Complete every item before your first session. The Day 0 checklist is evaluated — your environment must be working.

2.1 Local Tools

VS Code

# Download from: https://code.visualstudio.com
# Install extensions:
#   hashicorp.terraform       — Terraform syntax and IntelliSense
#   amazonwebservices.aws-toolkit-vscode  — AWS resource explorer
#   ms-vscode.vscode-json     — JSON/YAML formatting

AWS CLI v2

# macOS:
brew install awscli

# Linux / WSL2:
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip && sudo ./aws/install

# Verify:
aws --version   # must show 2.x.x

# Configure with your sandbox credentials:
aws configure
# Enter: Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, Region (e.g. ap-southeast-1), Output format: json

Terraform CLI

# macOS:
brew tap hashicorp/tap && brew install hashicorp/tap/terraform

# Linux / WSL2:
wget -O- https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hashicorp.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install terraform

# Verify:
terraform version   # must show v1.x.x

Git

git --version   # must show 2.40+

# Configure:
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

2.2 Platform Access

• AWS sandbox account — credentials received and aws configure completed
• GitLab access — can log in with Stratpoint email
• StratU Classroom — enrolled in Cloud Basics, Terraform 101, and Cloud Native DevOps
• Internal communication channel — joined and active
• Password manager or approved credential storage set up

2.3 Verify Everything Works

aws sts get-caller-identity      # shows your AWS account and IAM user
terraform version                  # shows v1.x.x
git clone <your-gitlab-repo-url>   # confirm GitLab auth works
cd your-repo && git status