Setting Up Your Replit Core Environment
Create your Replit account, activate your Core subscription, and configure your workspace for AI-powered development.
# Setting Up Your Replit Core Environment
Welcome to Build & Deploy with Replit Agent — the fastest path from idea to deployed app. In this course, you'll build a complete community events platform, and you'll do it entirely in your browser.
## Why Replit Core?
Replit is a browser-based IDE that recently added **Replit Agent** — an AI assistant that can scaffold entire applications, configure databases, set up authentication, and deploy your project. The Core plan ($25/mo) unlocks Agent with unlimited usage, faster compute, and always-on deployments. This is essential because free-tier Repls spin down after inactivity, which means your app would go offline when nobody's visiting it.
## Step 1: Create Your Account
Head to [replit.com](https://replit.com) and sign up. Once you're in the dashboard, you'll see the option to upgrade to Core. Go ahead and activate it — we'll be using Core-exclusive features starting in Lesson 2.
## Step 2: Tour the Dashboard
Your Replit dashboard is command central. Here's what matters:
- **My Repls**: All your projects live here. You can organize them into folders.
- **Create Repl**: The big blue button. You can start from a template or let Agent build something from a prompt.
- **Deployments**: Under any Repl, this tab is where you manage production URLs, custom domains, and always-on settings (Core only).
- **Secrets**: Environment variables for API keys and credentials. Never hardcode these.
## Step 3: Configure Your Profile
Click your avatar → Account. Set your display name and bio — this matters because when we deploy, your Replit profile is public. Make sure your username is something professional.
## Step 4: Enable AI Features
In Settings → AI, make sure **Replit Agent** and **Code Complete** are both enabled. Agent is the star of this course — it will generate entire file structures, install packages, and even configure your database. Code Complete provides inline suggestions as you type.
## What We're Building
Over the next six lessons, you'll build **EventHub** — a community events app. Users can sign up, create events with dates and locations, browse upcoming events, and RSVP. It'll have a PostgreSQL database, user authentication, and a custom domain. By the end, you'll have a production-ready app you can share.
## Next Up
In Lesson 2, you'll fire up Replit Agent and watch it scaffold your entire project from a single prompt. See you there.