact.
  • Explain each stage of the Rules → Parser → Composer → Pico pipeline in your own words.

Prerequisites

NotePrerequisites
  • A working shell (bash or zsh).
  • A text editor and comfort reading YAML.
  • Python 3.8+ on your PATH — used by the reference pico CLI.
  • A local clone of this repository, which ships the reference pico CLI under bin/pico.
  • Completion of the Pico · Part 1 · Introduction lesson (or equivalent).
WarningName collision with the pico editor

On many macOS and Linux systems the bare name pico resolves to the Alpine/nano text editor at /usr/bin/pico. The walkthrough uses the reference pico CLI shipped in this repository at bin/pico, and tells you to prepend bin/ to your PATH so that pico resolves to the Academy CLI instead of the editor. Verify with command -v pico — it should point inside this repository, not /usr/bin/pico.

Environment

  • Operating system: macOS, Linux, or WSL.
  • Required tools: bash or zsh, a text editor, and Python 3.8+.
  • Estimated time: 30–45 minutes.

One-time setup

From a fresh shell, clone the academy source repository (if you have not already) and put its bin/ directory on your PATH:

git clone <academy-source-repo-url> oea
cd oea
export PATH="$PWD/bin:$PATH"
command -v pico   # should print .../oea/bin/pico

Placeholders

  • <academy-source-repo-url> — the clone URL of the Open Engineering Academy source repository you were given access to (for example, https://github.com/<org>/<repo>.git or an SSH equivalent). The academy’s public-facing repository URL is not yet finalized; use whichever clone URL your Academy contact provides. If you are already working inside a clone of this repository, skip the git clone line and start from the export PATH=… step.

The PATH export lasts for the current shell session. Re-run it in new shells, or add it to your shell profile if you plan to work through the lab across multiple sessions.